The “Take it Further” challenge as described by Sharon aims to apply textile technique skills to design.
The key concept for January is a feeling we have all had, the feeling of admiration for another. Ask yourself who do you look up to and admire? Why? What is it you admire about them? This is a the first Take it Further challenge in 2008. Take the idea, develop it into a resolved design during that month and apply it to fiber or paper.
My first reaction was where are the circles, squares, lines, the things that I had expected…There not there because they are the elements of design not the concept behind the design…I stitch with Sharon most weeks but she doesn’t tell me what is coming in the challenges, so it was not untill I read it on her blog that I realized just what I had signed up for, she laughed when I told her that the concept had taken me by surprise and that it had kicked me right out of my comfort zone…but then, checking the dictionary, being a difficult task is what makes it a challenge…
OK Challenge accepted…Where do I start?
I start with the Visual Journal…
Ok then…looking up…who do I look up to?…Who Do I Admire?
 I find my self writing a list of Friends and what I admire in them…
I Stop listing when I realize there are to many to pick just one…
I start listing people in the wider world but again I don’t come up with just one name but rather groups of people such as Paraplegic Athletes for the sheer determination they have to do what they can…
I go back to the friends…For now I will let ‘the Who’ be my friends…
OK then, why do I admire them? What is it I admire???
I admire people who use there talents and skills,
I admire people who get in and get on with the job,
I admire people who inspire others to greater hights and people who encourage others, supporting them pushing them up to greater hights.
I admire people who are kind, caring, shareing of themselves, people who are good friends in little ways, they remember your birthday, they send you a card just to say hallo, I am thinking of you, they listen to you when your down and rejoice with you when things go well…
I drew the ying yang symble because my friends are people who balance me…
Then I wrote ‘part of why I look up to some people is that I don’t have to strain my neck as they lift me up’…it is clumsily expressed but important…they are people who are to be admired for their achievements and to me even more admired for their non judgmental modesty and their ability to see and bring out the skills and best qualities of others, so that when I am around them I am comfortable and have that feeling of being in balance…I am getting myself tied up in words so will leave it at that for now…
So is there a design in all this???… I suspect that words will be a part of the end design.
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January 10th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Your visual journal is very intriguing, and your white heart is gorgeous! The recipient is a very luck young lady.
Happy Stitching,
Judy S. in Seattle
January 10th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Out of all the wonderful things you wrote there, the part that resonated with me was, ” . . . my friends are people who balance me.” I like that thought.