I have been struggling all week for something to write about for this prompt. Who in my Family Tree could I write about?
Nothing jumped out at me, no one sprang to mind. But then I changed my thinking once again as I have done in the past and realised that maybe I am looking in the wrong places. To my family I may possibly be an Influencer or at least I have had many influencers in my life that made me the person I am.
So I have decided to write a little post on who and why certain people have influenced me. Yes there are the usual family members, parents, siblings, children etc. But for the purpose of this exercise I am also going to touch on people outside of my family who have shared their talents with me.
I had a good friend and mentor who always said that you really should share your talents, otherwise what was the point of having them.
So over the years I have dabbled in many hobbies and art forms. My family and friends will attest to this as they have also been gift recipients of my work for many years.
It would be remiss in me not to include my first Influencer - my Mum. It was through her example and teaching that I became a sewer. Following her lead but not her ability I became an adequate clothes sewer. I outfitted my four children when they were young and also made many home furnishings and camping gear. My husband would get an idea for something and ask if I could do it and if he was prepared to design the object he had in mind I would take on the challenge to sew it. My trusty sewing machine never let me down despite the challenges I threw at it….tent canvas, tent zippers, tarpaulins, bags for camping gear etc.
Then around the age of forty I was looking for a new hobby and was keen to dabble in folk art. My Mum encouraged me by shouting me an introductory course and away I went. I signed up with a very talented teacher for weekly lessons in a class of about sixteen. These lessons continued from Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and then just onto long term members. My teacher Carolyn was and still is a very talented artist. But more to the point she had the ability to impart her skills with grace and encouragement. It was her influence that also saw me progress from Folk Art to Pastel Painting, although she never actually taught me Pastels as she moved away to another state, but she became a life long friend from our time together in classes and I cherish her influence in my life.
But my sewing skills although a bit inactive once my children had all left home, came to the for again when grandchildren came along. It was lovely to sew for little people again especially at Christmas time! Every year my grandchildren with encouragement from their parents indulged me with wearing Christmas outfits sewn with love. This was a relative easy task as I had six granddaughters and one grandson. The dresses were easily produced but the outfit for the grandson was a bit more of a challenge. Luckily I was able to access super hero fabric and appliquéd these figures on handmade t-shirts and put a Santa hat on a different one each year! It is here that I can also see the influence of my Mum as she loved Christmas.
In the last four years though I have hankered for a more creative outlet with my sewing. Here is where I introduce my next Influencers Monica and Alaura Poole, a mother and daughter team who started an online QAYG(Quilt As You Go) Patchwork Youtube channel and classes. I dove into the wonderful creativity of quilting, along with many others. It was through these ladies that I also ventured into the creative process of thread painting which has given me much joy. I fell in love with this art form and now I have gone onto my own designs which fall into the category of “Textile Art - Fabric and Thread Painting”. I now have the confidence to design and create pieces of art, although there is room for a lot of improvement.
So now with guidance from these online courses and teachers, I now consider that I have gone from a “Sewer” to a “Sewist”! I have sewn for over 56 years but now I am finding this new art form takes me on a journey with my sewing machine, that challenges and excites me. I have dabbled in many painting mediums over the years but this world of thread sketching and thread painting with unlimited resources of colour, design, texture and imagination is exhilarating. There is no paint, paper or pencils involved! Just Me and my hands let loose with free motion sketchy stitching, fabric and threads on my trusty sewing machine. But I do still pick up the brushes or pastels occasionally.
As to my mentor who suggested that a talent not shared was a talent wasted. It has just occurred to me that he was an Influencer as I have over the last nineteen years donated a framed painted piece of art or lately a framed Thread painting for auction to the annual Wally Bamford Memorial Benefit Concert. This concert raises funds for research by the The Centenary Institute, into the disease SADS, in memory of my daughter-in-love’s brother who died at the age of 26 in 2004.
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