I was a teen in the 1970’s. I had a mother that taught me how to sew really well and a couple older sisters that were pretty crafty with a needle. My oldest sister was a flight attendant for United and crossed over the continent hoping another high-jacker would not get on the plane again….she passed her time on layovers with embroidery. The surface was usually a denim shirt. After living on the east coast for many years, she had met a man that exposed her to the San Francisco Bay Area, where we were from, in a very different way then she had experienced when she was a teen in the 60’s. The Bay area in the 70’s was about music, art and politics. The non-working drugged out hippies moved on and the thirty something’s that were still there and liked the organic or hip way of life realized they still needed jobs and ways to support their families. They still drank and partied but they had to make a living. Anyway what I saw come out of this was some pretty incredibly creative people doing their art and crafts, starting businesses, becoming graphic artists, publishing books, designing and making a big impression on me. My closest friends were graphics artists starting to work for small electronic companies with fruit as a logo, doing posters for local radio stations and starting skateboard and art magazines.
I was listening to Ridgetop by Jesse Collin Young this
morning and it brought back memories of hanging out in San Francisco at my
sisters apartment a block from Haight street. We would be sewing or embroidering things to wear or put on
our backpacks.
I bought this cool book at the quilt show a few weeks back
by Sue Spargo I loved the look of her work…reminded
me of what we loved back then. A little Bohemian. As I looked through the
book it was all the same stitches I have in two other little stitch books my
sister had given me back then for reference that I still have…but I like Sues
colors and ways she used the velvets in layers. So it will go into my library with all my other little
stitch books I have collected. As
I collect reference books over the years, I have found some books I would have just
died for as a teen. I loved
anything that had design references.
Art Deco, Art Nouveau ,
flowers, anything I could put on my clothing or bags.
Which brings me back to searching for my look, my artist way. I keep thinking I have to have a look,
something that is mine. I am a
very good crafts person, I can swing a needle and thread or put together a garment with
the best of them, but I never felt I had a specific look…too many ideas and too
many directions. I am working on
narrowing this down I think……go back to my “roots” the look I love and still gravitate to now….that look of the
70’s beautiful embroidery, patch work, denim, tapestry. I came from a great area of the
country, in a time when music and art were flourishing and I was around it, it
influenced me to go into the clothing industry. I just need to re-ground myself to what my dreams were. Now I have the money, studio, stash of
fabric, beads, floss, books, tools and knowledge. I have learned so much in the past 30 years except how to trust my ideas and design skills. I will continue to sew my way through the studio and make up my ideas inspired and updated from the 70's that influenced me.
