From Chile to Turkey: a place is just an idea.

Lately, I've been trying to organize my days for them to be more productive, and to have better control of my time. It's something I've been achieving day by day with the suggestion of my psychologist Mariana Daher to read Caroll Ryder's book, The Bullet Journal Method. The latter has given me a different perspective and option of organization than other methods and applications have given me before. And although it's not a journal, it feels a bit like a place to write down my thoughts and ideas, and it's one of the reasons that led me to write this blog.

Since I lived in Santiago, Chile, I always had the desire to opening an online store that would allow me to sell my own designs. I thought that this artistic side came from having studied Industrial Design at the University of Los Andes in Venezuela. But over time I have realized that it is something that I have had since I was a child. My first approach to color was in kindergarden when after having painted the sun in yellow, I decided to paint some clouds in blue. Yes, I thought that since my canvas was white, I supposed to paint the clouds blue hahaha. Well, over time I realized that this was not the case and that it was the opposite. I remember when washing the brush stained in blue, in one of those baby food jars with water stained in yellow from the my previous drawing, the mix of colors formed a green. I remember my eyes opening in amazement and filling with curiosity to discover more colors. Thus, I proceeded to paint with other water colors; and so forth, I discovered secondary colors. At that time I was barely 4 or 5 years old.

Going back to the idea that brought me to write this first blog entry, having my own online store is a project that has kept me active all these years. I thought that being in a specific place influenced this idea, and that is why I decided to move from Chile to Turkey. I thought that if the Turks were experts in textiles I could be in the place of textiles. But the truth is that a place is just an idea. Now I am in another country with hands on, and with the idea of ​​opening very soon the store where I can sell my own designs.

Last May, while I was still applying for designing jobs, I decided to re-take one of the Domêstika courses I had on a hold: Fashion Embroidery with Rhinestones: Create Replicable Compositions and Templates taught by Lanusa. Yes, it seems that I am a lover of collecting Domêstika courses. But hey! I have already finished many of them; I just haven't published the final projects. Sometimes it takes not only time but also money. However, last Wednesday - October 2nd - I got the urge to take the photos for the final project and I want you to see the result by clicking here. You can click "like" it, comment it here or directly on the Domêstika website (I'm not sure if you need to create an account there for this); and/or share it with friends.

Taking pictures is not my greatest strength but I have found a way to do it without the need of a large team of people (thanks Tosha for the help that day lol). Another method I use is to take the photographic work of others as a reference and try to imitate it. However, when it comes to presenting the final projects, I use a lot of my vision and storytelling because the mood-board sets the starting point.

When I started this course with Lanusa I had in mind to decorate some sandals that I saw one day shopping in Istanbul, Turkey. They seemed perfect to me, especially since it was summer 2022. But at the end I decided to embroider a headband and I think the result is beautiful. It's incredible how time has flew by since I started the course, but I have learned that projects take their time; and the time for this one came when this past February I started feeling such an eagerness for embroidering again .

To conclude, embroidery is always an adventure. You can pretend to have everything under control with a printed motif on a backing fabric, but in the end the fabric itself can be a bit difficult to handle with the needle. This usually happens to me with stretchy fabrics because they tend to move a lot and leave little holes when the needle goes through the loop-shaped structure. However, in the case of the headband, the fabric I used allowed me to embroider the sequins and the beads without any problem. This was thanks to its warp and weft woven in a basic cross pattern, which always allows a balanced and resistant garment.