The Heartbreak Phase of Designing

Today is my deadline for getting all of my club reveal information to my web guru, Lee. This involves choosing colors, designing and weaving three separate projects, and taking some great photographs of it all.

I thought I had it under control. I chose my colors, started with the eight shaft design, and warped up my loom with 520 threads in a complex twill. I never go small, so I put on 17 yds of warp and started weaving. I wove eight towels. I wasn’t excited about the warp once it was on the loom and I was thinking that if I just found the right weft, I would love it.

I still had some doubts and disappointments when I took the towels off the loom last night, and then it hit me. It’s just not right.

I had an idea in my head based on something one of my students wanted five years ago. It wasn’t mine, and I am not in love with the towels. So late last night I made the decision to start over. I went back to my stash, and back to designing. I was awake late into last night and came back to it first thing in the morning. I now have something that feels much more true to who I am and what I want to share.

I am lucky that Lee knows me well enough by now that he didn’t seem surprised when I sent him an email asking what the “drop dead deadline” is and got a fine tuned breakdown of what he will need when.

I work well under a deadline, but the heat is grueling, weaving is physical, and there are other details that need tending to. It should be an interesting week.

The one thing I know for sure is that I feel an excitement that I didn’t feel at first, and for me, it means I am on the right track.