Talking Process

So. In the guest post I had over at Made by Joel last week, I talked some about how I choose colors and stitches. Scarlett (over at Craft Gossip) wondered if I had taken The Process Pledge. I had actually never heard of The Process Pledge and Scarlett was kind enough to send me a link. And heres what she said:

In a nutshell, we bloggers have a tendency to show and talk only about our final product, instead of showing all the twists and turns and often ugliness of the process to get there. Listen, if you could see some of my "process" sewing you'd fall on the floor laughing...it's that bad. :-)

It's interesting. And it made me think a lot. I love reading about artists' and designers' processes. I'm fascinated when they share, step by step, how they worked through a design. I'm intimidated by many of my favorite artists, who seem to make wonderful thing after wonderful thing, with no shaky steps in between. And I realized that - with rare exceptions - I've only been showing you finished work, and only the work I'm happy with.

A couple of you have written to tell me that you appreciate that I don't "over-edit" my videos. I leave in the parts where I stab myself with my needle, burn myself on the iron, and my thread gets tangled mid-stitch. They've asked to see more - to see the back of my embroideries, the prototypes that don't go as planned. I love the idea of that, but I haven't done it. Not yet. It's partly because I've been rushing to get out two videos and two patterns every week. That doesn't leave me much time to also document my process (and my mistakes). But if I'm being really honest I have to admit that that's not the whole reason. I'm insecure about talking about my process because I'm self-taught, and there's a part of me that always worries that my process is "wrong." If it takes me four pages of sketches to come up with one robot I'm happy with, that's because I'm a poor artist. And the one that I liked? I just got lucky that time. What kind of process is that? Besides - I'm not an artist. I just make cute stuff, mostly for kids.

But if you're reading this you probably make cute stuff too. Mostly for kids. And if you're still reading at this point, you might actually be interested in how I make some of the decisions I make. So I'm taking The Process Pledge.

I, Wendi Gratz, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.  I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.  

Sometimes this will mean showing my mistakes. The bad prototypes. The terrible sketches. (Oh my gosh - showing you pages from my sketchbook is going to feel like I'm letting you see me in my underwear.) Sometimes it will mean talking about all the little decisions I make along the way for a design. I might not have a new pattern every week (though I still expect to have a new video every week) but the patterns that I do release will be more documented. You'll see more "work in progress" posts leading up to the pattern release, and I'll probably start showing some more variations. I hope that will make you more confident in trying out your own variations!

I'm nervous about this. I think it's a good thing, and I hope you all will be interested in a new kind of post around here. But you could talk me out of it really easily. (Especially the part about showing you my sketchbook pages.) So let me know what you think, ok? Because I don't want to let you see me in my underwear unless you're really, really interested. :-)