Translate

Wednesday 5 March 2014

The Crafter's Graft: The Labour of Love.

IWSG Badge

I've always crafted, but only recently started writing again on a regular basis. Over the years I've crafted many things, clothing, jewellery, gardens, poetry, nik-naks. I've sewn 'till the cows came home and crocheted 'till the chickens came in to roost.

The 'work' we do as craftspeople is a labour of love. I loved every stitch I sewed, loop I crocheted and word I wrote and write. I love it when the Pantster in me takes over and I'm off and flying with the sheer joy and freedom of my project when it's fresh and new. I'm like the kid in the candy shop, forever young with no constraints on my imagination and all the potential fun I can have.

It's true! This to me, is what crafting is all about. We are the lucky ones. We are writers able to craft and create whatever we want. Only crafters can do that. Our 'work', our labour, is what we love to do.

Yet 'labour' and 'graft' denote hard work. And let's get real here ha ha, crafting, be it writing, crocheting, woodworking or whatever beautiful we create, can be long, arduous and frustrating, and not worth the time and effort we put into it. All the same, ALL the craft I have ever done HAS been worth while. I have never made much money from my craft, it has always been because I loved what I was doing.

Likewise writing. It's a long and frustrating road at times. There are days and days, weeks even of sunshine and roses when inspiration flows and everything goes right. Then follows, for some odd reason no-one can ever explain, those brick wall days and weeks when there is no end of problems - no flow to the story, the computer dies, the perfect book you worked on for so long is actually crap etc, etc.

Many years ago I crocheted a beautiful but intricate round tablecloth for my mum. I can't recall how many times I had to undo it because at some point I went wrong. There was no option but to undo it to the mistake and start again, and again...but because I loved the 'work' so much, I finished it. It was truly a work of art and worth all the graft.

So it is with writing. It is a beautiful work of art, a craft, a labour of love. At some time we are all apprentices, like I am now. We do our time, learn our trade, always keep learning and never give up.

Through this process do we become Master Crafters.

4 comments:

  1. There will always be something to learn indeed, ever changing and we can always get better

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everything worth having - or making - is a labor of love.
    Welcome to the IWSG!

    ReplyDelete