Back to my roots
Art • Make • September 14th, 2009A few days ago I went through one of my recurring “I suck” lows. I won’t bore you with the details; I’ll just say that this latest episode, combined with some lingering thoughts after writing about my style as an artisan, made me think a lot over something I have put away for about a year.
I decided that I would very much like to have something I can call my “signature piece”. I would love to have my own little niche among the thousands of beautiful handmade products that exist in the world…
It’s been a little over a year since I came up with the idea of vueltiaítos and made that first one Joaquin wore for the few months he was ever willing to keep a hat on. It was the making of that hat that awakened my dormant crafting spirit after all the years I kept it buried under financial models, digital art, and web pages.
The hat was born at a point where I was putting together my roots and past as a Colombian and young crafter, with my present as somebody who’s seen more of the world, learned new things, moved to a different country, and become the mother of a little boy.
And as it turns out, as much as I love all the other things I’ve made in the last 15 months, I believe that this product may be the most original and unique I’ve come up with.
So I decided to make one more. This is #4 in my collection:
#1 is the original, the pioneer and the one my baby wore.
#2 was technically superior, and my first attempt at non-traditional colors. It was the first and only one I’ve sold.
#3 was a further step from the traditional vueltiao hat
#4 goes back to tradition, but it enjoys the experience of my previous experiments. It is special because it begins a series I intend to continue. A series I hope will eventually be associated with my name.
No. I will not stop making kids clothing, textile jewelry, and all the other things I constantly come up with. This is just a promise I’m making to myself to keep developing my dear vueltiaítos.
