Renaissance

I am going to gear up this blog again.  It's been a long time since I wrote to it.  Lots of stuff have passed through my life.

I have been thinking about the difference between a hobby and a vocation/occupation.  I have a friend who called what I do with threads and needles a hobby.  I was disturbed at this.  I am an artist and can be nothing else.  She may have been basing her words on the fact that she is a freelance consultant in the business world and earns a ton of money.  I, however, am a freelance artist and actually earn very little.  (I hope none of you ghost readers are too surprised.)  But I do earn.

I was hoping for a little more respect.

Above is one of my current embroideries.  It is called Ribbon Tangle and is six-stranded cotton on perforated paper, 8" X 11".  Yep, it is based on z-tangling.  Is there a market for an embroidery such as this?  I doubt it--especially at the price I must charge to compensate myself for the design time and the stitching time.  The materials are immaterial in that pricing.  Maybe 8 skeins of thread and one piece of paper.  I love this piece.

And I love to tangle, though I don't do it a whole lot anymore.  I would rather stitch the tangles that draw them right now.  Tangles are a hobby.  The stitching of tangles with thread and needle is my (sometimes) paid occupation.

What I have turned to for my hobby in recent months is making greeting cards that are little pieces of my art.  No two greeting cards are alike, but some are similar.  I made these two today using some of my own monoprinted paper, some origami paper, and a stencil from Hot Off the Press called Little Birdies.  The stencil has four birds and four wings, but I rarely use the wings.  Sometimes I sell my greeting cards.  But even getting bucks for them does not make the making of them an occupation in my mind.  Hobby all the way.