Ideas for Mother's Day and ...

Mother's Day on Sunday May 13 is a popular event for sending flowers or giving a little gift.  Cariboo Handwoven has some ideas if you're thinking of something unique for your mom - or for the upcoming busy season of graduation, retirements and summer visits.

In Ottawa, Alison has a good selection of cotton hand towels and wool and cotton blankets. One or two hand towels are great on their own or added to a gift basket.

Cotton blankets are perfect for spring and summer in particular, but useful year-round.

C282 | 100% cotton | Sold

And wool blankets are classic and also very popular.

SH189 | 100% wool | Sold

Contact Alison at: alison "at" cariboohandwoven.ca if you're interested in anything.

In Williams Lake, British Columbia, the Station House Gallery has towels and some cotton and wool blankets, and Bloom 'N Gifts has towels. The Cariboo Handwoven studio has the best selection of towels, blankets, travel shawls and large lightweight blanket scarves. Jane is available by appointment if you'd like to visit, even just to see how a loom works. 

Please contact Jane in your usual way or: jane "at" cariboohandwoven.ca.

However you spend Mother's Day, hope it's a nice one!

Make More!

When I started Cariboo Handwoven about eight years ago, I did the whole business plan thing, from writing down my vision through all the steps leading to specific tasks. At that time, my vision was "My blankets have a waiting list!" I thought it was a most appropriate vision for how I wanted my work to be in demand and appreciated. Then I'd be sure to keep busy and have fun in the studio.

Over those years though, my vision has changed a little. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. And what I've learned in those years, after all the planning, is what I really want to do.  

Make more. 

Make more! 

Pump out the towels especially, assess them carefully, and do it better the next time. Apply what I learn to the bigger items, like blankets. High production obviously yields more results than picking the details to death and letting that interference result in making much less. Really, without the quantity of work there can be no quality.

I first read about this concept a few years ago in Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Boyle and Ted Orland, which is a super book for anyone who creates.

In it is a story about potters divided into two groups: one to achieve one perfect product and others to produce as much as possible. The potters aiming for perfection produced nothing because they got stuck seeking perfection whereas the other half of the class achieved their goal. 

I've never forgotten this story. I know there's a balance between quality and quantity, but a quantity of zero yields absolutely no quality at all. Or even much potential.

So, on that note, I'll be making more in my weaving studio through the year.