Hello Hivers! I am very excited to present myself to you, to the hive community, and to share with you my thoughts and skills, and I am very curious what kind of exchange will come up.
I am also a bit nervous I must say, I never find it easy to talk about the things I really love to do. I guess it makes me more vulnerable to the reactions I get. But I am very happy to have finally found the time and the place to get myself together, get out of my comfort zone and share with you my story and introduce myself to the community.
What am I doing? I am an artist; the focus of my work lays on fashion and textiles. Within that I also work on different crafts and the creation of designs.
In design and art, I found a language for me to express what I often struggle to communicate with words. Since my childhood, I always felt the urge to create. Create objects, built things or draw, paint and put my impressions on paper. Then over the years I lived through very different artistic periods, and I feel that there is still lots of various inspirations to come. I went from drawing and painting my impression of words, to illustrating my travels through Africa and Europe, I designed objects out of waste and random things I found on my way, I wrote down stories I had in my head and emerged in learning and understanding foreign languages.
Going through those very different interests I found one field, that can resume all those passions. I got to introduce myself to the world of fashion, sewing and textile Designs.
(my sewing machine and me in an upcycled men shirt)
So far, I want to call myself an artist, because everything I do always turns around creation.
Whenever I create, I am alive.
How did I get there? It’s all the different paths I took that led together and became one when the first quarantine hit me while I was travelling and living in Portugal. Stuck in a country with a van and not much to do, I got out an old sewing machine I found in the streets of Spain and didn’t have much use of it so far, but still carried it around with me for all those miles I drove. Also, I had a little collection of materials I collected in flea markets, always with the back thought and the desire to one day be able to sew my own clothes.
And that’s what I did. It didn’t come at once for sure, I spent hours and days figuring out how different materials react, how to make patterns for different pieces of clothing, and for the most, keeping my patience and being able to transform the ideas in my head into objects that I could hold in my hands.
(a tobacco pouche and a wrap dress I made)
I do enjoy making my own clothes, because I was always very unsatisfied with what I could find in the shops. So eighter I just got really bored by the big brands where you just know that a million other people are going to buy and wear exactly the same clothing as yourself, and the clothes I do like are usually too expensive, for my wallet. One of the strongest reasons though is, that I just found it always really hard to support an Industry that is destructive on such a big scale, that we fundamentally depend on, and where we often do not even ask what is behind it. There are many answers to it as well, but I guess I’ll have to talk about that whole subject later.
An important reason for me to be into fashion, is that I want to give my own answer to the destructive industry of fast fashion, that’s why a big part of my work turns around upcycling. Specially on my travels I got confronted to a lot of random materials and waste products, I like to use those things and give them a new life, a story.
If you look at all the objects that already exist in this world it appears useless to me to produce new things. Why producing new materials, where environment, nature, people and animals must suffer so much during the producing process? I don’t want to participate in this fast-growing industry because I believe that fashion can be slow.
Well, that’s one reason to me to only use existing materials for me to create new objects.
(a part of my collection of fabric and threats)
So, what I want to share with you in my blog is the work I do. I want to show you the process it takes to create things in an inspirational and ecological way. I want to share my knowledge with you and if I can inspire anyone to start upcycling their clothes rather than throwing them away, well I am curious to hear your stories and impressions. And I would love to exchange and hear what others have to say or what you might know about the subject.
Writing about my work and thoughts is a new focus I want to improve. I share what I do and no longer just keep it to myself. And I think Hive is a pretty cool place to do that.
I also want to show you how easy it can be to create things and that it never depends on how much you know or on how much of an equipped workspace you need. Anyone with the desire to do so can appreciate the amazing opportunities of creating something with your own hands.
Even though, I often have been sewing for myself, I do sell the pieces I make. I always love to find someone who appreciates my work and the approach I have towards it and give my creations new owners and a new life.
Thanks for reading!!! And talk to you soon :)
Francesca
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