jude at Spirit Cloth paid me what felt like a huge compliment when she called this a working blog. I hadn’t thought of it that clearly. What I thought to do was make myself accountable to some one or some thing such that I felt compelled to make a postcard every day, and guilty when I didn’t. It has sort of worked.
When Al commented that he hadn’t known I’d had a burning ambition to make fabric postcards, I spent some time trying to explain that this was the fiber equivalent to how to get to Carnegie Hall – practice, practice, practice. A book I was reading yesterday on making tiny oil paintings had similar advice. The woman quoted her teacher saying to reach his level of technique and understanding, any artist had to paint 100 yards of canvas. When I was making dolls, my teacher said we had to make a bucket of heads before making them would be second nature and we could start to make expressions. Yoyo Ma participated in a study that showed that even medium level musicians improved a lot when they increased their practice time, and fantastic musicians stayed that way by practicing constantly. The professional track circus kids at Nimble can only hold down part time jobs, because they can’t fit the amount of stretching and strengthening and practice they need to improve into their evenings.
It is being brought home to me that I am surrounded by things I do that require practice; handstands, trapeze, dressage, fiber, knitting, spinning, childrearing? relationships? … I tried to explain to my dad once that all my favorite things to do required practice to get to a place where they were not painful, and more practice to make it actually fun, but after a while, the practice became part of the process and the sport.
Lee Thomson 
well put. somebody i know, after seeing me with a thread and needle at lunch break every day, day after day said to me…”why don’t you get a life”.
i am practicing to get a perfect one.(unspoken)
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I think perhaps one practices bigger (bigger than needles or knitting) more encompassing things by putting oneself into similar situations again and again. I am trepeidatious about caring for elder folk but keep getting asked to do for someone else. It is getting a little easier and I am learning a lot more about elderhood and myself. Hmmmm. Thanks for the thinking point.
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A few weeks ago, when I was struggling with how to handle my very volatile 6 year old student, my co-worker suggested that I could practice being neutral. It helped me incredibly, knowing that I didn’t have to get it right every time, but that I could keep trying and work toward that goal. Nice thoughts!
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