I’ve been reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. It’s a great book! In it she talks about “scratching” which basically means, research and digging in. Although, I’ve come to think of it as literally scratching. Once I’m given a challenge, like this project, my brain gets itchy. My thoughts itch and won’t be satisfied until they are scratched (until I can come up with solutions to the task at hand). Here’s how it went on this project:

When I looked at this brief, my brain instantly scratched Chanel. I’ve always adored Chanel. My mom wore Chanel No.5 when I was a kid. If I ever catch the scent it teleports me back into her arms. So there was that… Then I thought of grosgrain black ribbon and blush pink. One of the most feminine colour combinations in my humble opinion. I began to draw bows and ribbons.

When I saw my black line ribbons on pink stationery it was so boooooooooring. I began to itch again…what did I need? More motifs, more colours? Yes but I also needed more info to scratch. I remember seeing an Elizabeth Olwen Silkshare class about creating fabric collections. It was brilliant. It really helped to fill in the gaps. I also checked out Creative Bug with Denyse Schmit, Heather Ross and Lizzy House. Again brilliant.

I began to put more thought into the feel of this collection. I wanted it to feel feminine but not foofy (technical term), strong but not loud. Fresh, uncluttered… understated was a word that kept coming up.  Although, it was kind of hard thinking in terms of words. Which is why I turned to collecting images on Pinterest. That’s where I found these sometimes funny, always unyielding and insightful Coco Chanel quotes. I researched her too. Love or hate her, she was a bit ahead of her time, I think, in so many ways and not only in fashion.

I knew right away I wanted these quotes inside the notebook, journal and diary. I love when there is more to a book than meets the eye. The text for the quotes, I wanted in white so they were quiet. Next the background colours started to come. My bows were still in black…. It didn’t work. It was hard but even though it was something I wanted in the beginning, I decided to loose the black ribbon and go all white, like the text. I’m so glad I did.

Then came the envelopes. I met a friend for coffee one afternoon. I had a huge grin on my face when I saw her. The first thing that came out of my mouth was, ” I MADE AN ENVELOPE!” She looked puzzled but saw how happy I was and joined me in my celebration!

The very last itch was, what to call the collection. It’s one of the itchiest problems but also one of the most satisfying. I’m not sure how I didn’t see it from the beginning. It was there all along, waiting patiently and quietly… Understated.