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hermes handbags, handbag shops + handbag friends

I believe that Hermes may well be copying me.

Really. 

They are.

Look.

Here's a page from Sue Heap and my HANDBAG FRIENDS:

and here--from a recent exhibition in London, "Leather Forever"--is this picture: "Kelly Neon" sculpture by Alexandra Plat in the "variations on Kelly and Birkin" room.

Need I say more?

Yes I do.

Because you see when the former King of England, the Duke of Windsor, went shopping in Paris, looking for a gift for Wallace, the vendeuse suggested gloves. The duke said, "My wife already has a wheelbarrow of gloves!" So Hermes made just that--a leather wheelbarrow to store her accessories. (This was 1947.)

Here again is a page from our book:

Look closely. What exactly are those princesses carrying their accessories in??? None other than... A wheelbarrow! (You may be saying ah yes, but your story was written way later, way after 1947 so how could they be copying you? And you are right when you are saying that--but written down doesn't mean it didn't happen way before that date. Which of course it did because it is a fairystory and those kinds of stories don't ever date. In fact they are timeless.)

I rest my case. 

You see, children's books are influential--clearly they are upstream from fashion. Indeed so far upstream are they, that they are upstream even from Hermes.

And now since that is such a large fact to take in, we may need to take a breather. So what better way to close this handbag bulletin than with a song--and a Handbag Song at that:

Perfectionism versus getting things DONE

via 
Joshua Rothaas

Knowledge, method & the one essential thing:

A E Housman was a poet and classical scholar and he said this (which has to be one of my most favorite professorial pieces of advice) (and because he was a poet and a classical scholar--indeed, counted by some as one of the greatest scholars of all time--it is extra weighty and wise and worth taking to heart, I feel):

"Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all other is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head."

You can't disagree with that. And I for one--I am going to do my best to follow it. (Although trying to follow it on a day when you wake up with a pumpkin for a head and pudding for brains is tricksy. Nevertheless.)

Housman published two books of poetry in his lifetime. One of them was the 63-poem cycle A SHROPSHIRE LAD (1896) which has these beautiful lines:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide."

--A E Housman (1859-1936)

Ahoy! (or how to answer a phone)

If Alexander Graham Bell had had his way, we'd be answering our iPhones like sailors, and shouting, "AHOY!"

If only it had caught on.

Thomas Edison, his competitor, preferred Hello.

Thomas Edison on the phone, August 31, 1914

Apparently there was this How To section in early telephone books and it recommended "Hello" (except it called it "a hearty 'hulloa' ") which is why Hello caught on and not AHOY. But then again, that same how to section recommended "That is all!" rather than goodbye and look how far that got.

Of course in The Simpsons, Mr Burns is usually heard answering the phone with"Ahoy-hoy" which is another interesting fact.

And speaking of interesting facts, I just discovered: English is the only language where the proper greeting for the phone has now become the proper one for a face-face greeting.

OK you'll be relieved to know...

THAT IS ALL!

 

To be creative 1st create an Oasis of Quiet

What Cleese says is so practical and true. It's all about how to be playful."Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating."

We need:
--quiet space, undisturbed (locality: secluded)
--for a specific period of time (duration: limited)

what are your tips and tricks for inspiring creativity?

We have to work to get play back into our lives.

Breaking Free: Improvisation, Writing, Denyse Schmidt

I had never quilted in my life and here I am going to an improvisational quilting workshop run by possibly quilting's biggest star--Denyse Schmidt. 

 

What was I thinking? 

 

Well, Denyse is my dear friend, and she said it would be great for anyone not just sewers or quilters. Neither of which I am.

Most workshops you go to to learn something right? Not this one. You unlearn. And that's what makes it so great.

And it's also what makes it an amazing workshop for writers--or anyone in a creative field. Because it's all about freeing yourself from "the rules" -- "the right way" to do something, "the wrong way" to do it -- freeing yourself from all the second-guessing... breaking free of habits and fears. It's about discovering, exploring, experimenting. And most of all trust. Not knowing what is going to happen next. 

In short, this workshop is all about unlearning. And it's fabulous. 

(Time Out write an article about the workshops: here)

There were three bags of scraps to choose from: small pieces, medium pieces, large pieces. One at a time we chose a piece blindly and sewed it to the next piece we drew out of the bag.

The only rules:

--you have to use what you grab, even if you hate the color and you are certain it will ruin everything

--you have to choose the path of least resistance (don't get fancy--match the piece to the other piece the obvious way)

the sewing machines we used:

It was exhilarating because you were not "in control" and you didn't know what would happen next. But miraculously, by the end of the class, we'd each sewn 5 or 6 squares... and they were all of them stunning. The pieces of material you hated because essential to the design. It all worked. 

Here is what I ended up with, my four squares...

This workshop is a wonderful way to get unstuck, to remember what it's like to play--and then come back to your writing or your art with the same playfulness and trust and discovery.

Thank you Denyse!

To sign up for Denyse's class you can here.

Here are some photos I took... Here's where Denyse sews 

and all her lovely pins

and her inspiration wall (complete with British war poster)

her cool filing cabinets

cool material (everywhere you look is beautiful!)

are you a writer... or an author?

"Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it."

Collette