'Tis the season of ironing, lots of ironing. True, eco-prints need to age (more on that another time) but, it's much more fun to start something than finish. Right?

At Uni (SIAD) several very wise women taught me that the process of 'making' has three parts (design and sampling notwithstanding). Preparation, the 'action' (weaving, printing, you name it), and the finishing. Each piece of the process should take about a third of the total time. If you skimp on the preparation, your finished piece will be lacking, no matter how much time and effort you put into the act of making. Loom state cloth and crusty prints aren't particularly nice until they are well finished.

So, I am ironing, washing and ironing again and enjoying this part of the process. I get to look at the details of my prints again, assess what really worked and what didn't turn out as I'd anticipated or hoped, or was just a surprise. The cloth goes from slightly smelly, kind of crusty-feeling stuff to sensuous scarves that want to be worn. Love the process.