BEHIND THE SCENES: SWAY

Sway by Katie Berman, 2019.
Upcycled yarns, American raised wool yarns, naturally dyed cotton fringe.

Sometimes your best laid plans just don’t pan out. Ever experienced that?

Truth be told, this piece counts as one of those experiences for me. I went into this work with a specific direction in mind. I laid out my intentions and began to follow through. But as I started to punch it out, it wan’t what I originally imagined and I began to loose connection with it the more I worked.

I debated ripping it out. Starting over. I scrapped that idea knowing I would be able to salvage the yarn, but not all of the fabric. In the midst of my debating, I decided to go in a complete opposing direction. If the piece wasn’t turning out the way I planned, I would just scrap all plans and get weird with it.

But that didn’t pan out either. I was incorporating crazy, off-the-wall yarns and design elements that just didn’t fit the piece or my design aesthetic.

And then the piece just…sat. On my frame. Unfinished. For about 2 weeks longer than it should have.

That’s when I had an a-ha moment. Too many times have I started on one path, it didn’t quite turn out the way I thought and then I immediately swing in the opposite direction thinking that will put me in the right. Like a pendulum, I can tend to swing from one extreme to the other. And when I’m on the opposite side from where I started, I see it’s not quite right either and I just stop. I freeze. And things just hang in limbo for a bit.

I think I freeze because I know what I have to do. I have to turn back. Take out the work. Try to find middle ground. But sometimes I just don’t want to. My stubbornness keeps the work from getting done.

But when I do decide to make amends, remove the weird ideas and find the happy medium, things always steady.

This piece pays homage to that moment in the gentle sway of the pendulum as the weight hovers around center and finds its rest where it belongs.