Tldr: I’m ending my email newsletter in March. I’ll be starting something different on substack. I don’t know exactly what that will be like, but I’m hoping some of you would like to come on that journey with me. Whatever you decide, thank you for being here over the last 7 years.
Sharing.
This has been on my mind a lot recently. I am trying to work out how to share myself, as in my whole self, in a world that would prefer we stay fragmented, small and pleasing to others. Considering which methods of sharing feel appropriate, natural, energy-giving. Wondering about what sharing of myself could look like, what I am able to give, as well as what I invite in, whose attention I draw towards myself.
I know that I am at a crossroads. I have been on this path for a long time, but it’s only since the pandemic started that things have been feeling more urgent, that things started to compound and magnify in my mind. And with each social reckoning (Covid, Black Lives Matter, the genocide in Palestine) against the backdrop of the climate emergency, I am pulled apart, dissolved, re-membered. So many awakenings, so many crackings open, so much grief and yet, so much love emerging, so much certainty about who and what I want to devote my time to.
Before the pandemic the work I did supporting contemporary craft makers was my full time job. I easily spent 2-3 days per week travelling around the country to events, on studio visits, meeting makers and artists to talk about their work, dream up projects and collaborations. I also led workshops on writing and communication skills, I taught on degree courses. I created resources and wrote blog posts on all aspects of creative practice. I chaired panel discussions, I was commissioned to write about other people’s practices, exhibitions and projects. I coordinated groups of makers, gathering to share experiences and support each other. I devised, got funding for and delivered projects which offered makers opportunities to create new work, to collaborate, to exhibit and to develop professionally. It was a lot. At the end of 2019 I promised myself that I needed to take 2020 slowly and re-assess how sustainable this way of working was for me. And we all know how that went.
The reality of life since 2020, with ongoing long covid health issues and energy levels that need careful consideration, is that I no longer want to do all those things. I work part time and the majority of my work is 1:1 online mentoring. Which I love. But I do not see this work expanding to fill all the time available to me. If anything, I see it becoming more focused and consolidated, allowing me the possibility to devote other days in my week to the activities that are calling to me – rooting into my community, imagining and building better futures for each other and the planet.
My work in contemporary craft is a facet of me, not the whole picture, and I want to give myself the space to let those other parts become something, without feeling like it has to look finished or perfect. And that’s where the email newsletter comes into it. I haven’t felt excited to write the newsletter for quite a while now; it’s felt like yet another should within my practice. Back when I started writing – August 2016 – a newsletter was necessary and I really liked thinking about what to write. There was always some ‘news’ about the work I was doing, and I would share books I’d read or things I’d been to, events coming up. But always with a craft or creativity focus. Over time the content of the letter has changed quite a lot as I have had less to promote and more questions about myself, and what it is like to have a sustainable and ethical practice. So many of you have been reading the newsletter for years, and I am so grateful to have had you there. The responses when something I’ve written has resonated with you have meant so much to me.
But I’m now at a place where I feel constrained by what I’ve created. It no longer fits me, and I come to it begrudgingly. Which is a huge disservice to you all, and to me. And, I also wonder – is it still a good fit for you? Perhaps you too have felt the waning of my energy for this space, perhaps you once enjoyed it but no longer open the emails. And I haven’t really checked in with you, asking for your consent to be there, asking if you really want it in your lives. So that’s what I’m doing now.
At the end of March I will officially end my newsletter. It’s my intention to start writing over on substack but that offering will be different. It won’t be a newsletter, or indeed any kind of letter. I am yearning for a space to be freer with my thoughts, to have space to ponder things, to write in fragments, to be inconsistent. The content may have some overlaps with the newsletter and blog space – I am still committed to understanding and exploring what it’s like to be a human within a creative practice – but it probably won’t be craft specific. I am also interested in delving deeper into the newer passions I have around activism as a personal practice, grief care, somatic healing modalities, social justice and the climate emergency. I am longing to have a space to talk about books and what I’ve been reading, or what I’m hoping to read. I’d love to share podcasts and videos, musings on my slow journey back to making things. But mostly I want a space where I feel like we’re equals. No more missives sent out from me to you, broadcast style, transactional. No. The next thing is an invitation for you to come with me, if you fancy it. I have no answers, only questions. Maybe we can be in the uncertainty together?
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, please do join me. But, if it doesn’t, please do not feel you have to sign up. I trust you, you know what you need – if this is the end of our connection I want you to know how grateful I am that you were here, and wish you so much love for the future.
With warmest wishes,
Melody