Trish's Blog

Settle down, it’s not a potential next book topic.
Had you going there for a minute, didn’t I?

Just breathe…

Because that’s exactly what I did last week. Celebrating a mid-week birthday, I cleared my calendar and had a Craft Day.

Earlier in the year I bought a geli plate. I’d unboxed it, watched the YouTube videos, joined the Facebook group… and still hadn’t used it. I gathered everything I thought I needed, stood in front of this thing, and stared at it.

I found myself paralysed by the unknowns:
What’s first?
What if it’s not perfect?
How long does it take to dry? (FYI: For-ever.)

It felt like I was stuck for ages, but the reality was the inaction was brief. The feelings were intense, not the delay.

Failure was ever-present. Every pull of a print came with a lesson. Not one piece could be described as standalone art, but they could be recombined. Some, literally and figuratively, were woven together into something new.

Not only was I learning geli-plate techniques, I was re-learning my brayering technique and the “mess with your head” trick of reverse printing. The contradiction of the top layer on the plate becoming the bottom layer of the print had to be held lightly. I couldn’t fix that contradiction, it had to co-exist.

And it struck me that I was knee-deep in three of the Weird Wisdom® Principles without planning it. Sitting with the unknowns, letting failure teach rather than stop me, and working with contradictions instead of trying to tidy them away. The craft bench became its own little dojo.

There is a way to go before I can start to question norms and explore the unconventional.

What surprised me, though, was how much insight showed up long before the “good” prints did. The lack of perfection continues, as does the progress.  A quiet reminder that wisdom doesn’t always arrive with mastery. Sometimes it shows up while you’re covered in paint, muddling through, realising you’re learning more than you thought.

Craft Day gave me that. And honestly, I’ll take it.