Images of Creative Communion - First Steps

My journey from Vancouver, BC. Canada, to the "Imagery in Jewelry" workshop at Touchstone Center for Craft in Farmington, Pennsylvania.

I start each new year with some time for reflection and visioning. This year I used two of my favourite tools to do this, my Desire Map book by Danielle Laporte and my Vision building worksheet from Alyson B. Stanfield. I spent about 5 days reading, writing, and reflecting, giving myself space and time to really figure out what I desired. I locked down my core desired feelings which would guide me with my vision for the year:

Abundance - I desire a full rich life filled with an abundance of love, creativity, joy, excitement, adventure, wealth, fun, laughter, passion, peace.

Present - I desire to be where I am, feel what I feel and be open to what is in front of me at this very moment.

Artistic - I desire bright beautiful colours, patterns, walking through trees, sitting on mountain tops, rusty metal, my ear to the ocean, dancing on the street, being authentically me.

Communion - I desire deep soulful connections with other people, real love and communication, creative communion with other artists, artistic communion with other wild minds who say yes to things.

I used my core desired feelings to build my vision for the year. I wrote out my vision for each part of my life on lovely sheets of thick white paper, linked with my core desired feelings and tied up with purple satin ribbons. They are hanging on my wall beside my desk. For my section on "Pleasure and Adventure" I wrote: Travel to New York, go see things I haven't seen before, continue to say Yes to things.

In March I received an email from Adam Kenney, Executive Director of Touchstone Centre for Craft. He had a question for me about my application for the Crafthaus scholarship that I had applied for, "Patsy, Canada? ....You're really game to make travel arrangements for this? I think you're an excellent candidate for the workshop, but I need to be sure that you can take advantage of the opportunity. I know that you knew what you were getting into when you applied, but I wanted to double check."

My initial reaction to most things in life is fear and in this case it was the same. I backed away from my computer and I thought, "Oh no..... am I nuts!?.....am I really game to do this?.......okay well maybe I should find out exactly where Farmington is on the map" Just in case anyone else is slightly geographically un-savvy like myself - Here’s a map of where I am in relation to Farmington Pennsylvania:

I looked at the map and I saw that indeed Farmington Pennsylvania is not that close to Vancouver, hehehe ;) But I also saw that it was very close to New York City. I responded to Adam with "I realize it's a long way to go for a 3 day workshop, but we don't have craft centres like this in Canada and to learn from Sharon and Cortland would be an amazing opportunity. I would find a way to get there.....I've always wanted to go to New York City, so maybe I would even combine it with a trip there. Basically I'm game for the adventure"

I said Yes. I am honoured to be the recipient of the Touchstone Center for Craft and Crafthaus scholarship. I will be attending the Imagery in Jewelry workshop taught by Sharon Massey and Cortland Dewitt from May 30-June 1st. Then on June 2nd I will be taking a train to New York City.

I am a little nuts and I am so excited for this adventure! I look forward to sharing it with everyone.