Amber Kane

Are you an Arist?

When asked what I do, I respond I"m a teacher... and then sometimes I quickly whisper , I also design and weave scarves, however more often than not, I completely omit the second part.

For example, I was leaving yoga, and while talking I mentioned that I planned to spend most of my weekend weaving, someone who didn't know me, inquired if I was a professional weaver. My gut response, no, I'm a teacher, and do some weaving on the side. ( those of you that know me I"m sure are laughing at my claim to do "some" weaving) However, one of my friends was there and she quickly chimed in, yes she's a professional weaver, check out these amazing scarves that she designs. In that moment, I realized that she was right, I am a professional weaver, I should be proud of it, and it should not a wonderfully kept secret.

While talking with a friend, she asked, " do you ever call yourself an artist?" My response, no, but I know that I should. Deep down I know that I am.

Why is it so hard to call identify ourselves as artists? I feel that it's actually quiet simple, we have trouble because as a culture we have decided that being creative, that being an artist is for an extreme select few. Leaving most of us that create things, unsure what to call ourselves.

I am an artist.

I design,

I create,

I share

and sell my work.

I am an ARTIST. I'm not ready to scream this while standing on the rooftop yet, but I'm making a sincere effort to tell people that I"m a teacher and an artist.

From Art and Fear

“To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly. You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do – away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.”

What is holding you back from introducing yourself as an artist?

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Gifts that Keep on Giving

I"m super thankful for all of the supportive people in my life that helped me launch my business, whether it be through money, support, or being my personal cheerleader.

I began thinking about the mission of my buisness. My current mission is to help women to uncovering their beauty and discover confidence in their lives. There are so many women with such amazing talents and gifts to share, that lack the confidence to do sow. When we feel beautiful, we are more confident, and more willing to try new things, and step forward. While this is happening wonderfully through my scarf designs, I wanted to do more. And so I've decided to team up with Kiva loans to help more wonderful women launch meaningful buisnesses.

You can start helping now.

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The Creative Process

After seeing my work, people often ask me about my process, so today I'm going to take you for a tour in my creative mind.

This scarf was a special design, the customer gave me the following information:

- wanted a long and thick braid

-beads

- lots of fabric

- wanted it to look, urban and raw

First thing that I often do , is head to pinterest, to collect images that inspire me. Here's what I collected while working on this piece.

Source: sassncurlz.files.wordpress.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: men-womens-hair.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: the-wild-within.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

After gathering inspiration , it was time to get to work. Weaving the scarf is always the first step. I wanted there to be color in this piece, but I also wanted to stick with colors that reminded me of the word raw. After it came off of the loom, I add more gold to each end, to increase the thickness of the braid.

I"m a lover of texture and so was my client, so I decided that I was going to let loose on this piece and do a lot of different techniques. I did free form crochet along one edge of the scarf, which created a nice delicate, lace look to this edgy piece.

Next I used thick yarn, and made french knots on the white section of the scarf to add a pop of color and texture. At this point I knew that the piece was almost finished, but it still needed something else, so I headed back to the bead store, and picked up these awesome skull beads. I added a few of the skull beads to the fringe in each end, and it was done. What a fun piece to create, and even more fun to hear from the client once she received this special creation.

I would love to hear about your creative process. Tell your story in the comment section below.

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Perfact Packages for the Holidays

One thing that everyone loves, is getting a cool package in the mail. Even when I know what's inside of the box laying on my doorstep, I still get super excited to open it.

A group of scarves are traveling to LA to be gifted to some Celebs for the holidays. I was challenged to come up with some really fun packaging that would make them stand out amongst all of the other things that they are given during this time of the year. Nothing was coming to me, so I asked my friends. Katherine, ( my students think that her and I are sisters) started throwing ideas out there. She is great to brainstorm, as she is a wonderfully creative person herself, but she also isn't afraid to just say things, and see where the ideas lead.

At one point she mentioned clear cylinders, I knew I wanted something along those lines. Now the challenge was to go and find them. Much to my surprise the second store that I walked into , these were the first thing that I saw. I bought everyone they had.

Next was to make labels. I made a sticker label to place on the top of the can. Next I wrote my story, as to how I began making scarves. I made sure that it was short and fit onto a half sheet of paper, added a photo and placed it so that it was facing out, and is easy to see.

I then went back and forth , over and over, trying to decide if I wanted to wrap the scarves in fabric and place them in the container, or simply place them into the container so that you could see there colors. I decided on wrapping them, and making it more of a surprise. So you read the story, and then get excited to see what the scarves look like.

My challenge to you, make your packages this year just as much fun as the gift inside. For ideas, check out my pinterest board of package inspiration.

Share your package ideas with me, snap a photo and send it an email: amberkane1314@hotmail.com , or tag me on twitter @amberkane1314

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Holiday Gift ideas and FREE MONEY

Customers often talk about purchasing my scarves as gifts, but are afraid to pick the wrong one. So I've decided to make everyone life easy, and you can now find gift certificates in my etsy shop. So you can give the gift of an awesome statement scarf, but they can pick out the one that they love.

Options

Spend $50.00 = $50.00

Spend $100.00 = $110.00

Best Value: Spend $200.00 = $250.00

That's right, if you purchase a gift certificate for $200.00, I"ll send you one worth $250.00! That's $50 FREE!

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What are you waiting for? Hope over to my shop now and get $50.00 FREE!

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Why you Can't be in Control

I've had the last 5 days off from teaching, and fully intended to spend most of the time in my studio creating, what I didn't expect was to spend 3 of those days in the studio, feeling totally disconnected and hating everything .

Frustrated, is a nice way to express how I was feeling. When I'm not connected to my work, well it doesn't work... nothing looks good, there is a disconnect between the materials, my mind, and hands. Several times, I heard the whisper "stop, write, figure out what's going on with you." But I was in a stubborn place, I just kept pushing through and making things worse. So I sat and made a few more scarves that I didn't like.

Finally Sunday night I'd had enough. I sat down to do some free writing. I only wrote for a few minutes, but it was enough. I didn't determine what was going on with me.

But I did acknowledge that things weren't working, that I didn't feel like myself. I admitted that I wasn't sure what I wanted, or where I was going.

I felt better for admitting this. I felt better because I let go. I was trying to be in control, trying to have all of the answers. When I"m in control, good things don't happen. I'm just sorry that it took me 3 days to admit it.

Monday, I woke up feeling new, and ready to create. I headed into the studio, with excitement, and was ready to make all the "bad" scarves that I"d worked on over the last three days good scarves. It is so much easier to create and design, when I just let go and let it flow. I completed three scarves, and made some more progress on two other pieces, it felt so good.

No matter what kind of work you do, when things aren't working, it doesn't always mean that you should try harder, sometimes it means that you're trying to hard, and instead that you need to totally let go.

Things are always better when God is control, my problem was not the scarves, or the designs, my problem was far beyond that, making an attempt to determine where the scarves and I were going to go in a year.

There must be a balance between having goals, knowing what you're reaching for, and then letting go. For three days I had goals, knew what I was reaching for, and was determined to make it happen on my own.. that failed.

Monday I had goals, knew what I was reaching for, and then let go. That resulted in some pretty awesome scarves.

Leave a comment below: How do you know when you're trying TOO HARD to be in control? How do you let go?

image from: http://blog.modcloth.com/2012/08/15/quote-of-the-day-neil-gaiman-on-mistakes/

PS: if you like any of the scarves pin them, and share them on facebook.

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Why You Should Always be Open to Inspiration

I'm doing a guest post once a month about inspiration. This month I talk about the inspiration that I draw from color field painters. Read the full post here:

Mark Rothko: ”If you are only moved by color relationships, you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

Helen Frankenthaler : ”What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it’s pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is – did I make a beautiful picture?

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What I Wore: Scarf Style

Tara Gentile wrote an awesome post about listening to your audience, and then responding to what you hear. As I thought about, I realized that I was listening, but wasn't doing a great job responding.The two most common things that I heard from you were.

1. I don't feel like I know how to style a scarf

2. I don't know what outfit to wear the scarf with

It's my new goal to do the following: do more posts that show my whole outfit, so that you can get new ideas about color and pattern combinations. I"m also going to do more videos giving you tips on how to wear your scarf. Want to see more... tell me , I'll listen and respond!