A long and winding road
So I've been thinking about... the internet. About making things on it and for it and with it. About what many of us have come to expect from it: platform polish, professionalism, products that integrate seamlessly into our lives. I've been thinking about how to be, and remain, a person online, with a specific and personal point of view. And I've been thinking about the assortment of things we might mean when we talk about "good" design.
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Most garments require seams, and—to a creative fashion designer—those seams become a feature: these are known as style lines. They are opportunities to manipulate the shape and structure of textiles in both artistic and functional ways and, in a high-quality garment, for the eventual wearer(s) to customize it and repair it over time.
It's true that a poorly placed seam can chafe. It's true that even a thoughtfully placed seam would still produce an unacceptable amount of friction in some cases. I'm glad that the technology to knit smooth, seamless shapes exists. But I see beauty in seams, too. Not least because the clothes I make for myself and my loved ones can almost never be entirely seamless.
There are human hands responsible for every one of those seams that define your garments.
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I've spent most of this year angry and sad and frustrated with the powerful people shaping the internet and the field of information technology, many of whom are the same people remaking the rest of the offline world, too. Stewing in these feelings, I found it really hard to know what to do with myself or this silly little gadget that I've been trying and failing to deliver into your hands for over a year. I realized I don't actually want—never intended for—shipping silly little gadgets to become my thing (or... at least not the way I had been approaching this one) but I still felt incredibly stuck: I felt guilty for continuing to work on it while spinning my wheels, but I felt guilty for not working on it after already investing so much into trying to make it better; I felt guilty at the thought of withholding something potentially helpful and I felt guilty at the thought of wasting your time with a bad design.
Where is the cone winder? a search, a quest, an essay
Like the cone winder, this video is available to you, but to be honest, I didn't really make it for you. I needed to go on the journey. I needed to get unstuck. I needed to reconnect with what it is I wanted to do here.
Is there a single "right" answer to the query "how to build a cone winder"? Should there be?
Until next time,
xoxo Sparks