{"id":19522,"date":"2019-04-01T01:10:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T06:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=20872"},"modified":"2019-03-19T12:11:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T17:11:42","slug":"wreathing-the-wheel-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2019\/04\/01\/wreathing-the-wheel-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Wreathing the Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wreathing\nthe Wheel: Mistakes, Messes, and Accidents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This\nmonth, I\u2019d like to take a little departure from talking about the\nspecifics of bullet journaling to talk about a related topic that I\nam very passionate about: making mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nan artist who works a lot with pen and ink, I\u2019m familiar with the\nunforgiving nature of the medium. It\u2019s very easy to make a small\nstray pen mark simply by dropping the pen, or (the horror!) even a\nlong mark when my cat decides that she really wants to play with my\npen too, or something jostles my drawing surface. From a mistake that\nlasts a millisecond, hours of work can feel ruined when this happens.\nI\u2019m a perfectionist as well, and I like everything to be beautiful,\nprecise and clean\u2026 in my opinion, my attention to detail is what\nmakes my art interesting (to me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nit becomes necessary, when working on an ongoing project like a\nbullet journal, to accept that some things just won\u2019t work out how\nyou expected, and to tell yourself it\u2019s worth it to keep going with\nthe hobby you love, even when you are confronted with mistakes. With\nstray pen marks and similar mistakes, there\u2019s little you can do to\nhide them. Sometimes they can be hidden in designs, but sometimes the\ndesign is already finished when you mess it all up. It\u2019s a sinking\nfeeling, but I try to just take a moment and remind myself that this\nmistake is an accurate representation of my life \u2014 and after all,\nthis is a journal! Isn\u2019t part of the purpose to accurately\nrepresent what my life was like at this time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwhat about when the mistake is big? Like really, REALLY big? What if\nit\u2019s the whole book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas my first 2018 bullet journal. Notice anything odd?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As\nyou can probably tell, I put a lot of work into this book, and I was\nfairly upset when wine was spilled on it (although not as upset as\nthe person who spilled the wine, bless their heart). The wine soaked\nthrough quickly, and it\u2019s on almost every page. This happened when\nI was halfway through the book \u2014 I couldn\u2019t just toss it, and I\nwasn\u2019t ready to start another yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead,\nI decided to celebrate the accident. In Japanese pottery, the method\nof Kintsugi<\/em> (meaning \u201cgolden joinery\u201d) is used to repair\nbroken pottery with precious metals. The underlying thought process\nbehind this is that the breakage becomes a beautiful part of the\nobject\u2019s history, and appreciated in its own right. Borrowing from\nthis idea, I used silver and gold ink to \u201crepair\u201d some of the\nplaces in my journal that had been washed away by the wine, to try to\nmake them even more beautiful than before. Another way I have thought\nabout doing this would be to repair pages with embroidery, but there\nare many techniques one could use \u2014 gold or silver plating,\ndecoratively placed washi tape, or even pasting a picture over a\nmistake \u2014 anything, in short, that transforms the mistake into\nsomething new, and uncommonly precious. I’d encourage you to start\nshowing some love to your mistakes today: it’s a way for us as\nartists and craftspeople to embrace the reality of craft and indulge\nin the unpredictability of traditional media, and it can help us grow\nand learn new techniques as well. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About\nthe Author:<\/strong>\n \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sarah\nMcMenomy <\/strong>is\nan artist and witch. Her craft incorporates herbalism, spellwork,\ntrance, divination, auras, and more. Her work can be found at\nhttps:\/\/sarahmcmenomy.tumblr.com<\/a>\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wreathing the Wheel: Mistakes, Messes, and Accidents This month, I\u2019d like to take a little departure from talking about the specifics of bullet journaling to talk about a related topic that I am very passionate about: making mistakes. As an artist who works a lot with pen and ink, I\u2019m familiar with the unforgiving nature of the medium. It\u2019s very easy to make a small stray pen mark simply by dropping the pen, or (the horror!) even a long mark when my cat decides that she really wants to play with my pen too, or something jostles my drawing surface. From a mistake that lasts a millisecond, hours of work can feel ruined when this happens. I\u2019m a perfectionist as well, and I like everything to be beautiful, precise and clean\u2026 in my opinion, my attention to detail is what makes my art interesting (to me). But it becomes necessary, when working on an ongoing project like a bullet journal, to accept that some things just won\u2019t work out how you expected, and to tell yourself it\u2019s worth it to keep going with the hobby you love, even when you are confronted with mistakes. With stray pen marks and similar mistakes, there\u2019s little you can do to hide them. Sometimes they can be hidden in designs, but sometimes the design is already finished when you mess it all up. It\u2019s a sinking feeling, but I try to just take a moment and remind myself that this mistake is an accurate representation of my life \u2014 and after all, this is a journal! Isn\u2019t part of the purpose to accurately represent what my life was like at this time? But what about when the mistake is big? Like really, REALLY big? What if it\u2019s the whole book? This was my first 2018 bullet journal. Notice anything odd? As you can probably tell, I put a lot of work into this book, and I was fairly upset when wine was spilled on it (although not as upset as the person who spilled the wine, bless their heart). The wine soaked through quickly, and it\u2019s on almost every page. This happened when I was halfway through the book \u2014 I couldn\u2019t just toss it, and I wasn\u2019t ready to start another yet. Instead, I decided to celebrate the accident. In Japanese pottery, the method of Kintsugi (meaning \u201cgolden joinery\u201d) is used to repair broken pottery with precious metals. The underlying thought process behind this is that the breakage becomes a beautiful part of the object\u2019s history, and appreciated in its own right. Borrowing from this idea, I used silver and gold ink to \u201crepair\u201d some of the places in my journal that had been washed away by the wine, to try to make them even more beautiful than before. Another way I have thought about doing this would be to repair pages with embroidery, but there are many techniques one could use \u2014 gold or silver plating, decoratively placed washi tape, or even pasting a picture over a mistake \u2014 anything, in short, that transforms the mistake into something new, and uncommonly precious. I’d encourage you to start showing some love to your mistakes today: it’s a way for us as artists and craftspeople to embrace the reality of craft and indulge in the unpredictability of traditional media, and it can help us grow and learn new techniques as well. *** About the Author: Sarah McMenomy is an artist and witch. Her craft incorporates herbalism, spellwork, trance, divination, auras, and more. Her work can be found at https:\/\/sarahmcmenomy.tumblr.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}