Authenticity

I just got this book and I'm loving it. Every page is a new delight. Very inspirational. I love seeing what people develop and invent, you can see clearly they have a "special " way about them and what they create. Look at one of the artists featured in this book working with wool and silk, Ulrieke Benner for a great example of invention and strength of her authenticity, it shines through whatever she does.

How do we get to the place where we are speaking through our truest self at that moment and not barking through our hat or up a tree or something else?

Let's start with being aware.

Gimmickery is a real phenomenon.

This word, as I use it, is my cross between mockery and gimmick.

Gimmick isn't a very old word. It came about in the 1920s as a result of wide spread advertising. A gimmick is something to draw you in. Like giving you a free pillow with every mattress or altering a building to appear like a log cabin or an Italian villa to attract eaters to restaurants. There is not much to a gimmick, it is about appearances.

Mockery, an absurd imitation, misrepresentation or interpretation of something.

Gimmickery for me - a representation of something that already exists or doesn't exist at all to make someone think an idea is new.

In common usage it means an array of gimmicks.

I'm sure people who have been hooking for 20 years or so know just what I mean.

If you can get your hands on older issues of RHM or News and Views you will see it too.

All it takes is a little research to find what are purported to be innovations are simply imitations of the past.

How to avoid falling into the gimmickery trap?

Look out for things that:

are way more complicated than they need to be

take a lot of talk to convince you

don't strike a bell with your inner authenticity

when used as directed don't improve a thing you do

look exactly the same as something you've seen a million times but you are told it is different

make you feel like you know something but when you need to do it .... whoops, it slips away

If we are talking about inventing stuff and I feel hardly anything has been invented yet on this planet or in rug hooking if you want a smaller view, I want you to know you are as capable as the next hooker to invent something. All you need is your own authentic self. That's is your best tool. And you need to try lots of times, make lots of prototypes as true inventors do. Lots of them will fail... excellent. They will be the stuff upon which something new arises.

More importantly don't be bamboozled by yourself or others.

Inventing is a doing thing not a thinking one, it is something to play at, with tons of what if questions.

“Doubt is the father of invention.”

Galileo Galilei

Don't doubt yourself.... doubt them and that.