In 2005 I ran a gallery, Fort Nest, with two friends on India Street in Portland. It was a fun time—a time of endless ideas and dreams (I was in my mid-twenties!). It was in this year that the word madder became Madder, a small clothing line, possibly with hand-dyed fabric. I was going to convert the gallery into a shop. Ha! That didn't happen. So then Madder evolved into a line of hand-printed fabric. Rather quickly, again, the idea shifted—I was going to revive a magazine I tried to start in 2002 when living in Seattle, this time under the name Madder Megazine (in fact, my first domain was maddermegazine.com). Oh the dreams....
Well, it did not take long for me to realize that I lacked the skill set required (as in all the above ideas) for launching a magazine. Obviously committed to the fact that Madder needed to be something, I nestled into the idea of creating a website with a broader name (madder made). This way I wouldn't be locked into any one direction. I decided to focus on what skills I did have at the time—photography and knitting swatches. Alas, maddermade.com kicked off with the release of my book—Swatch Diaries one: Away / Japan. The book was a photographic exploration about inspiration and the process of creating knitwear (ie: swatching). There was book one, then book two (Marina), and then...life took over. A full-time job, a new baby, and honestly the idea sort of fizzled for me.
But, as you may have read in a recent post, I am finally working on a third "book" (more like a lookbook). I think it's mostly because this time of year is full of inspiration—the change of season from summer to fall is so beautiful. Swatching begins again, the desire to have wool in hand is re-awakened.
So...if anyone is interested in seeing the first two books, I'll be previewing them on my website as lookbooks for a few weeks each. First up: Away / Japan, then Marina, then....stay tuned.
