Making the chop

When working out fine details of a zero waste pattern it can often lean to mindless ramblings to whoever happens to be on the other end of a call with me at the time. The repetitive nature of aligning shapes and perfecting seam allowances leads to mental white space that can fill with interesting and sometimes humorous thoughts.

In my most recent class, teaching Clo3D for Zero Waste Design, such a moment happened with a live audience of 3 + my co-teacher. I was encouraging the participants to not think so much about the “right way” to do things and try something different. “Just chop it! What’s the worst that can happen” I said, referring to an edge of a pattern that wasn’t lining up the way I wanted it to. It was then that the blank mind space opened and I started going into a rabbit hole of unintended connection and observation.

“You know,” I said, “this seems to be a constant theme in my life. I started cutting my own hair when I was around 13 and would just go for it. I guess I just chopped that too!”

On reflection, this seems to be an ongoing “ism” in my life. After laughing at my unexpected realization I put some more thought into this idea. When I started cutting my own hair, my mom said “hey, if you mess up it’ll grow back. No harm no foul, it’s not a big deal.” Perhaps this is how I’ve been encouraged to approach life as a whole, down to teeny tiny pattern pieces.

My life has taken me down a very non-linear path, with this notion leading the way. Doing DECODE full time? Sure! What’s the worst that can happen? I try and have to say I failed? Going to Grad school? Hey, if it was the wrong decision you can always go back to what you were doing before.

This isn’t to say that I solely make impulse decisions and that my life isn’t ruled by logic, in fact it’s quite the opposite. In most areas of life I am quite a strict rule follower and want to do the right thing. There are small spots of rebellion where this mentality comes in strongly and I’ve learned to listen to those moments when they come up.

None of the instinct decisions I’ve made have been “wrong” and even if they weren’t perfect I’ve learned and grown from them.

What’s the point of this little note? Nothing really, just remember to make the chop, what’s the worst that can happen?