Monthly Archives: March 2016

Brown Girl Doll: Petia

Posted in Brown Girl Doll by

In December 2015, I envisioned a Brown Girl Doll wearing a Kente cloth inspired dress. I knew the primary color was gold and the rest would come over time. Yet, I haven’t had much time to work on my ideas because I was creating on behalf of my clientele.

The end of March yielded an opportunity to create the doll that lingered in my mind. After seeing the movie Miracles from Heaven, the theme stayed the same yet the design and colors changed. The movie had a crocheted mermaid doll which I fell in love with. So I began researching a mermaid dolls which led me to a mermaid dress… Bingo.  Now that the doll had a dress it was time to put pencil to graph paper, recreate a traditional kente design for the bodice, and choose the colors.

Utilizing previous research from creating Shaka’s Kente Blanket the colors blue symbolizing love and green symbolizing growth/wealth were chosen.

Shaka’s Kente Inspired Keepsake

Shaka’s Kente Inspired Keepsake

I proudly introduce to you… Petia!

Petia meaning “I love you” is the name of the gold ring given to an Ashanti Girl at betrothal and Kente clothe is worn by Ashanti Kingdom royalty. Henceforth, her name and garb.

Brown Girl Doll: Petia

Brown Girl Doll: Petia

Petia will be the first of many Brown Girl Dolls selling on our Etsy Jimise4u shop. Petia is looking for a loving home and we hope to find her one very soon.

What Can’t I Do: Quit

Posted in Creativity, Crochet, Motivation by

On Tuesday, March 15th a question was posted to me by Michael Jackson of MJM Photography Group… What “Can’t” You Do?

What can’t I do?…. Quit. I may take a breather yet I will never quit!  When what you do is truly your passion you will fight to see that doll created, that stitch mastered, and/or that cake fashioned.

I’m a Crochet Artisan/Craft Maven so learning is what I know how to do. An artisan is constantly learning as they craft. A maven is a person who has a wealth of knowledge of a particular discipline. Mavens and artisans are constantly learning something new about their medium/discipline. Yarn and synthetic fibers are a few of the mediums I use to create items.

I can honestly say, I never thought that half the things God allowed me to create were possible. I had a limited scope of what crocheting was because of the items I saw. Yet when someone, namely Renée, challenged me I would never say no. Did I want to say no? I sure did, yet there is no growth in staying complacent and with every challenge I said yes to I grew.

Saying yes to a challenge doesn’t mean you can foresee the outcome. It means that you are willing to follow a path to see a vision manifest in the material.

You can see the growth from our first popcorn stitch name blanket to our Kente themed blanket.

Anthony Josiah Popcorn Stitch Keepsake

Anthony Josiah Popcorn Stitch Keepsake

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Shaka Kente Cloth Keepsake

Each time I said yes to a challenge the Creator of the universe showed me how crocheting has limitless potential.

I want to encourage all of you to never quit honing your craft, skill, and passion.

Creatively yours,

J. Monroe

Fear Be Damned: I’m Doing It Anyway

Posted in Creativity, Journey by

To be totally transparent I have not blogged for fear that my writing is subpar and what do I really have to say. Sometimes I feel all over the place because I have several passions not just one lazer focused interest to share. I have spent most of my life perfecting many skill sets rather the investing exclusively in one.

 

I have almost failed my first quarter goal of blogging every Wednesday because of constantly questioning myself. Well here goes nothing… I am going to blog anyway. If you like it, love it, or abhor it; I hope you experience my growth as a writer and see my confidence grow. That’s all I got.
You grow by stretching. So for 20(Sweet)16 I am stretching myself like never before.