Who knows what you can do with a little nudge in the right direction?
I was eighteen years old and at college in London where I made a new friend Jill who lived in Oxford with her family. She invited me to spend a weekend with them and to show me the sights. I had a wonderful time with her and her family and she even introduced me to her neighbour and family friend, a woman very much involved in the creative arts who at the time of our visit was in the process of making plant hangers from multiple strands of jute. She had finished products everywhere in her workshop, some single plant hangers some double and triple, all with variously coloured decorative wooden and glass beads of different sizes to decorate them, I was fascinated. Until then, I recalled only ever seeing such things as elaborate plant displays in posh stores in central London, and had never imagined that I’d meet someone who actually made them. She also had a potters’ wheel and various pieces of pottery at different stages of completion on display. Her workshop was my idea of heaven and I walked about asking questions and touching everything I could totally absorbed. She saw my interest in the plant hangers and asked if I’d like to know how she made them. Wow….! This was really happening I thought and jumped at the opportunity.
She called it macramé which is the name of the knots used to form the various items she had on display including the plant hangers. She took us both over to one she had been working on and demonstrated how to form the flat knots, knots that twisted to the left and knots that twisted to the right. After each demonstration she stood aside and watched as we made the knots, guiding where necessary. I remember I made about a 4inch strip of flat knots and a 5-6inch strip of the left and right twisting knots. It wasn’t difficult at all, I was so excited and asked for more detail like how to start a hanger, the length of each strand of jute, how to form the basket and how to attach the beads. She shared it all with me without any reservations, she clearly loved what she did and wanted to foster talent/interest wherever she could. I spent a wonderful evening with her talking about our love of the various forms of art and crafts and enjoyed a cup of tea and home-made cake, I was inspired!
Fast forward five years and I’m married and living in the Caribbean, on the island of Trinidad. Finances are tight and at times a struggle but God always provided, always made a way and as I sort for ways in which I could make a better contribution to the purse He reminded me of this experience. I had already noticed and was surprised that in Trinidad plant hangers are widely used indoor and outdoor. Some were quite expensive, others more reasonably priced but there was definitely a market for it so it would be my first project. As I said before, our budget was tight so I knew I had to be able to make and sell them at an affordable price and still make a profit myself, but this would depend largely on the cost of the raw materials. I visited craft shops, department stores, hardware stores and every source I could think of for the raw materials of jute and wooden beads, but the price was beyond what I could afford and even if I could it would be almost impossible to sell at a profit. I shelved the idea but did not give up on it and looked about me for another project.
When I left my job as a dental technician in England to live in Trinidad my colleagues bought me a craft book which I still have today. I went through it looking for something that would draw attention, that had a market and that incurred minimal expenditure. I decided on copper plate plaques. Surprisingly, copper sheets were very cheap in comparison to a ball of jute which did not make sense to me at all, but so it was! I didn’t have to buy any tools, I was able to use some of my dental tools and items found in the home to draw on, press out, stipple and create background for the images I created. With the book as my guide I filled the recessed areas with melted wax, mounted the copper sheet on thick card and finally brushed on and rubbed off dark brown lacquer to fill the grooves and create a 3D image. A few were sold locally to friends while the rest, 6-8, were sold out of my husband’s grandparents’ store.
During this period, we had the opportunity to attend the annual conference of the Pentecostal Assembly of The West Indies, all expenses paid, in Barbados. We stayed an extra five days at our own expense, we needed a break. From the moment I knew we were going to Barbados I felt sure I would get the jute I wanted there, don’t ask me how, it was just a conviction that would not budge so I went with it and asked my husband to make available every spare dollar we had for pocket money and for buying jute. During those five days we went sightseeing and explored the island and the shops with a purpose, to buy jute. We found it in abundance …. And, in comparison to Trinidad, at a bargain price! Not only that, it was of superior quality and the balls of jute were twice the size and available in a range of different colours. I also found the wooden beads I wanted and they were reasonably priced so I bought a large bag of assorted colours, sizes and shapes, and 18 balls of jute.
I can remember how excited I was to finally have the tools I needed, excited too at the challenge to see if I actually remembered how to make the knots and the process for deciding on a design and measuring and cutting the jute to the right length. I couldn’t wait to get back home, but I didn’t want to rush the welcomed break we were enjoying.
Home at last, I set to work measuring and cutting for a single plant hanger, asking God to remind me of what I’d learnt, of how to decide the length of the hanger, and from that calculation how many times to multiply it for the length of jute I must cut. Slowly but surely it all came trickling back until I had my strands of jute and could begin. Once started however, it was as though I was back in the workshop seeing it all clearly and watching her hands as she made the knots, insert the beads, and re-organise the strands to form the basket that would hold the plant pot. I was thoroughly enjoying myself and it wasn’t long before I’d completed the first macramé plant hanger. Day after day I worked on them until I was out of jute but had a lovely collection of colourful single and double macramé plant hangers for sale.
I’d had a new experience, made a few knots, and shown, in part, how to put them together to form a plant hanger. The whole process had taken about 30mins and I doubt she would have expected me to remember it, but I had been inspired. Who knows what you can do with a little nudge in the right direction? Who knows what latent talent is waiting for the right spark? We all have God given skills, talents waiting to be used, to be discovered to provide for or enrich our lives and others. Sometimes that nudge, that spark comes out of an unexpected place, sometimes we choose to learn a new skill but sometimes it grows out of a need and you are required to dig deep within yourself for a solution. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate that what we may view as a random experience may not be so random after all.
