CG's Newsletter
2008, #3
I bought these Salvatore
Ferragamo boots at a consignment store.
The original retail price was $1000.00.
My price was $25.00.
It’s not at all unusual for
those of us who love fabric and
clothing to also love secondhand
clothing stores. Since we already
know what wonderful clothes look
like, it’s easy for us to pick
them out even when they’re crammed
on racks with other, far less
wonderful items. For me, the fun
of shopping secondhand has a lot
to do with the teeny, tiny prices.
The icing on the cake is that
clothing reuse is a good thing for
the environment. Every time a new
garment is made, resources are
used and pollutants are emitted.
When you buy used clothing,
you’re not adding to this problem.
Even though I’ve been shopping
the thrifts for 30 years, until
pretty recently only my closest
friends knew. Then one day I gave
a speech on the topic to my speakers
group, Toastmasters, thinking
that it might amuse people in a
quirky kind of way. A fellow group
member, Glenn Harrison, told me
that other people could benefit
from knowing what I know, and he
kept hounding me to start writing
about it until I gave in.
A few months ago I started a blog
about secondhand clothing and am
building a website around the blog
that will have information about
the financial, ecological and style
benefits of buying used. I also
have written a guidebook that tells
how to create a wardrobe from
thrift store finds, which I will
sell as an e-book.
My blog is located at
www.secondhandwardrobe.com.
Have a look and leave me a
comment. See you there!
©2008 Cheryl Gorn
2008, #2
"Too Much Alone Time", Silk Painting, Copyright Cheryl Gorn, 2008, 21" x 22"
I’ll be hanging around with my
daughter when she’ll suddenly
pop out with, “Oooh, I love the
shape of her nostrils.” She
constantly draws faces so she
notices these things.
Before becoming her mother,
I didn’t particularly notice
facial features. But to make
the piece pictured in the
photo, I had to spend
a huge amount of time looking
at myself in the mirror so
I’d get it right.
For other pieces of art, I’ve
spent hours looking at
floorboards and the parts of
a salad, but when I made a soft
sculpture piece that included
an ice cream cone, I had to take
a picture of it because it
would have melted before I’d
gotten enough information. Of
course I ate it once I’d captured
the image.
I think that art is one way to practice
getting better at focusing on details. I
notice facial features more than I used to
but I've got to admit that nostril shapes
still don’t fascinate me.
©2008 Cheryl Gorn
The Certainty of Right and Wrong
2008, #1
This morning, a driver in a huge pick-up truck
ignored the stop sign that’s at the
intersection in front of my home. This
happens all the time, which is why I pull out
of my driveway at about 3 miles per hour, with
my foot hovering over the brake. This morning
my first reaction to their bad driving was to
silently curse them and their immediate
relatives. My second reaction was to try to be
more understanding, wondering if perhaps
they were distracted by something in their
lives, were just plain tired, or maybe didn’t
take the time to eat and had low blood sugar.
I go through this all day long, trying to
remember that mine isn’t the only perspective,
to remember that life isn’t all black and
white, it’s more shades of gray.
It can get really tiring trying to put
myself in other peoples shoes this way, and
that’s why I loved creating my website. Let
me explain. To format the site, I used HTML code,
a kind of computer language. For example, I wanted the name
of my business in pretty letters at the top of the web
pages, so I typed in the letters,
numbers and symbols that tell
the computer, “Now, listen up computer,
I want you to put the name of my business in pretty
letters at the top of each page." At first
the computer left the space at the top of the
pages blank. Oops! That meant I'd made a mistake
when I entered the code. So I corrected my
error and then it worked. Simple and fantastic!
No energy spent wondering whether the computer
had low blood sugar, just a matter of making sure
that I fixed my mistakes.
I’m not implying that building the site
wasn’t frustrating—since I’d never written
code before, I made tons of mistakes, it took
much longer than I thought it would, and I
often wanted to hurl the computer out the
window (not very effective since our home is
one level). But there is something wonderful
about the certainty of right and wrong.
In general, I prefer shades of gray because
that’s where the fun is. But it’s reassuring
to know that when I get tired of trying to
fathom why other drivers don’t bother to stop
at stop signs, I can always go write some
code.
©2008 Cheryl Gorn