Hi. I’m so glad you are here.
I'm Cassandra.
Please join me in taking up space. Lift your shirt, and let us gaze at our navels together.
I’ve spent the last 16 years in Tokyo having experiences, building skill sets, and fostering relationships which has led me to a new iteration of the work I have always felt compelled to do.
But, It all started when I was quite young, actually.
(Cue cliche music, and fire up the way-back machine)
In my earliest stretches of memory, I can only ever recall the drive to learn the processes of handcraft and make…anything.
Whether it was cookies with my family, whittling wood with my Grandpa George, beading necklaces with friends at school, making dresses for high school events, my unrelenting obsession with wool and yarn, tailoring, my forays into cheese, bread, and Indian cooking, or my occasional utilitarian adventure in poorly executed building renovations, I don’t recall my hands ever being for want of work.
During depths of the pandemic, I came across an Oscar Wilde quote that I think we have all considered on some level while we were locked away with nothing but time which led in turn to thinking about what we were truly doing with our lives.
“If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment.”
For me, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I am simply a “maker of things”, and it has led me to a consistently novel, and meaningful existence in which I feel free to explore when I am stuck, and begin again whenever I need to.
…And, Here we are.
Starting over, again.
Looking back on the last few years specifically, I’m reminded of Ira Glass’s “creative gap”. I spent the majority of those days in a feverish tornado of putting things together, ripping them apart, putting them back together correctly, and then flinging them wholeheartedly into the wind, or into the wardrobe of a trusted friend or two who understood my need to “fail up” and learn all I didn’t know about a few things at least. After about 5 years of constant and determined effort and study, I believe I now have something to share.
At the heart of all of that work, I have come to realise that exploration and fulfilling my curiosity are really the only reasons I make anything at all. “Made to” is an incomplete sentence. I am looking forward to the process of discovery, and filling in the missing words in as many ways as possible.
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