This picture was taken in March 2022 just before my 60th birthday that June. I'd been sewing for forty-eight years at that point and was celebrating the coming decade with my first in-person workshop since the pandemic. 

There were two instructors, one who taught creative clothing and one who taught textile art. That's a rare combination and it was interesting to have my two loves in the same room except...

... I didn't think I loved textile art anymore. I'd retired a decade earlier planning to never again revisit that part of my life. I was resolute and firm. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind and so I was attending for the one instructor, prepared to politely ignore the second.

It was a time of significant life shifts that included starting a new business. For the rest of 2022, I focused on bag making and as the business went through the typical adjustments and pivots, it somehow led back to textile art of which bags are a part but not the whole.  I am quite surprised, stunned actually, to find myself here. Never say never. 

I think I sensed the shift internally before I acknowledged it externally. In particular, I began to struggle with the business name, Bags by Myrna. One on hand I loved it and thought it said who I was and what I did and on the other hand, I wanted to add a little arrow with the words "and other makes". It felt limiting especially when I started a mentorship with the second instructor - Paula Kovarik - and we talked about textile art, sculpture, and taking my work in a three dimensional direction. She become pivotal in my creativity, both at that workshop and now as I go forward. OH... the irony.

It's January 3, 2023 as I write this. I haven't posted on my blog or YouTube channel yet for this year. December was a month of back to back issues including significant computer problems that are not resolved yet. I'm waiting for a new system to be put together and for my editing software to work again. I kept wondering what the lesson was and now I wonder if it was space to recognize this latest shift and to change the business name... back... to using my name which allows me to move in endless directions and be the most me possible. Yes! Yes!

I have done some creative work virtually every day of my adult life. Time in the studio is built into my daily routine and I especially enjoy the challenge of figuring things out and organizing information. And then, I have to share. I can't keep it to myself.

I excited to see where the path leads, to see what I design, create, and teach how to make. I am drawn to organic creativity, to starting and step-by-step responding to the developing piece to see where it takes you. I prefer one at a time, one of a kind work. I hope you'll visit my YouTube channel - In The Studio With Myrna - and my blog once I restart them (both) and share the journey with me. You'll find a compilation of what I know and what I'm learning with a huge dose of support and encouragement. 


- Myrna