For as long as I can remember I’ve gotten an immense thrill from being frugal. Although there have been periods in my life (now being one of them) when this wasn’t an option but a necessity I have still found myself, during times when I have had the money to shop in John Lewis, trawling through the sale rails & bargain bins in the Salvation Army just to find some precious nugget that everyone else has overlooked but that I will fall instantly in love with.
I like things a little out of the ordinary; I dress for myself first and others second. Every day that I get up and get ready feels like dressing up to me, like getting ready for a tea party when I was a child; in my head I’m just a little girl wandering around in a pink tutu and white tights, magic wand in hand looking for the next adventure. I seem to have a total aversion to knuckling down, doing the 9-5 thing and working for ‘the man’ despite efforts made by others to push me in that direction. I’ve tried and failed at this so many times before and it makes me feel so empty that this time when I lost my job I saw it not as the disaster that some people saw but more the opportunity I had been looking for to finally do what I’ve always wanted to do, what I’ve always really wanted to do. It dawned on me one morning as I sat drinking coffee, staring into space and wondering how the hell I was going to pick myself up this time, that Shakespeare had been telling me what to do for years in the form of a fridge magnet that my dad brought me back from Stratford, it said simply ‘ABOVE ALL ELSE – TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE’ I had read it so many times but never really let its meaning fully penetrate. From that moment on, it was easy and AbiDashery was born.
I don’t know how my look and style fits in with everyone else, I don’t have a TV, I don’t read newspapers or magazines etc so I don’t follow ‘style’, I just have my style which basically comes down to things I love and feel good in and that’s what I try to reflect in all my creations. I just want to express myself in how I look and it if I can do it cheaply or make it myself then that gives me even more of a sense of delight. Even as a child I can remember being this way, I have memories of watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version obviously) and I couldn’t help obsessing over what happened to all those Golden Eggs that didn’t pass the test and went down the ‘bad eggs chute’ I mean, did someone recycle them? Were they made into Golden Egg omelettes? Did they give them away to poor children whose families couldn’t afford Golden Eggs of their own? What happened to them? They looked so perfect and even then as a small girl I couldn’t stand the thought of them just being chucked out. And I still can’t, I have cupboards, boxes, bin liners - even my old bedroom at my dad’s house crammed full of ‘useful things’ that I am definitely going to get round to making something with…some day! I often I find myself stood at the recycling bin turning an egg carton over in my hand and getting misty eyed and I have to remind myself I still have a cupboard full of old jam jars and six bags of unsorted clothes to turn from rags into attire fit for a gothic Cinderella’s ball and I need another egg carton like a hole in the head right now!
So I guess what I’m saying is here at AbiDashery, we do things a little differently and the first rule is there are definitely NO RULES! Every item I make has its own character, its own personal story and each is special for its own odd little reasons - just like we are! And my tutorial videos often wander off into pointless digressions that don't help with what I'm making but do give you a little insight into the real me, and that's kinda how I like it. If you like high fashion, clean lines, easy to follow concise instructions, symmetry and sophistication then I would be surprised if you have read this far but if you like quirky and unconventional, if you like to stand out from the crowd and want to own something nobody else has that was made with love by someone who cares and loves what they do then this is the place for you and AbiDashery welcomes you.
You can follow my how to videos on my AbiDashery youtube channeland check my store at www.abidashery.etsy.com.
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