Sunday, March 2, 2008

The Proof in a Perfect Pudding

per·fec·tion·ism/pərˈfɛkʃəˌnɪzəm/
–noun
1. any of various doctrines holding that religious, moral, social, or political perfection is attainable.
2. a personal standard, attitude, or philosophy that demands perfection and rejects anything less.
from Dictionary.com.

I think perfectionism gets a bad rap sometimes. Though supposedly part of the attraction of handwoven cloth is they are not "square" in the sense mill-woven textiles are, but I would still like to attain straight selvedge, even tension, uniform fringes, and consistent picks; I don't deliberately include mistakes, and have woven a few of my commission pieces twice because I was unsatisfied in the first instances.

Friends warm me against perfectionism, and they see it as something preventing me from working from time to time. In the contrary, look at some of the photos and the problems I've posted here; you can tell I'm developing quite thick facial skin, and have learned not to list everything that went wrong in a particular piece. I've come to stick to the first half of the second definition.

I'd like for my techniques to be perfect, (whatever I mean by it,) because I think the "proof" is in the design.

I wasn't motivated by anything I did, didn't do, couldn't do, or avoided doing, today or this weekend to write this one; I've been feeling sorry for the concept of perfectionism for the last couple of years.

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