Susan Lee Studios: Not Christmas. Yet.


Nothing Christmasy to see here. ;)

August is an ancient memory, and September did a clever vanishing act, which means we must acknowledge that we are now officially engulfed by Fall. This is my favourite season.

And yet I find I am as nauseated as most people are by the appearance in many stores of "Seasonal Items of a distinctly Christmas Persuasion". It feels far too early. And they seem to appear earlier each year. For me, it dilutes the significance of any holiday when we are inundated months in advance with the commercial garb that now "must" accompany its celebration.

I love Thanksgiving, and I think its because it, as yet, seems to have escaped this smothering pressure to purchase plastic doo-dads and sparkly ghee-gaws to herald its imminent arrival. Thanksgiving is what you make of it, as any holiday should be. The emphasis there is on the "you" and the "making". (And preferably with an emphasis on "local" too!)

Just some totally un-Christmasy new earring designs.

Perhaps I am more sensitive to this commercialized pressure because I am already spending most of my time and energy in my own studio thinking and working towards the Christmas season well in advance of its arrival. Obviously I cannot wait until November to start making products that might appeal to the Christmas shopper. Christmas is the biggest time of the year, in terms of sales, for a craftsperson, and adequate preparation is essential to my sanity. I like to be the tortoise in this race towards the gift-giving season, and so I have been puttering away making some new jewellery designs as well as re-vamping my booth display for "The Big Fair". I enjoy the Christmasy season when it arrives, but right now it's just one foot in front of the other, one project at a time, so that when November and December arrive I am ready. Then and only then will I rouse my celebratory spirit of the season.