“The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”

Marcel Proust, French novelist, is credited with this statement in the early 1900’s. Old as it is, it seems to capture the role of our Sketch Blog. We hope for you it is all about discovery–but not the paleontologist’s kind of discovery, but instead that subtle but engaging discovery that makes you think, “Oh . . . wow.”                  So in our quest for the “Oh . . . wow”, we intend to periodically share with you our new fabrics, our new applications–our new stories. As as we share the output, it really only comes to life if we also share some of the input–what inspired the idea, who painted the design, what mistakes we made along the way–all the good stuff that makes it real. In the process we promise not to slow you down with words, but instead inspire you with pictures. And if you are sufficiently engaged and want to know more–the words are right there to elaborate on our work.

And with that as background . . . about a month ago, I trudged into the factory feeling very cold, very wet (someone once promised me that the Cape Town winter does eventually end).  In hindsight I now realise that my sullen mood was fairly representative of the times–everything I was seeing, everything I was hearing seemed all too somber. But within 10 seconds of being in the factory, my point of view completely shifted because I was overwhelmed by meters and meters of Di’s latest fabric “doodling”. My instant response was a huge smile and an exclamation of “WOW”. Later in asking Di what inspired the fabrics, she repeated my exact story: everything was a bit gray and lifeless these days and she was tired of it–she had every intention of creating “happy fabrics”–and this is exactly what she did!