 |
||||
No Plain Jane Take a break and get inspired tips from a domestic maven who knows the true beauty of crafts, recipes and relaxation  Image courtesy Jane Brocket Jane Brocket speaks fluent Russian and French. She's a lapsed Victorian art and literature Ph.D. student who is a Master of Wine and traveled all over Europe as a brand manager for an international wine and spirits company. So what's she doing knitting socks and baking cupcakes? "It's for the pleasure, the process, the sense of achievement, the therapeutic qualities of the rhythms of making, and the opportunity to slow down and enjoy details and textures and patterns and colors," Brocket says. "The results may be different to shop-bought versions, but there is a creative connection with something we've made which can never be replicated with a ready-made cake or sweater or quilt or loaf of bread." Brocket, who lives with her husband and three children in Berkshire, England, is the author of "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2008), which is a narrative of her adventures in the domestic realm. Readers of her yarnstorm blog (yarnstorm.blogs.com) know what to expect: plenty of photos of jellybean-adorned cupcakes and bright tea cozies along with her meditations on color, nature and other homey inspirations. She also includes pages with her favorite domestic-themed books, paintings and films. "Reading or watching or looking at different representations of domesticity is bound to extend and enrich your own interpretation of this vastly varied interesting subject," Brocket says. The first thing she addresses in the book is the difference between "domesticity" and "domestication," her word for the banal chores cooking, cleaning and crafting can become. She says she believes anyone who wants to can enjoy aspects of domesticity, and she's certainly not advocating a return to being at home full-time with a full-time agenda of housework and maintenance. "An activity becomes a chore once there is an element of obligation/expectation to it," Brocket says. "That's why I shy away from selling my creations or making them to demand." When she became a wife and mother, Brocket says she began to embrace her love of growing tomatoes on the windowsill and baking in the afternoon. |
||||
|
||||
