A Blog by any Other Name.
While arranging my new studio in the last few weeks, bringing order, making plans, diving into new projects, it suddenly struck me that something that had been on my mind for around two years, that is to change my blog name, had now shed any barriers standing in my way.
Tickle & Hide started as a handmade, reversible kids clothing brand which sold at local markets and on Etsy. But while I enjoyed making kids clothes, I wasn't driven by it. When I followed new blogs, they were always quilters. When I had new ideas, it was for quilts. I never ventured into the online world of kids couture with new designs and ideas and relationships. I just liked the way beautiful prints looked like wearable art on the flat, almost seamless design of the crossover pinafore.
When I opened my pop up shop in town, pinnies sold like hot cakes. My brand became truly 'local' and well received. And even though I already had doubts as to whether Tickle & Hide would serve me well long term, I decided it was too late to change. It wasn't worth starting over.
In a way, that starting over has happened naturally the past year on its own. As a maternity leave treat to myself, I dropped the expectation to make any money and just make for fun. And slowly, I have shed the image (for myself at least) as a kids clothing label, and morphed into a quilter. Moving here to our new country home has felt like a reinforcing of that, leaving the customers and fellow market sellers that so connected me to gifts for children.
When I sat not so long ago and wrote my thoughts and dreams for the new year, like a bolt of lightning, it struck me. Now is the right time to change. Partly because by the grace of Google, I should be able to change things now without losing you all and begging you to follow me, an option not available to me two years ago. And partly because a lot of our connecting has moved to Instagram, where it's easy (and fairly common) to change names. Finally, all my ideas felt a bit disconnected, a bit uncomfortable under this beloved old name. I didn't really like the idea of Tickle & Hide branding on pattern publications or on ideas for magazines. I'd spent the last 4 years growing up as a creative person, first only using others' ideas, now developing my own. I needed a name to reflect that maturation.
And so I chose a new name, after lots of brainstorming, messaging friends, Googling to check if names were already taken. I'll be spending the new week or so switching everything to Tales of Cloth. I wanted a name more closely connected my area of interest, but still broad enough to evolve. I wanted an emphasis on storytelling through making, on inspiration from history and everyday life. So really, what I write about here won't change all that much. I have hopes for growth, for stretching myself, but the heart of why I write remains to same.
I hope you'll stay with me in this next chapter! It is your encouragement here that has done just that - given courage - to be more myself. I feel excited to move forward without the 'shackles' of a name that no longer fits, and to just give myself permission to make in a way that energises me, rather than trying to maintain an old, lost vision.
And I'd love to know what you think!
Jodi. xx
