Why this?

Crocheting with company

Hello.

My name is Nafisa, and I’m the founder and creator of Meraki By Hand. If you were to go through my resume, you’d see I’ve had a long and illustrious career spanning over the last 16 years covering multiple aspects of visual and industrial design. I’ve worked within corporate companies, and non-profits, I’ve worked pro bono and I’ve earned my keep. I’ve worked in environments I’ve loathed, and ones that broke my heart to part from. I’ve worked for The Man and for myself. I’ve taught, and instructed, and lead, and followed. I’ve learned. I was one of the lucky few who got to study it up close and personal for undergrad (Textile Design) and both my Masters degrees (Narrative Illustration) and I’m now toying with the idea of getting myself a PhD as well!

Let me stop you there: I don’t like academia, and I’ve never considered myself to be an academic to any length! I love creating. And if I keep choosing to study, its because its the one space where you are allowed to stretch all boundaries of your mind and its questions without the rigours of every-day-practicalities and job hierarchies and the like. 

I suppose, as much as I feel the innate sense to constantly make something - like answering the echo of a song - I’m also extremely fascinated by WHY we as an animal need to build things. NEED to make things. NEED to create. What started out as a functional need to make life more convenient and increase our chances of survival has evolved into something else entirely. Do I have a roof over my head? Food on the table? Is my family protected? Do I have the means to live an every-day life?  Yes. Then why do I still need to create things every day? Why can I not sit still and just wonder at the beauty (and functionality) of everything around me as is? Why is it easier for me to process emotion or thought patterns through drawing? Why does braiding threads in complicated intricate loops over and over again make me feel like my life has more meaning? Why is it that as long as I’m making something, I feel my soul at peace?

This is the base on which I started to build Meraki By Hand. I envision it to be a space that will bring others who feel similarly together, so we can form our own hive of like-minded bees. Where we can share the knowledge we have on the techniques we use and celebrate the enthusiasm that each of us feel when we make. I suppose I’m that bee looking for others who buzz at my frequency so I can finally just speak my own language and be seen and understood. I’m hoping, as time passes, I can use this space as a way to share myself with you, and evolve it into a resource for anyone who creates to breathe like I do. I’m going to use this platform to share my knowledge in the areas and techniques I work with; as well as put down my thoughts and ideas into a more concrete form so they aren’t just ponderings swimming around my mind. I’ve debated between treating this like one of those glossy magazines one picks off a stand that yell out at you with their beautiful covers and fabulous pictures, or keeping it real and showing you myself; and I think this is possibly going to be an amalgamation of the two! I can’t keep myself out of my writing or my creating, so I’m not going to try. And here’s hoping that as more people read this and get involved with Meraki By Hand, I’ll have more voices adding themselves to the melee so that there are more points of view, more techniques to learn and understand, more origin stories and creativity, and the buzzing becomes this resonating hum that vibrates from deep within. 

So here’s my call to action: please subscribe. Please read. Please share. Please contribute. Creativity can only keep growing further and multiplying and becoming more elaborate - it doesn’t have an end point. To constantly learn more and expand one’s own abilities only makes you stay more curious and in doing so, never take anything for granted.

xN.