I am Cindy, a creative traveler who has settled down and now into learning more about the nature surrounding me. Are you new on this page and want to know more? You could start here : )
In case you would like to stay updated, about the embroidery work I do, the outdoor trips and stealth camp journeys, the pouches I sell or perhaps to know more about dandelion root coffee or anything else natural. I try to find out natural material with which I can dye and use as an edible supplement. You can subscribe to my blog (see at the end of this post).
When I was a full time traveler, a contemporary nomad, I was unable to express my artful skills other than, as it turned out, embroidery. I tried crayons and aquarel but it did not suit me.
My first embroidered piece of fabric was none other than simply that: a piece of fabric. I could hang it to the wall, commented a Bolivian restaurant owner, but I don’t have walls in a tent nor did I want to make a house my home for very long (until perhaps a point in the future – which did happen, about 5 years later). What other thing could I do with a piece of fabric than stitching it to a pouch?
A pouch; an old-fashioned wallet, as I saw in India, or a safety pocket, an enclosed space to store precious items. Being it keys to your safety box, your house or your stash of tabacco, it is stored away neatly and quick to locate, like the pocket in your trousers.
Being on the road for many years, traveling as a nomadic one, I felt the need for the few items I owned to be stored away as beautiful as possible.
Beautiful because the mind needs beauty, especially when surroundings change constantly, when there is no house to call your home. The need to establish a base arises, and being surrounded by the few items you daily unpack, there is than suddenly a homely atmosphere.
My home is was were I felt comfortable and at home. Some carry a stuffed animal, others photographs. I choose pouches, to store my few precious goods. Just like nomadic tribes do.
A pouch is practical, therefore it better be good to look at. A pouch can be as well an artful creation and yet keeping its practicality.
Sawn Tree Trunk
This piece of fabric did it’s own way, hard headed like myself, it became quite something else than originally intended.
Potential
The teabags I carry hold sayings: ‘When was the last time you were proud of yourself?’, ‘When was the last time you challenged yourself?’, ‘What gives you energy?’, ‘What is a good characteristic of yours?’ and ‘Are you a dreamer, thinker or doer?’ To each saying I give clear answers. I learn a short trip…
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Posts about natural dyeing, my outdoor activities, searching and multiple usage of plants and roots
About CyclingCindy, 5 years cycling the world
The elderly woman on the photo is an image coming from voluntary work I did on one of my extended backpack travels. Another work I did for the small, local organization in my hometown in the Netherlands, Focus on Education, can be read in the post ‘A peek behind women in disadvantaged situations‘ (‘untouchables’ carrying poop out of public toilets). Although these two posts have nothing to do with the pouches I make and sell, the experiences over the years made me realize, learn and see. And those two particular visits made a huge impact on me.
CINDY Needle Art 