inside exhaustion, finding enchantment 🔥
hello burnout (?) + Milan Design Week + daily beekeeping wonders
Welcome to (Re)wild Imagination, here at the intersection of hope, art and climate activism…a weekly newsletter with writing and art prompts, creative sparks, small-scale rewilding ideas and healthy dose of beekeeping. I share daily moments of things that make me happy to be alive on the the 'Quick, Wow!' chat🧜♀️and field notes from beekeeping on substack notes.
Dear reader,
Let’s be honest, I’m enervated. That’s a posh word for ‘pooped’. Why? Too many reasons to mention. I have a perforated ear drum, for example. In general, I am run down to the bones with no room to sleep or recover. And so today I hope to inspire some daydreaming in you, my lovely friend, that I don’t have the wherewithal to do myself these days.
I’m sharing some quick peeks of the overwhelming volume of mind melting design things I saw in Milan; a passage from my current book project; and a note from the bee garden.
Oh and also some news: my little online shop is open again. Shop zines & weavings under a pay what you want model. Shop here.
Wait did you just say Milan?
Yeah. So in addition to being generally a car crash at this stage, health and energy-wise, I’m just back from Milan Design Week 2023 (the Fuorisalone), where there were far too many things to look at and make sense of (949 events this year in one week). I’d never even been to Italy before. What an introduction.
The thing colonises Milan for a whole week every year, and so I was there with one of our textile designers, our product, marketing & sales manager, and the visual production director, hot-footing it from location to location.
Seeing as you asked (yes, I know nobody is asking) I was there because I’m sort of part of the trend watching team and my work as a content marketer has a lot to do with all kinds of trends and visual culture, from furniture design to architecture, textiles, interiors, decorative accessories & finishing etc etc etc ad nauseum.
Phewwww.
From a work in progress: working title code breakers
Sometimes I bump into other kids I’d been friends with when I was younger. They’re adults, and wear adult clothes, and have the cares and joys of adults. But when I look at them in Centra or Aldi, or down the post office, and they look at me, I know we’re both seeing something special and fragile and long ago.
I’m still in here, I want to say. I can still see you, their eyes say back. And that’s it. You go on with your day. Because what can one soul really say to another?
Not much.
Not out loud.
A note from the bee garden:
Yes this this something new! Keep reading about notes below the er, well, the note here:
How to find & follow substack notes
Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to (Re)wild Imagination, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!
You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of (Re)wild Imagination can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.
For paying subscribers
And finally, I’ll be sending out the next chapter of All The Things We Don't Discuss (Chapter 6) in the course of the week to my paying subscribers. Muchos grazias to you fine people forever and ever for helping me keeping this going and giving me the will or hope to continue.
Thanks so much for reading, you mean the world to me. See you next week!
Jessica