The journey here

Once upon a time in 1986 a fierce little girl was born in Os, Hordaland. You may not have heard of this magical place, since then it has changed name into Bjørnafjorden, Vestland. Me, the little girl, still fierce, have not, and this is a little intro to how I ended up here.

For the other JTI nerds out there, I’m Silje, an outgoing introvert with all the fun and challenges that comes with. Meeting people and working along with them is great, but in the end, I need my alone time to charge and reset. I’ll skip the full depth analysis of my profile and preferences, might share more at another time if relevant.

I’m the kind of creative person who will paper mache a bell bottom leg for a pair of tights, or make a dress out of sticks and ribbons, just to see if it works. (Yes, I have done both. It worked.)

You can call me quite impulsive, I applied for the graphic design studies the day after it started, and in just two days, I added part time online studies to an already busy life. At day I work in retail, groceries to be exact, at night I am a crazy knitting lady.

I live in a house from the 70s, with my boyfriend, our two awesome girls and a lazy cat. We surround ourselves with colorful walls, homemade decoration and our different renovation projects.

In the past I have some creative studies, and some not so creative studies. In high school I went to a line called Design and Textile, where some of our main subjects were drawing, designing and sewing . Then I went on to studies in retail management., not so creative, but I still learned a lot of great things. My job in a busy supermarket is great fun and often challenging, there is always something new to learn, I just need a bit more creative stuff in my life, and I look forward to be challenged by these graphic design studies.

At one point I think I have tried almost every craft there is out there, except crochet. But one day, I will try that to. I just love all things crafty and creative. Me and my oldest daughter often try out different crafts together, it is an great thing to share with others.

My latest rediscovered obsession is Hama beads, and I just finished a huge Darth Vader mask made with beads. Not quite happy about his background yet, but he is hanging on the wall of our hallway while I figure out what to do with him. I always postpone finishing up projects, because there is always new ideas and better methods to be discovered. Over the years, I’ve learned to force myself to set an end to projects, but I still like to take my time and try different methods and think things through.

As an example, here is part of my process of making my self portrait:

This is midway in the process of choosing my self portrait. I drew myself in profile, and worked in different directions from this. One of the things I tried, was turning myself into an cameo brooch inspired picture.

This still did not feel quite right for a self portrait, and I continued thinking for a while. After a while I thought about how I used to make sketches for a while back in high school. So here is me, many fine lines later:

Graphic design studies can and will open many cool doors for the future, which one I would like to enter is yet to be discovered. I will use my studies to evolve and be as creative as a sleep deprived mom can be. As I mentioned before, I’m the impulsive type, and have not yet found out what grown up Silje shall do for a living. 33 years old is not grown up, is it?