Celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare #ThouShaltCraft

April 2016 commemorates 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare and I was asked by Viking to celebrate his life and work, by crafting an item that incorporated my favourite Shakespeare quote. For someone who had a rather ropey relationship with English at school (and hasn’t really given Shakespeare a thought since then) – I thought I’d better do some research.

I really had such an enjoyable (and inspiring) time reading so many Shakespeare quotes, and thought I would share a few that I loved:

• “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – a reminder that possessing humility is desirable, and wise.
• “When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.” – I just love this – a smile can be far more than just a smile.
• “The earth has music for those that listen.” – This is something I wish I was better at.
• “It’s not enough to speak, but to speak true.” – So true!
• “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” – There can be so much emphasis on the way people look, but people’s hearts and minds are far more important, particularly when love is involved.
• “The course of true love, never did run smooth.” – I believe that true love requires work and growth – which isn’t always easy, or straightforward.
• “It is a wise father that knows his child.” – Self explanatory I think!
• “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – Without sounding cynical I think it is so important that we are careful who we trust with our thoughts and feelings, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love everyone. I really love this.

For my project I decided to choose “This above all: to thine own self be true.” from Hamlet, but after Jared and I had a discussion about what this meant – I’m not sure I completely agree with it! I decided that in order to agree with it, it meant being true to the best version of ourselves, not the selfish (often natural) part of ourselves. It shouldn’t be used as an excuse to say whatever, do whatever, or behave however we fancy. That said; I still decided to use the quote and then got creative on canvas.

E xx

A huge thanks to Viking for sending me a package of crafting goodies for this project.