when i was in SF i had the opportunity to spend some time with artist windy chien. windy creates knot macrame work and has been doing "a new knot a day" project (she has declared 2016 a year of knots) in which she challenges herself to learn a new technique each day. windy says it's a lot like learning an entirely new language and the project has helped her improve and grow more confident in her work everyday. the medium allows her to modernize a traditional craft in a minimal, clean and new way. windy has had a unique journey -- she once owned a popular record shop and then worked for apple in the itunes department. eventually she decided to quit after wanting to get offline and create with her hands more. yet she didn't know what exactly she wanted to create, so she took a ton of classes in anything that interested her and ultimately found her chosen medium. today you can really see the bridge between technology, music and handicraft in her work, especially her pieces aptly titled "circuit boards." windy spoke a lot about the concept of giving oneself permission to leave identities behind and use past learnings to push forward and create a new "you." this concept really resonated with me. in the next few years, she plans to think bigger and create larger scale work. see more of her work here and follow her on instagram here.