I began writing here as ‘tidewanderings’ , morphed a while later to floribundineum and then more recently to ‘India Flint writes’ which while it clearly states what I’m doing here has increasingly felt insufficiently poetic. I abandoned the first title because it had students of the online course of the same name confused.
I abandoned the second because in all honesty it is far more suited to a florist shop somewhere. The kind that has made a name for itself by gathering wild roadside weeds armed with the local handbook of proscribed plants (in case of challenges by interfering citizens) and formed them into exquisite arrangements that have grown to be in demand by those aspiring to have their hands joined in wedlock at lavish parties so that now they have a waiting list thirteen months long and have moved from their original side-of-the-market-stall to a sweet little cottage on a cobbled lane with cool rooms discreetly positioned at the back and rear access for their van, a carefully cultivated meadow out the front and side-projects of hand-made inks, hand-balms and wild perfumes distilled from the leftovers of vase-filling that are rapidly overtaking the flower business with products that are much more easily shipped and growing in demand. They are probably thinking about doing a line of ecoprint textiles as well.
So here we are on the brink of the next iteration, one that I probably should have thought of in the very beginning as it was staring me in the face. ‘journeywoman’, the name I scribbled into my notebook back in 2019 while planning my journey to Bagru to spend time with my Maiwa family working on ideas for a dyeable clothing line. The German version ‘Wandergeselle’ feels more romantic but given most of my readers have English as their first language I shall resist adopting it (though I shall be stitching the word into my tidewanderer dress before I am very much older). This post is to prepare you for the name change, in the hope you won’t simply ‘twitch and delete’ when the next epistle is waving from the inbox.
Looking for definitions of the word online has been amusing : Merriam-Webster simply says a journeywoman is a female journeyman (who is a worker who has learned a trade and works for others by the day). Wordnik offers “a woman hired by the day”. The Free Dictionary offers “a woman who is an experienced and competent but undistinguished worker”. The ‘journey’ part of the word stems from the French ‘journée’ a word sometimes mistakenly employed by non-native speakers of that language to wish someone safe travels when ‘Bonne journée’ is simply “have a nice day”. But the allusion to travel is there, and though I do far less of it these days than earlier in my career, I do still journey so as to be hired by the day, in which case it makes perfect sense.
See you in a few days, wearing my new/old hat…
I like the idea of the combination of names. Tidewandering Journey Woman? Journey Woman Tidewanderer? But to tell you the truth I would be reading whatever you write, following you to where you write, under whatever title. Much love, kindness, and peace to you.
I like journeywoman (though tidewanderings was my favourite so far). And I am glad you didn't choose "Wandergeselle" since I am of the school of using the female form at least when we are talking about females, which would be "Wandergesellin" :) Alternatively there is "Wanderjahre" which describes the time in which a "Geselle" was moving from "Meister" to "Meister" to learn new things. I think this was a wonderful invention to prevent stagnation in a craft back then. (Though not open for women, unfortunately.)
But I love journeywoman. It is much more evocative and I imagine you meandering around and telling us about it.