Mariel Richards

I’m Mariel, and a maker who started sewing and knitting again in 2018, and took it up with SERIOUS energy in lockdown v1 earlier this year. I work in the media, as CEO at gal-dem magazine. My job is often creative in developing strategies and ideas for clients and our team, but I rarely get to have my hands fully in the creative production. Sewing and knitting appeases my love of practical hands-on distraction, and my urge to create. I’m loving knitting at the moment and have about 3 baby blankets on the go. With sewing I love dressmaking, where I get to explore a ridiculously girly version of Mariel who I had no idea existed until I landed in this online sewing community and immediately made up like 40 tiered / gathered / puffy / flounced / ruffled dresses and jumpsuits.

What influence does music have in your life as a creative?:

Music is often a distraction to me – I work better in the quiet or to abstract noises like rain sounds or fires crackling (s/o to my ASMR crewdem), BUT, music is confidence for me.

In the day to day admin, in trying to do too much too often, music reminds me to stop, be silly, be sexy, be cool, be myself for a moment and just live (and dance) in the moment. Music is a rest, a release, and a reminder.

Tell us about your playlist:

Listen. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the day to day, or in the small failures of a make that you forget that you really are THAT flame. You made this, you started this, you created this, you own this. This playlist is my slow smooth journey from the quiet sexy jams into the big bold beats that remind me to take a second and check myself out, celebrate myself, post a thirst trap – believe in my sauce.

Anything (no matter how bungled, fumbled, abandoned in a fit of chaos and rage) can be transformed with sauce!!! Confidence is the last ingredient that I so often forget to add to my fits – and in the moments that I can’t draw from my own well the moody dark beats from ‘Over’, the bold lyrics on ‘The Weekend’, and pretty much anything from Rihanna or Bey, help me re-remember quiiite how much sauce I really have deep within.

Being real – I understand that it’s not always about how something looks, and there are some problems bigger than a dance and a selfie can fix, but let me tell you, makes always look better in motion – and this playlist *will* get you moving.