wovenwhims - Tumblr blog

wovenwhims · 3 months

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Some Introductions and Intentions

Life has a strange way sometimes to make you feel like a path is your calling and then years later upending everything you associated with your identity and forging it anew.

Let me explain – for the majority of my life I’ve been an artist by calling. Specifically, I was an illustrator. I painted digitally, and sometimes traditionally, and focused on people. Expressive pieces that were rich with color and emotions, I liked to tell a story. For a very long time I was moving towards the goal of being a professional, of making it my career. Then when I was a breath away from doing so, I crumpled under the pressure and just… didn’t.

I’m not sure if it was the pressure of working under a timeline, or the management part, or maybe the self promotion; but I couldn’t continue. I felt like a fraud calling myself an artist, and eventually that ended too.

Unfortunately, for myself, I had been calling myself an artist my whole life. I had a *Plan* and doing illustration full time was very much my goal. I didn’t know what to do with myself without my painting being there, I didn’t know who I was. Between painting, which was sometimes an on-and-off exercise, I had been exploring other hobbies. I was quite known for it, looking at a new hobby to explore and learn and then obsess over for three months and then dropping it. Gardens flourished and then wilted, my kitchen has gadgets I’ll probably never touch again, my iPad is mostly relegated to reading these days, or a very fancy cat bed. I’ve gone through video games and books, cooking and instruments, painting, sculpting, pottery, makeup, hair, sciences, teas… I’ve covered a lot of ground. But I always thought that Illustration was what, or who, I was.

Realizing that everything I had built myself around was something I couldn’t do was life altering.

A two year gap of madness happened, and I had to reevaluate – everything.

What came out of the other side of my gap year was a couple of different things.

An understanding of the difference between something that is a hobby and something that is a passion.

A dissolution of self identity tied to other’s, or even my own expectations.

Peace

I found peace with myself, and also with my life. I realized that I was pursuing art because it was something I was good at, but not something I was passionate about.

What I am passionate about is what this blog will be focusing on.

Fiber

When I was 15 I was asked to learn how to crochet so that the fiber category had a submission for the local art fair. My art teacher taught me the basics of crochet and then let me figure the rest out. A month after I was crocheting hats for friends, I picked up knitting, learning through books in my library and youtube videos online.

Knitting became my on-and-off again hobby until I discovered garments, and then it was game on.

Garments opened up a whole new world of interest that I was fascinated with. I loved the complexity of fiber drape and construction in knitting. I was “free knitting” my own sweaters within the first 6 months. I became part of a local knit group and quickly developed a reputation for going “off pattern”. I devoured books and articles on fiber types and sheep breeds. I played with ease and shaping and made mistakes and loved it all.

In 2022 I went to SAFF and impulse purchased an E-Spinner and the doors fully opened into the fiber world, including the history of the humble spindle.

This passion has developed many branches now, spreading into Historical Fashion and Clothing Making, Weaving, Sewing, Embroidery, Leatherwork… The list could go on.

At the heart of it all is my passion for fiber, and a healthy dose of sustainability.

My intentions with this blog is to document those branches of interest. Where they lead and what I learn, and to ask questions along the way.

And maybe, I can share some of this passion with you.

#musings #introductory post #intro post #blog intro

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