This blog should probably be on WordPress, and I should probably begin it on desktop because mobile app customization is limited and the stock tumblr page is unprofessional, but sometimes you just have to start, even if it's not perfect or you're not fully ready. I already spend most of my social media time on tumblr, so while I'm here that's less of an excuse to put off contributing to this, unlike my custom anthropology site...
I've been fascinated with fiber arts and the history of textiles for a very long time. My first weaving project was a small shoulder bag around a piece of cardboard for an Arts & Crafts class in high school. I still have it, hanging on my wall. It's always been in the back of my mind to pick it up again. Every so often I would think, "A loom would fit perfectly in that corner of my room," but then I'd think of the cost and labor and wave it off as fantasy.
Then my mom lied about having covid19, and I ended up exhausted and bed-bound for months. A year to the day later and I am still not better. I guess this is my life now =/ Out of any "reasonable" workforce, I finally have an excuse to seriously pursue crafts. There are too many issues to get into why arts and crafting rarely make a decent living, but maybe I can make enough to survive.
This adventure actually began with the desire to create unique fabric accessories. But how would mine stand out from the crowd? I could handweave the fabric. The cheapest loom is a backstrap, but it's also physically intensive to counterbalance the warp with your own body. Floor looms are too expensive. A rigid heddle would make the right size for what I need, but
But shaft envy.
I visited a local weaving guild, borrowed their rigid heddle, and got to work playing.
Still, I tried for two months to purchase a small RH loom off of FB Marketplace, but the seller always cancelled. I tried ebay. Now, ebay wants to be helpful in separating you from your hard-earned money, so it will shove related searches right in your face. So many different looms. A pretty table loom for the same price as a new rigid heddle, and then a sixty year-old floor loom for only fifty bucks more (plus the gas to drive to get it). I thought on it for almost a week, made sure I had transportation, and contacted the seller. 21 hours of driving and loading, a taco break, and more driving, and I had a new-to-me Fanny I counterbalance floor loom by leClerc, with a ton of bells and whistles.
Instead of putting it in my room, with only one North-facing window, I cleaned the basement and put it in a corner with South and Western windows.
Ain't she a beaut?
Putting it together was fun. The instruction manual came with it, so set-up was a breeze. I've spent the past few days reading it ("Warp and Weave" by Robert LeClerc), marveling at the craftsmanship, reinforcing concepts similar to rigid heddle style, and taking interest in their differences.
I'll start off by just doing a warp from beam to beam so I can have a foot or so in the front to play with and learn how she operates. I'm thinking basic 1-2-3-4 for twill, which will still allow for a plain weave combo for comparison with the lap loom.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
The moment has come!! Our Q1 zine is back just in time for the new year and we wanna see your beautiful, weird, punk work!!
We're looking for captivating, creative and informative work on a variety of topics including craft, activism, sustainability and alternative subcultures. There's a lot of options and flexibility, so just focus on creating grea art and having fun
The mediums were accepting this time around have also expanded so make sure to check them out.
(This took forever to make so everyone say "Good job Yoma". If you see any typos no you didn't. Shout out to stitchpoint.com for the cross stitch alphabet resource.)
The miller wanted to impress the world, so he said "my daughter can pass any multiple choice test!" And the child was shown into a room with only a number 2 pencil and a Scantron, and told to pass the test or else she would surely die.
"But I do not have the time to study so much!" The girl cried, and then a little creature appeared behind her.
"I can make sure you pass the test, but what would you give me?" Said the creature.
"My healthy sleep schedule," said the girl. He accepted the bargain, and she passed the test.
But then she was put into honors classes, and again found herself locked in a room with only a pencil and a Scantron.
"What would you give me if I help you pass?" Said the man, appearing behind her again.
"I would give my active social life," said the child, and the bargain was again struck.
Then the girl was put into another room, with more tests than she knew what to do with. When the creature appeared again, she said she had nothing left to give.
"Of course you do," said the creature, "simply give up your identity and self esteem, and you shall pass the tests!"
The girl gave it up, and she graduated with high honors. But she was not happy, and neither was her cruel father, for his prized child was no longer in school and so he could no longer brag about her.
Finally, she went to therapy and the therapist helped her name the creature: he was guilt and shame, familial expectations, a system designed to crush children to pick out the "gifted," the melancholy of lost opportunities and the anxiety of the future. Knowing the creature's name, the girl was at last able to reclaim her sleep, then her friends, and finally her sense of self.
"What you really need," said the therapist, "is a hobby."
"I've been thinking of getting into spinning actually," said the girl.
This baby is off the loom! Today I finished the raw edges to the back side at a little sewing club picnic that my friend invited me to. It was so nice to meet these new people who had kinda heard of me from my friend ("oh you're the weaver!") and sit with them, chatting and sewing.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
can we talk more about not feeling excited anymore about your "main" hobby??
I'm not quitting fiber art I promise!
I think it happens often to people, especially if it's your first time with a craft or activity. And sadly, people can tend to give up on it because why would you keep going with something if you've lost interest? Then you get into a sunk cost fallacy and end up resenting that hobby or start to think its cringe (in worst cases).
I've been crocheting and sewing for 20 some years, and it's far from a daily practice. I've been making fiber art that long because I know the excitement comes back!
If we talk about it more, about being uninspired, then I think we can make beginners feel more welcome--there's already been great strides in making online crafting space feel more inclusive to beginners since 2011 or so. (when pinterest was born)
So I'm feeling uninspired with my crochet right now, but I'm super excited about scrappy quilting. I've never made log cabin blocks but I'm learning it now! I love being a beginner again. There's nothing holding me back except my own perfectionistic glass ceiling. Do it messy, do it different, do it without instructions, just play!
When I would hear about people crocheting for 20, 30, 50 years, I would feel so discouraged because I didn't feel I had the endurance to keep with one hobby that long. But now here I am at the 20 year mark. Hiatuses included!!
Hobbies won't run off or leave you behind. They're there for you to come back to whenever you need them, no matter how long it's been
Warp is two colors of wool from the Yarn Hoard in the basement and weft is a bulky wool blend. Current dimensions 6.5 inches by 61 inches, though I might felt it slightly to stabilize the loosely-woven section in the middle.
It turned out well for a first project; there was definitely a Goldilocks process of figuring out how tightly to beat so the ppi is all over the place, but I feel like I had it down pretty well by the end! Also I learned that weaving is a pretty good Curse Craft for when I don't have the Dex mod for hand-sewing. I definitely need a better loom, though; this one is set at 6 ends per inch but the slots are so narrow that even the sport-weight wool I was using was getting abraded pretty badly. I will be gazing longingly at rigid heddles.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Learning the do's and don'ts of sewing leather by hand, and I'm learning them the hard way. Anyway, of what I have learned so far, the most important thing if you want to try sewing leather is
Don't.
Yeah, it's slow. It's hard. It's tedious. Unsatisfying. You'll stab yourself doing it. But most importantly, at the end of all your hard work, once you finally get to have a good look at what you've made, it looks bad.
