With all the various things I seem to make in various different mediums, I want to be able to share and document them. Blame it on having a background in theatre, where a good designer always documents the process and final design, or perhaps blame it on this irresistible urge to join others, friends and foes, in sharing what it is that I do.
I don't honestly remember the first thing I ever made. I'm not referring to school arts and crafts projects but home made for the sake of making it. That's probably the side-effect of having a mom who is really, really into fiber arts (she had her own business at one point). When I was much younger, I remember spending time at a very cool shop, which sadly probably no longer exists, and drooling over pretty beads and running my fingers through the soft and colorful yarns. At this some shop, mom signed my sister and I up for jewelry making classes while she was taking her various wool-related classes. At some point, mom decided to teach me how to make yarn with her spinning wheel. I was in about 6th grade, which I distinctly remember because in 7th or 8th grade, we had to give a demonstration speech and I did it on spinning. At some point, I decided that I hated all that wool related crafty stuff because it was "uncool" and, of course, once it became *cool*, I wanted even less to do with it. In the mean time, I learned how to tie-dye my own shirts and how to bead small amulet bags. Shortly after I became a Musician (and just was just as pretentious as the capital letter implies) and taught myself how to compose songs, sort of. Eventually I went off to college and feel in love with theatre and the creation that happens backstage. I learned how to build sets (sort of; I'm really not meant to be a carpenter) as well as costumes because I wanted to be a multi-tech; able to be useful anywhere backstage. Learning to sew also coincided with really getting into Renaissance festivals.
Years have gone by since that first craft that I do remember (I spun the wool my mom dyed during her purple phase and then wove it into a scarf; I still have it and will post pictures some day) and I've largely gotten over myself. I gave up the pipe dream of doing beadwork, including just adding beads to my fancy Renaissance festival outfit, but have picked up some new crafts along the way. I have my own spinning wheels (yes, that is correct that it's plural) and for Christmas I received my first set of knitting needles that weren't just cast-offs from someone else. As I'm getting married in less than a month, I've realized that I'm not just a maker of craft goods anymore but have started to garden with amazing fervor and somehow discovered a dormant baking gene. I don't necessarily know what to do with all of the things that I make but I want to chronicle them as I make them. Maybe someone will stumble across this and be inspired but most importantly, I'll be able to look back a month, a year or a decade from now and see what it is that I've accomplished and perhaps giggle at the silly things I tried along the way.
