There's No Place Like Home
One of the great perks of this line of work is the people we get to meet along the way. If you're reading this, then you've likely discovered our corner of the internet pursuing your love of traditional American handiwork. Welcome! There's no need to drop a house on anyone or click your heels, let this be your home for handcrafted folk art. You are definitely among friends here.
Sewing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My sister taught me to embroider and Carol taught me to use her sewing machine when I was very little. Needlework has been a thing in our house from embroidery to knitting to quilting to dressmaking and every other method you can think of. It just doesn't feel right not to be working on something! So when Carol invited me to be a part of her business, it was, as the Scarecrow would say, a no-brainer!
As an aside, for those of you who don't know, Carol is my mother. I have called her by her first name for most of my life. I learned rather quickly when I wandered off in the supermarket once that calling out "Mom!" brings dozens of women running. Yodeling "Carol" narrowed the field down to two or three. So, Carol she has always been!
While you peruse our new website and check out the things that Carol has been stitching up, there's another little secret that I'll let you in on. Carol looks at her own work with a rather critical eye. It seems to be the artist's plight not to appreciate their own work as much as others do. But when I see her finished creations all laid out for me to photograph, she's amazed, and not just a little pleased, at how much I love them. When I look at her work, I see magic.
Wool fabric and cotton thread seem like such simple materials. But once the wool is dyed and felted, cut into shapes and stacked, then carefully sewn around with tiny stitches of that carefully spun perle cotton thread, it's transformed into a three-dimensional design that you just can't help but touch. It is a time-consuming labor of love, but the love really shines through. And I think that's what makes the needle arts so special. No oil can required.
The trickiest part of sharing your creative spirit is putting your work out there for the world to see. What if they hate it? What if no one buys it? All of the anxiety can get your mane in a tangle. And that's when it's important to muster your courage and remember that we are all out here doing our best and supporting one another. Crafters and their followers are a tight knit community. (See what I did there?)
That's why it was important for us to come back from our sabbatical with a fresh perspective and a renewed commitment to the art form we love. I'm going to keep the cute shoes, though.
~Karen
