As I was walking past my loom on my way downstairs, the warp caught my eye, and I thought how beautiful the unwoven warp was, just under tension and the strands lying so perfectly side by side, everything symmetrical, and suddenly my brain said, “What makes a fiber artist?”
I think the answer is subjective for everyone. For me, I don’t think the answer lies in how good you are at the art. It’s an “eye of the beholder” thing. It’s something as simple as seeing the beautiful potential in that warp, even though it hasn’t been woven yet. It’s the feel of the tools in your hands. It’s the excitement of looking at different types of yarn, thread, cord, and imagining what you’ll do with them. It’s the inability to walk into a yarn store and come out empty-handed, because even though you have more yarn than you have projects planned, you have an idea for that delicious yarn you just picked up and had to have. It’s realizing that you spend more time in your studio than you do anywhere else in the house.
I’m not a great weaver. I’ve got a long way to go before I reach that point, and it may never happen, partially because I have so many fiber interests, and I’m learning all of them at once. Partially it’s because there’s always more to learn. I may wind up just being competent, in the end, and I’m okay with that. But does that mean I can call myself a fiber artist? Well, let me answer like this:
In Sister Act 2, Whoopi Goldberg is talking to Lauryn Hill, and she says “When you wake up in the morning, if you can’t think of anything but singing first, then you’re supposed to be a singer.”
By that criteria, I’m a fiber artist.
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