Weaving
If I could recommend any craft to try, it would have to be weaving. It remains one of the most humbling and gratifying skills I have ever attempted to master, and has produced some of my most treasured objects. If you want to taste true patience, or sink into the cool pull of the Flow State™, weaving is the place to be.
I have always had a knack for strings. I was a Waldorf kid, and spent outrageous amounts of time as a child making KLUTZ friendship bracelets, knitting, finger weaving, sewing… etc. My drive to create was insatiable, and fiber materials were the most readily available.
Things got more serious when I took a weaving block over the summer at Colorado College with the one and only Jeanne Steiner. I got hooked beyond repair. During her class I wove the periwinkle Tunic on an eight harness Gilmore floor loom. I dyed the bamboo cotton, and wove the tunic in three simultaneous layers: the back, the front, and the pockets. In my non-existent free time after the class was over, I dyed the wool for the grey Tunic and wove it in two simultaneous layers and added custom brass buttons. Somehow, amidst my senior year Thesis grind, I also managed a bamboo cotton blanket and a wool couch runner. All hand-dyed, and deeply treasured. Sleep is a myth. Weaving is forever.
*Tunics graciously modeled by Andrej and Hannah for the annual Colorado College Fashion Show. Featuring my lost wax cast brass bouquet pins.
