EPISODE TWENTY TWO :: Brandi Harper of purlBknit - The "Happy Hustle" of working in Fibre + Notes on Ethnicity in Craft

December 27, 2016 by Ani Lee in Podcast

The Close Knit podcast showcases artists, designers, and makers from all over the world who work with fibre in its many forms. Knitters, spinners, sewers, textile artists - all will be celebrated on the Close Knit podcast.

In episode 22 of the Close Knit Podcast, I spoke to Brandi Harper of purlBknit. Brandi is a knitter and lover of natural fibers who lives in Brooklyn. We cover the usual podcast topics, but Brandi and I took a little bit of a different angle with this podcast episode. It occurred to me recently that my podcast guests, whilst varied in their craft forms, mainly have come from a similar ethnic background. I want to use the podcast as a way to hold space for people of all backgrounds, and especially voices that are not typically heard from in the craft community.

I loved getting to hear Brandi's thoughts on the topics that are not usually vocalised in this community - and I'm going to leave it at that and let this podcast episode speak for itself - I'd highly recommend giving it a listen!

Brandi's biggest bit of advice:

"find people on youtube that you really connect with in terms of their teaching style, their video aesthetic.

Rent books from the library, buying books can get super expensive and you don’t know that the book will answer the questions you have. if you can use natural fibers, if you can use wool."

People/ Things we mentioned in the podcast:

Purl soho
verypinkknits
karen templar - she gives away so much knowledge, she’s talented, always creating new work
stephen west

Find Brandi: website | instagram

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Until next time!

Ani

EPISODE TWENTY ONE :: Lisa Anderson Shaffer of Zelma Rose - The "Chaotic Crisis Pregnancy Business Plan", and Building a Creative Practice Alongside Motherhood

December 14, 2016 by Ani Lee in Podcast

A huge thanks to this week's episode sponsor - Gradient Yarn Australia.

Gradient Yarn Australia is an independent yarn dyeing business started by Briony Mannering. Briony is an Independent yarn colourist, teacher and knitwear designer based in South East Melbourne. Her passion for craft lead her to yarn dyeing in 2012. A few years later started working on her knitwear design. Now, she’s known for her yarn line of smooth graduated colours, and her knitwear designs that artfully display these colour schemes.

A typical day will find Briony dyeing and experimenting with dye techniques in the mornings, and knitting in the afternoons. Her latest yarn evolution is utilising local yarn and combining with natural dyes.

When she was younger, Briony nearly ran away with the local circus! The only clowning around she has time for now is with her two young boys.

You can find Gradient Yarn Australia at www.gradientyarnaustralia.com and on instagram @gradientaus

This week I spoke to Lisa Anderson Shaffer of Zelma Rose. Lisa is a fine artist and sculptural jewellery maker living in the Bay area in California. We talk about her grandmothers (Zelma and Rose, respectively), who introduced her to needlework and crochet as a child, and how she's used these crafts to inform her art practice today. Lisa tells me about her fibre of choice in her jewellery making practice and how when she works with these fibres, it's like a dance to her, it just feels right in her body. When we get into how Zelma Rose came to be and how she approaches it present day, Lisa opens up about her experience transitioning from her career to making art and jewellery full time, and how her experience as a mother has shaped how she has shaped her business.

We discuss how fibre arts is such an ancient practice, but how presently its popularity is growing, but at the same time how it's under the radar enough that Lisa doesn’t feel the pressure to have the traditional production calendar like some of her friends in metalsmithing or leatherwork or the fashion world.

Lisa tells me about how she started zelma rose in 2010 and what she referred to as her "life in chaotic crisis pregnancy business plan", which she remarks that she wouldn't necessarily recommend. She was fed up with her day job and had to leave, and so Zelma Rose was born. She found that she had tons of creative energy whilst pregnant and a desire to make product, before that she had always made fine art. As her business grows, she has to pull the break a bit to be able to be the mother she wants to be. it’s been a steady climb for the last 6 years - a steady slow burn.

Lisa's biggest bit of advice:

"there’s this thing called time. We don’t get it back. So, no matter how scary something is… there is no dead time, no matter how crazy or chaotic life gets… you can’t freeze time… it just keeps going. Stay present with that and reflect on that. “

People/ Things we mentioned in the podcast:

Carrie Crawford - @mineral workshop - Lisa loves her work so much, has a “wish I thought of that” moment wth her a lot. canvasses on cotton that are handdyed, interpretations of aerial landscapes.
Lisa also loves following skateboarders, just something about them makes her so stoked.

Find Lisa: website | instagram | facebook

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Until next time!

Ani

EPISODE TWENTY :: Sophe Probst of Urban Roots Handmade - Moving Toward Zero Waste + Asking For What You Want

November 29, 2016 by Ani Lee in Podcast

A huge thank you to this week's episode sponsor - Hanna Lisa Haferkamp.

Hanna Lisa is a creative maker and business coach who works with other small business owners to help them achieve their goals. In addition to coaching, she runs her very own video podcast where she talks about her experience making and running a creative business. You can find that on Youtube at Hannaontheroad (all one word - no second “H” in hanna).

In her spare time, Hanna makes gorgeous project bags for the modern knitter. Frustrated with the project bags on offer, she set about designing her own to meet her minimalist aesthetic and her needs as a knitter - like yarn not getting tangled up! She does a shop update once or twice a month, and you can find out about those via her instagram or her podcast.

As a special treat For Close Knit Podcast Listeners, Hanna is offer a discount on her project bags! Enter the code CLOSEKNIT at checkout to get 10% off her project bags!

Thanks again to Hanna Lisa for this generous offer and for sponsoring the Close Knit Podcast.

This week I spoke to Sophe Probst of Urban Roots Handmade. Sophe is a zero-waste advocate living in Louisiana, making and selling minimally packaged linen and hemp linen products for the home and the body. She discovered hemp when she was looking for environmentally-friendly options to make herself dresses, after seeing Sonya Philip's 100 Acts of Sewing patterns and getting hooked. Before starting her shop, Sophe worked for a number of environmental organisations that fuelled her desire to run a business in a thoughtful way. She then started learning about the zero waste movement from the likes of Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home, and she began looking for ways to incorporate minimalism into her life.

After becoming a mother, Sophe began questioning the legacy she would leave for her children, and this led her to starting Urban Roots Handmade. We talk about the realities of running a business as a mother - this means a lot of time spent in the wee hours of the morning sewing - and how she plans to handles business growth without compromising on her ethics. We also get into some of the nitty gritty of how she learnt to price her work, and how she handles the finances of her business.

In her former working life, Sophe worked for a number of environmental organisations, and worked as an environmental educator. When she had her children, it made her question things, and she became emotionally tied to her children’s legacy. She started by sewing their cloth diapers, then got into zero waste reading like Bea Johnson, which led her to start refusing plastic and being more minimalist in her lifestyle. She often struggled to reconcile the idea that she was making new stuff with a minimalist/zero waste lifestyle, so she decided to do it plastic free. She asked her suppliers to ship plastic free, and she changed the way she made things to be less wasteful to fit into her ethos.

Sophe learnt to sew as a child, her grandmother taught her to sew at age 10, and she made her first quilt in high school (she hand quilted it!). She reckons that introduction to sewing on a machine made her much less intimidated by using the machine as an adult. Her grandmother also taught her to knit, but Sophe reckons she's a bit slower at knitting (than sewing).

Something Sophe cherishes about being a small business is the personal contact she has with her customers. She always includes a handwritten note in her packages, and we talk about how this informs her decisions with wholesaling and growing her business.

Sophe's biggest bit of advice:

"I’m a big believer in buying quality. I bought the nice sewing machine, the one that was built to last, and I think that has made me want to sew more than if I was sewing on a plastic piece of crap.

And asking for things that you want. That’s been hard for me because I’m shy. Asking for what you want, and if you don’t get it, then move on, but if you do, it’s because you asked. “

People/ Things we mentioned in the podcast:

Sonya Phillips - 100 Acts of Sewing - Ani and Sophe both gush about their love for Sonya's patterns, their simplicity and beauty.
Bea Johnson Zero Waste Home - how Sophe was introduced to the idea of zero waste and what prompted her to start incorporating plastic free methods into her life.
Honeybee good - Sophe's supplier of wooden spool organic cotton thread, they ship in plastic free packaging.
Maura Grace Folk Fibers - natural dyer, amazing quilter
Sugarhouse Workshop - as above! (natural dyer, amazing quilter)
Jana Valachovicova - maker of recycled textiles
Trash is for Tossers - another great zero waste resource
Adrienne Shanti @jai_jai_ma - a personal fav of Ani's, as well as Sophe's. We just love Adrienne!

Find Sophe: website | instagram | facebook

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Until next time!

Ani

EPISODE NINETEEN :: Julie of Little Loom - Interpreting Fibre In a Free Form Way & Navigating the Complexities of Making and Selling Work

November 15, 2016 by Ani Lee in Podcast

A very special thank you to this week's episode sponsor, Wool Gathering, a four day wool crafts based retreat being held in Victoria in May 2017. During the Gathering you will participate in three wool based classes, with options in knitting, crochet, spinning, tapestry weaving, Saori weaving, needle felting, wool embroidery and yarn dyeing.

Wool Gathering teachers have many, many years of experience between them, and include Sue Grandfield (Riotous Assembly); Clare Devine (Knit Share Love), Briony Singleton (Gradient Yarns Australia & Briony Knits), Prue Simmons (Dyeing to Weave) to name just a few. Classes have been designed to suit all levels of experience so you have the option to take all your classes within the same well loved craft or you can try something completely new as beginners are well respected at Wool Gathering!

Participants of Wool Gathering will get to enjoy the incredible Tarndie Farm. Tom Dennis, the current (6th generation) owner, will entertain you with his History of Tarndie tour where you will learn all about the pioneers who settled the property and then the Fleece to Yarn tour will see you walk with the sheep from the paddocks to the shearing shed where you will learn all about Polwarth fleece.

Tickets are currently on sale and you can find all the nitty gritty details at www.woolgathering.com.au and follow along on instagram - woolgatheringaustralia and facebook - wool gatheringaustralia.

Julie is a free form fibre artist, utilizing weaving and macrame techniques to create her unique wall hangings. She and I discuss a mutual love affair with all things linen, and how she made a transition from using whatever materials she found to thinking more consciously about where her materials came from and how they were made. We talk about navigating the complex space of pricing and selling handmade work, and how she keeps up the motivation to continue making work regularly. Julie tells me about her love of teaching free form workshops as a form of art therapy for herself and her students, and how she has used this style of making to lighten her own state of being when going through some tough times.

Julie teaches workshops in free form - intuitively creating using beauitful materials and a few simple knotting and weaving techniques. She recounts how people often struggle with this at first and find it confronting, the fact that they're not being told what to make, but once they drop in, and let go, it's such a special feeling. Julie tells me she gets goosebumps just talking about it.

Julie first picked up weaving when she was struggling with post natal depression. It was a meditative escape for her, and somewhere she found some peace. At first, she reckons she tried too hard, tried to be what she thought a weaver should be, and that just wasn't working for her. Then she bought some handspun yarn and decided to not try so hard and to let go. It was at that point that she created the first piece she really loved, and that was a really pivotal moment for her. She started listening to Woolful, and started learning about fibres and then moved exclusively to high quality, ethically-source, and rare and vintage fibres.

Julie's biggest bit of advice:

"...don' be afraid to try. There is no right way, there is no wrong way, just try. If you have an idea for something, don't not do it because you think it won't be well received, or because you think it's not the right way to do something, just try. That's how we learn, evolve, grow. And the fibre community is so encouraging and supportive"

People/ Things we mentioned in the podcast:

string harvest: they sell an australian grown and milled cotton that julie loves
Dana Juszczyk @brosha_me - sculptural, textural woven pieces
Plump and Co - a friend of the Close Knit Podcast, episode 14 guest :)
Pip Taylor - @philippaataylor - combines porcelain and woven objects
Kelaoke - makes wearable art from fiber and ceramics

Find Julie: instagram

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Until next time!

Ani

EPISODE EIGHTEEN :: Georgie Nicolson of Tikki Knits - Supporting Local Producers, Large Scale Community Textile Art, Becoming a Knitwear Designer

November 01, 2016 by Ani Lee in Podcast

In Episode 18 of the Close Knit Podcast, I spoke to Georgie Nicolson of Tikki Knits, a knitwear designer and lover of local Australian wool. Georgie takes me through her journey of sourcing wool, a serendipitous stop at the birthplace of Polworth sheep - Tarndie farm, and what types of fibre she particularly enjoys working with. We discuss her work with SEAM - (Sustainable Environmental Art Movement) on WARM - a large scale collaborative community knitting project making a statement about climate change, and what a unique and interesting challenge it was to create a textile representation of a painted landscape. Georgie and I talk about her transition into knitwear design and how her children influence her design aesthetics.

A huge thanks to this week's episode sponsor - Wool Gathering. Wool Gathering is an incredibly special event happening Thursday 4th May-Sunday 7th May 2017 in Victoria, Australia - held at the historic and scenic Tarndwarncoort (birthplace of the breed Polworth). At Wool Gathering, participants will have the chance to take classes in wool based crafts like knitting, crochet, spinning, tapestry weaving, Saori weaving, needle felting, wool embroidery, and yarn dyeing. For more information, check out Wool Gathering's website here - tickets for this event go on sale on the 12th Nov 2016 .

Georgie schools me on some of the history behind the Australian wool scence. We discuss the CSIRO wool mill that closed down in around the 80s (? we weren't sure of the exact timing) that used to spin wool for lots of local producers, but was defunded. Georgie also informs me that Nundle is the only commercial mill creating wool yarn that's completely sourced and made in Australia.

We go on to talk about her involvement in WARM - a large scale collaborative community knitting project making a statement about climate change. Georgie had the incredible task of translating a painting into a functional artwork made of knitted objects. Incredibly, and beautifully - everything in the project is a useful object, everything has a life beyond the project.

Georgie really got back into craft with the birth of her first child, and though she's been designing for a while, she's only recently felt comfortable calling herself a "designer". She does a lot of designing for her children, and as they grow, her patterns also change.

Georgie's biggest bit of advice:

"don't be afraid to just do what you want to do, and take your own approach, don't be afraid to make mistakes... Don't be afraid to be yourself... There is so much honesty and integrity that comes through when you are yourself"

People/ Things we mentioned in the podcast:

White Gum Wool : documenting her shepherding on instagram now - Georgie highly recommends a follow
Tarndie : birthplace of polworth, amazing farm, location of Wool Gathering 2017!

Find Georgie: website | instagram | facebook

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Until next time!

Ani