My Roots:
I Come from Artisans and I'm Proud to Write for Artisans Now!

My story started as a third-generation fiber artist in a small mountain town in the North Georgia mountains.

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While our mom was working as a nurse, my little sister and me were traipsing around after our Nana on her sheep farm.

 

She had about 60 sheep at any given time, and each and every one was a personal friend.

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I learned to spin at the age of three on a teeny-tiny great wheel that Nana had built just for me! By age eight, my sister and I were both spinning, knitting, and helping gather materials for the natural dye pots. I remember being so excited and proud when I mastered the long draw while spinning cotton - a notoriously difficult fiber to spin due to its short staple (fiber length) of about three-quarters of an inch.

 

When I was about 11, I learned to tat lace from Nana's best friend, Trudy. We even entered items we'd made in the Georgia National Fair -- and won first place in several categories!

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In the day-to-day, we also helped Nana with the farm.

 

We fed the sheep, helped with the lambing, and shearing the wool. We watched and learned as Nana carefully curated her pedigree bloodlines, maintained impeccable vaccination schedules, and built a network of other fiber artists and loyal customers who only wanted Jeanie's shetland fleeces.

 

I remember how the ladies would gather together on shearing day to eagerly pick out the sheep whose fleece they wanted to buy... Then, they'd watch as the wool was expertly sheared and skirted, before gently tucking it into a big plastic bag and whisk off to their cars like bandits in the night!

 

They'd gleefully compete for their top-dollar wool, stop by Nana's Spinning Shop to refresh their stash of accessories, and then we'd all go inside for a big pot of homemade vegetable stew and fresh bread.

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​It was a wonderful way to grow up.

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Growing Up Meant Shouldering More Responsibility, Too.

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Nana didn't just stop at the farming... we became her apprentices in The Spinning Shop.

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This was a magical little building on her farm. A restored smoke house where all of the tools of our trade were sold. In the shop, we'd sell spinning wheels and accessories, bags of cleaned and processed wool (roving), plant fibers like hemp and cotton, knitting needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers, books, synthetic dyes in little paper packets.. just about everything a new or seasoned fiber artist needs to work their craft.

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We learned to package, inventory, and sell it all.

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We worked the shop. Trade shows. Fiber festivals. Historic demonstrations. You name it. As members of the Peachtree Handspinners Guild in Atlanta, we dined and rubbed shoulders with some truly wonderful folks (mostly older ladies) where we were on our best behavior and learned how to connect with people from all walks of life.

 

And we loved it so. (I remember after on particularly large and prestigious event where we sold several thousand dollars' worth of merchandise, Nana bragging in secret that we'd never shorted her a single cent.)

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And while there was a lot of hard work and responsibility involved, we were up to it, and we loved every second of it.

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Along the Way, We Learned Other Things.

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Because we were in the "arts" space, we met lots and lots of people who specialized in other things, and who were all too happy to share (as folks like us do)!

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For instance, we once spent the day with a lady who made homemade paper and bound books by hand.

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Another time, Nana taught us how to make homemade goat's milk soap and goat cheese from the milk given by her wonderful Nubian goat, Suzie.

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Nana also raised silk worms for several years, feeding them leaves from the red mulberry tree in the yard. We watched them transform from teeny black caterpillars just an eighth of an inch long into big, white, beautifully-patterned caterpillars over three inches long! They made their silk cocoons, emerged as moths, mated, and died. It was simply amazing... life at its purest, simplest, and so beautiful. (The cocoons were processed and their silk spun into a small, beautiful skein of golden thread.)

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​One of Nana's wonderful friends was an incredibly talented jewelry maker and bead worker. She always had tons of amazing beads in her kit, had her own little home forge, and created some of the most amazing pieces I've ever seen in my life!

 

(For example, when The Lord of the Rings movies came out, she bought the authentic dark-grey wool from the sheep in New Zealand that the ring-bearer's company's elven cloaks were made of. She hand-spun, hand-wove, and hand-stitched cloaks from it. Finally, she hand-made replicas the elven leaf broaches that fastened the company's elven cloaks. They were beaded on all surfaces, and she fashioned the clasps and hammered the silver accents herself!)

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Another time, when I was about 10 years old, we met a woman who was a local wood worker and made hand-made bowls with hand tools. She let me spend hours working on carving out the inside of a beautiful chestnut bread bowl that she was working on.

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Another wonderful friend was a stained-glass artist. He had some beautiful pieces in his shop, and made Nana a custom-designed 8x8-inch wall hanging featuring a white cotton bowl on background of variegated shades of blue. (Cotton bowl, as in the fluffy cotton seedhead that grows on the cotton plant - not dinnerware.)

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These people enjoyed deep-diving into history and could speak at length, with great enthusiasm, about their craft. They also sourced the finest raw materials to work with and were especially mindful of the environment.

 

Spending time around, and learning from, people who specialized in these beautiful artisanal crafts truly shaped my being.

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It's hard to describe the values and pride and business-sense that we learned...

 

But I do know that it all comes to bear every time I handle a fine-quality duvet or a hand-tooled leather belt or a hand-turned wooden bowl. There's just nothing else like it.

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I'm Carrying the Traditions Forward by Supporting Others.

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Now, as an adult with a family of my own, I remember everything I learned growing up, and I pass it to my children. It's so important to me that the skills, traditions, and histories of our peoples not be lost to industrial and technological advancement.

 

As the world pushes more toward automation and machines and non-renewable resources, I know that the businesses that deserve our support the most are the artisans... The people who create fine and beautiful things that will last for years upon years.

 

I value the fact that I know these products are not toxic to my family or the environment. That they were made with care, passion, and dedication.

 

And it's the greatest honor to support and promote these products and businesses to other people who won't settle for anything but the best.