As we kick off a new year, I'm starting a new blog and going back to my roots. I've spent the past decade pretending to be a writing (while not really writing), leaving corporate America, trying out the culinary world, coming back to corporate America, and generally trying to find myself. What have I found? That at 42, what I hold most near and dear to me is exactly what I did when I was 20. I'm more shocked about that than anyone.
I have a degree in Fiber Arts. What the hell is that, you ask? It's OK, most people have the same reaction. Yes friends, I actually have a degree in basket weaving--and papermaking, bookbinding, weaving, etc. I loved it. I loved working with my hands, I loved the feeling of yarn and wool. I loved texture and embellishments. Mostly, I loved creating something tangible. Something I can hold up and say, "I made this." I even had a bumper sticker on my car that said, "I break for Fiber Arts" which I endlessly had to explain. That love shifted in my 20's when everyone told me that I needed to make a living, to be an adult and do adult-type things (I'm still figuring out what the hell this means). So I left behind my beloved Fiber Arts and focused on practical money-making endeavors.
It's taken 20 years, but I'm back with woolly abandon. After endless books and seminars trying to "find myself," identify my passion, choose my life's purpose, and locate my happy inner-child, I've finally realized it's where I started. My happiness begins with a piece of the perfect wool, a skein of beautifully dyed yarn, and ball of fluffy roving just waiting to be shaped.
I've come to terms with the fact that I won't ever be a famous author (or mostly come to terms with it), and that I'll likely need to work in corporate America for decades longer to fund my artsy pursuits. And I think I'm finally OK with that. My truth is that I enjoy going to wool and sheep shows. I like sitting alone for hours, weaving or pulling fibers into something fabulous. My truth is is knowing that I live to hear someone say, "Wow, you made that?!"
My name is Heather, and I'm a fiber artist.
