a delectable blend of accident and artistry
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Amy Stevenson: I am a recent transplant to South Eastern Michigan. I graduated college with a degree in Science[!], worked nearly a decade in Science[!] meanwhile taking a number of art classes, including a few life changing ones, most notably 3D design, and spinning. I spin, dye, weave and sew. At one point, I was a knitter. I learned to knit first when I was in elementary school, my grandmother taught me the basics, but I wandered off to other interests (mostly reading). I learned the second time in college, when a friend started a knitting club and needed ringers to fill out attendance. I made an ill-fitting hat (the first casualty in a lifelong struggle with gauge swatching) , and let it drop. When I was married and in my first home years later, a friend taught me crochet, which I find very counter-intuitive, and after many double crochet stitches, I decided to go back to knitting, which I felt I had a better grasp on. A few more unfortunate hats later, I’d mostly got it worked out. And I haven’t looked back (though, I have taken a class on crochet since then). Socks and mittens are my favorite projects. Soon I’d joined the Champaign-Urbana Spinners and Weavers Guild. I learned to spin at a class at the local community college, and one of the women in the guild gave me one of her wheels to work on. A few months later, a friend pressured me into buying a rigid heddle loom at an auction. And now I have two rigid heddles, an inkle, and an assortment of lap looms. I have also been working on improvised looms and recently started learning bobbin lace making, which seems to me the ultimate expression of loomless weaving. I am particularly enamored of continuous warp weaving, aka celtic weaving, which still seems miraculous to me. We moved to Ann Arbor, I purchased a new spinning wheel, and I became interested in weaving with fabric, so I started looking into fabric dyes and ready to dye fabrics online. As an afterthought, I added some blank shirts to my order, for my daughters (one of whom does not like pink, lavender, and girly stuff; the other has yet to express an opinion). I found dyeing and decorating those shirts so satisfying it has become the main focus of my (limited) free time. I’ve also been doing piecing; I’ve been collecting fabric for ages and now have many quilt tops in progress. I've also begun designing fabric using Spoonflower.com. You can see some examples in the bar to the right. I am a member of the following fiber guilds, at whose sales my work is sometimes sold: The Spinner's Flock The Black Sheep Weavers Fiber Guild The Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild The Ann Arbor FiberArts Guild and a former member of The CU Spinners and Weavers Guild links: Amy's former blog In the Temple of Spin Amy's Ravelry Designer Page Amy's Craftster profile tutorial for self striping sock yarn tutorial for cylinder weaving tutorial for circular knitting needle case email blotch (at) blotchandthrum (dot) com |
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