Artist: Cosette Cornelius-Bates

What kind of items do you make?
I hand dye yarns and spinning fibers, design knitting patterns and spin yarns.  I dye mostly semi-solids on United States produced yarn made with mostly United States wool.  I also like working with farms, but I’m more likely to get spinning fiber from them.  I’m always looking for small companies, farms, and mills I can work with.

How long have you been an indie artist?
I opened my etsy shop in 2006, and shortly thereafter started experimenting selling one-of-a-kind hats at craft fairs.  From there, I just got deeper and deeper into fiber arts – taking spinning and dyeing classes, getting a book deal, and completing a masters with a gallery show of knitting.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
In my early twenties, I saw a friend knitting (the first person I’d ever seen) and immediately became interested. But she knit left handed and I wanted to learn right handed, so I taught myself out of a book.  That said, I have a fine arts background that turned very easily into fiber art when given the chance. I like making things and find myself right at home with the colors and textures of all things woolie.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
The diversity! I can design one day, spin another, dye another. It never gets boring.  I love to play with color, texture, shape and make useful objects for my friends and family.  For me, nothing shows love quite as much as swathing my community in wool.  That, and feeding them soup.

What most inspires you?
I am inspired by communities that I live in. In spinning, I like working with local shepherds or wool that is minimally processed. In designing, I like making things for my friends and family. In dyeing, I am inspired by nature and the community who will use my raw products to make their own works of art.

(c) photo by nina barbuto

Artist: Joyce Compton

What kind of items do you make?
Needle felted & clay art dolls and felting kits. I also offer workshops.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
I was invited to take a workshop on needle felting and I fell in love with the medium!

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
The many ways that wool can be manipulated and coaxed into taking a 3 dimensional form never fails to delight me. Needle felting also has a very contemplative aspect.

What most inspires you?
I am inspired by color, texture, shape, anything that peaks my senses.

Do you have a favorite item or colorway?
I just plain like color! I go through stages when I might lean toward warm earth tones and then a period of soft pastels. It always changes.

What is something you strive to offer the fiber arts community?
The delight of creating, the exhilarating feeling of learning something new and using it!

Does being an indie fiber artist affect other aspects of your life?
Creativity cannot be extracted from any part of your life. The desire to create spills over into everything I do.

Artist: Stephanie Alford

What kind of items do you make?
I hand-dye yarns for knitters and crocheters.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
I woke up on Thanksgiving morning when I was 19 years old with an overwhelming desire to learn to knit. I don’t know what sparked it off – I knew no one who knit, had never seen a knitting magazine and this was way before the Internet. And, yet, for some reason, I knew – right from the minute I woke up — that I needed to learn how to knit.

Spinning and weaving came years later, when the community center just down the road from my house in England began offering a class. I used to walk with my spinning wheel slung over my shoulder and I’d get the weirdest looks. Several times I got asked, “Is that a… a… a sewing machine?” Most of the women in the class were shephardesses and I used to buy my fleeces from them, fresh off their sheeps’ backs and spin uncarded in the grease. I loved being that close to the source.

I moved to the US just as Ravelry was starting to take off and then met some of the members of the Pittsburgh indie fiber arts community – incredibly talented women who really inspired me. My wheel and all my fiber arts stuff was still in storage, but seeing their work got me feeling turbo-charged, and I immediately set up a craft area in our new house. I started to experiment with dyeing and found I loved it, and I haven’t looked back since!

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
For me, it’s the creative outlet, absolutely. It is such a thrill to just make something beautiful, and have that bring joy to others! I was never good in art class and my life had always been pointed toward stable and solid career path, and so I was stuck in one drab, beige cubicle after another… It was killing me and killing off my creativity — I honestly didn’t think I was an artistic person at all. And then to try something like dyeing and to have it stick, to really have it work and just flow out of me. Oh, it’s been incredible! It’s redefined my whole life outlook, really.

What most inspires you?
In terms of colour, most of it comes straight out of my head. I have something called synesthesia – it’s a condition where the senses don’t fully separate during infant development. The sense remain intertwined and stimulating one sense sets off another. For me, that means I see colours and shapes in front of my eyes whenever I hear a noise or feel a physical sensation. I know it sounds crazy to anyone who doesn’t have this, but it’s true! Hearing music makes coloured shapes dance before my eyes, and stubbing my toe or feeling a warm breeze suddenly casts different shades across my vision. As a dyer, it means I have colour inspiration constantly! But it also means that if I’m trying to dye, say, purple yarn and I’m listening to “yellow” music, I can’t do it. I have to turn the radio off to get any work done!

Do you have a favorite item or colorway?
Ha ha! Every new yarn that comes out of the dyepot! Seriously, I fall in love with every single one. That’s how I know I’m onto a good thing here!

What is your fiber arts superpower?
I can smell out silk at 10 paces! I thought everyone could tell a silk garment by its smell – it’s so distinctive — but I’ve since discovered that’s not the case. I’m not so good with wool – it doesn’t smell much after it’s been commercially processed, but when it’s still raw-ish, it smells so good and sheepy.

How is the fiber arts world different for you today than it was five years ago?
The fiber arts world is changing so rapidly that it’s incredibly exciting. Five years ago, knitters knit mostly in isolation or in very small pockets. Now, it’s exploding with the internet, with new knitting magazines, and a knitting group in every bookstore and coffee shop in town. Spinning is becoming popular and crochet is really on the rise. It’s such an exciting time to be a part of the fiber arts community!

Artist: Lauren R. Heller

What kind of items do you make?

I hand-dye wool top and handspin yarn. I make buttons, handknit hats and accessories, and unique fiber/textile jewelery. All of my items are handmade and one of a kind.

How long have you been in indie artist?

‘Artist’ is such an integral part of my self-identity; I can’t remember a time I ever did not consider myself an artist. I’ve only considered it a business since college, but I couldn’t pinpoint a particular date.

What got you interested in your art of choice?

I collect techniques and media like a bad happy. I’ve never met a type of art or craft I didn’t like.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?

I love the creative process: the physical, tangible experience of working with my hands to make things, and seeing the work emerge and evolve right at my fingertips. I rarely begin a project with an exact plan for the finished product.

What most inspires you?

I draw inspiration from the colors, shapes, and textures in nature, and from the history and tradition of art and craft.

Artist: Emily Eckel

What kind of items do you make?
I make artisan buttons. All of my buttons are either an interpretation of a preindustrial revolution button making technique or a technique that involves recycling old buttons. In other words I like to make old things new. I am particularly fascinated with button making techniques from the 16th & 17th centuries. Those people made the most of the resources locally available to them. I try to adapt the old techniques to the resources locally available to me.

How long have you been an indie artist?
I come from an artsy family and have always thought of myself as an artist. I came of age and embraced the counter culture in the late sixties. Since that time I’ve been comfortable with participating in activities that are outside of the mainstream culture. I suppose I’ve been an indie artist for a long time.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
I became involved with fiber arts in the 1990s when my sister passed away and left me the contents of her fiber arts studio. The inheritance changed my life and opened up creative possibilities such as button making and art dolls. I had learned the basics of the fiber arts in childhood from the women in my family. The inheritance gave me the resources and motivation to further explore the fiber arts. It’s been a lot a fun and I frequently thank my sister for her gift.

I became interested in button making through the retirement planning process. I wanted to develop a creatively interesting business that I can pursue through the aging process. After looking at various options I realized that contemporary artisan button making is being explored by very few people. It’s an area of the fiber arts where I can make a contribution to the community. Button making has a long and rich history and I think it’s fun!

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
Without a doubt it is experience of the creative process. I crave studio time and the satisfaction of making beautiful buttons.

What most inspires you?
I am amazed by the resourcefulness and creativity of the button makers of Dorset, England in the late 1600s.

What makes your creations unique?
I am reviving centuries old button making techniques and rendering them with materials that are from my sister’s stash or locally available sources.

Do you have a favorite item or colorway?
I love the cleverness of the Dorset cross wheel button! As for color, I’ve always been a fool for red.

What is something you strive to offer the fiber arts community?
My enthusiasm for artisan buttons! I’m not sure many indie fiber artists realize the rich possibilities of making their own buttons.

What is your fiber arts superpower?
The camaraderie of spending creative time with other artisans.

Artist: Lisa Beamer

What kind of items do you make?
I create hand-dyed yarns and spinning fibers. My focus is largely self-striping yarns and gradient-dyed fibers, but I also create a number of tonal, semi-solid and variegated colorways. I also design knitwear patterns.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
I’m an avid knitter and spinner, and I’ve always loved working with unique yarns and fibers, especially those created by indie artists. After working with other people’s yarns and fibers for so long, it seemed a natural progression for me to try my hand at creating my own. Once I did, I loved the process, and it has taken on a life of its own!

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
I’ve always loved making something beautiful out of something ordinary. It remains magical to me to watch plain, natural-colored fibers transform before my eyes to become beautiful and vibrantly-colored ones. I especially enjoy playing with different fibers and seeing how they each go through the transformation a little bit differently, sometimes producing stunningly varied end products.

What most inspires you?
While the interplay between color and texture makes me giddy, I’d have to say that I am most inspired by potential. I’m always asking myself the question, “What if I…?” The question applies to creating new colorways, mixing dyes to create the perfect colors, dreaming up new striping patterns, or designing a pattern to match the image in my mind. I just love to play with the possibilities, address challenges in the process and see what results.

What is something you strive to offer the fiber arts community?
The combination of a high quality product and epic customer service. :)

Does being an indie fiber artist affect other aspects of your life?
We are a homeschooling family with two high school aged teens. Part of my motivation for starting Fibernymph Dye Works was so that it could be something they could be involved in, both to earn a little extra cash and to gain first-hand experience in what it means to run a business. The dyeing responsibilities are mine, but the kids take part in many of the behind-the-scenes jobs including skeining and reskeining yarn (invaluable to me!) and helping process orders for shipping, as well as some of the fun things like coming up with colorway names and putting together the goodie bags I send out with online orders. For my husband’s part, he pitches in wherever needed when I’m in a pinch, and there have been several nights when he’s been more than gracious about coming home to a kitchen full of wet yarn and pizza delivery for dinner (again).

What is your fiber arts superpower? Accommodating custom orders. I’ve dyed yarn to match some interesting things!

Artist: Gwen E. Brown

What kind of items do you make?
Handdyed/handspun yarn; handdyed roving, top, locks; knitwear using my handspun yarn

How long have you been in indie artist?
I’ve been knitting and spinning for about 6 years. The first craft show I did was in 2006, but it wasn’t until recently that I really started focusing more on this as a business venture. In 2008 I opened an Etsy shop, and this past year I have tripled the number of shows I attend.

What got you interested in your art of choice?
It’s difficult to say what got me interested in fiber arts. When I think back, I can remember carding my cats’ fur when I was about 6 or 7 years old, although I’m not sure how that idea came into my head. Also, I crocheted for a brief period when I was 12. At that point my favorite aspect of crocheting was winding the yarn into balls. I think I would just wind a ball of yarn into a ball of yarn and didn’t really get much crocheting done. It wasn’t until I went to college and saw a whole table full of knit hats at a craft show that I really became interested in learning how to knit. After that I took a spinning class during a medieval reenactment event. From there everything else just seemed like a logical next step: dyeing, weaving, carding, combing, felting, and eventually selling.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
My favorite thing about fiber arts is just the variety of it. There are so many different ways to use fiber and so many great tools to collect. If you have a short attention span, like I do, this is a great way to keep yourself interested. Sometimes I get really excited about weaving and just focus only on that, but the next day I might get out my drumcarder and work with it for a few hours. It’s hard to get bored because there are so many options.

What most inspires you?
It is difficult to say what inspires me. As far as colors, I often see things in nature that I want to recreate when dyeing. If I’m planning a new pair of mittens, I might try to incorporate an interesting striping pattern from a favorite sweater. If I was able to find a true source of inspiration, it might make my work easier or at least more inspired!

What makes your creations unique?
My creations are unique because I have no particular scientific method when I work and that means each item will be different from every other item. This can be a challenge, however, if I find that I’ve dyed something I really love. I have to think back as to how it came into being and I can’t always remember. Also, I like to work with wool from farms that are local to me – northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. It’s a great way to support local farmers and find out what breeds of sheep are excelling in this particular climate (Romney appears to be doing well).

Do you have a favorite item or colorway?
Rather than a specific item, I would say I really like my ever-changing collection of bulky yarns. They are quick, easy, and fun to create and work with. Plus they are so squishy and lofty. As far as colorways, I do not have repeatable recipes; however there are color combinations that I tend to gravitate towards. I love the way purple, orange, and red/pink interact. I like working with the “pie pieces” on the color wheel; those colors that are next to each other rather than opposite.

What is something you strive to offer the fiber arts community?
I strive to offer the fiber arts community fun, lively colors in many different and varied types of wool. This can be as yarn, prepared spinning fiber, or locks. No matter your skill level, there is something to suit your needs, and it will always be a little different than what you bought before. I love variety, and each fleece I buy is different, even if it comes from the same animal year after year. I want my fiber to have personality. I want my customers to embrace the variation of nature instead of buying the same blank, over-processed fiber again and again.

Does being an indie fiber artist affect other aspects of your life?
Certainly, it’s hard to keep the fiber contained, physically and otherwise. I’m a lot more thoughtful when I buy clothes, looking at the fiber content; I plan my vacations around fiber festivals; I take my knitting with me wherever I go. Now that I’m increasing the number of shows I attend, I must also increase production, so a lot of my free time at home is spent working on various fiber projects. The way it has affected my life the most is by consuming it entirely.

What is your fiber arts superpower?
I am a great ball winder. When I first started knitting, I decided to buy a hand crank ball winder on Ebay. It was the first time I bought anything there and it came from Canada. Let’s just say the French stamps were significantly more thrilling than the ball winder. Instead of buying another one, my husband bought me a nostepinne for Christmas and now I use it exclusively. Considering that I spent most of my time winding yarn balls instead of crocheting as a kid, I think I may have found my reason for living.

How is the fiber arts world different for you today than it was five years ago?
Five years ago I wasn’t too active in the fiber arts world; in fact, I was just really getting started. I was still creating and experimenting at home alone, staying on the periphery of the community. These days I’m out doing demos when I can, signing up for more fiber shows, and generally trying to go for it. Five years ago I never would have thought I’d be so involved in the business aspects. It took me many baby steps and a great deal of pondering before I even ventured into opening an online shop. Hopefully I’ll be even farther along in another five years.

Artist: Ana Brito Skalos

What kind of items do you make?
I sew just about anything, but for this show you will see lots of pouches to store all those miscellanous knitting gadgets, needle rolls, circular organizers, small draw string project bags, tote bags, large project bags.

How long have you been in indie artist?
I’ve been an indie artist for many years but my business was created during the summer of 2009

What got you interested in your art of choice?
Yarn is my passion and I’m a knitter at heart but I just never had much interest in designing items since everyone else does it so well. I’ve been interested in sewing for many years but was always “scared” of the machine. One day, after moving to Pittsburgh in 2005, an idea for a circular needle organizer popped in my head and the rest is history.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
Knowing that I’m creating items that are truly useful as well as appealing to the eye.

What most inspires you?
All my crafty friends.

What makes your creations unique?
Face it, I haven’t invented the wheel but my items are well thought out and well made. I take great pride in creating pieces that you will use for many years.

Do you have a favorite item or colorway?
Typically, it depends on the time of the years, but I love my earthy tones and colors.

What is something you strive to offer the fiber arts community?
Organization! Don’t you want to know where those size 7 needles are rather than buying another set?

Does being an indie fiber artist affect other aspects of your life?
I’m much more aware of where I buy things. I believe in supporting local artists and local shops whenever possible.

What is your fiber arts superpower?
Project monogomy!

How is the fiber arts world different for you today than it was five years ago?
I’ve expanded my knitting skills and have become very interested in spinning my own fiber.

Artist: Maggie Broderick

What kind of items do you make?
Hand-painted and hand-dyed yarns, hand-knitted wool diaper covers, my book “Knitting Wool Diaper Covers from Start to Finish,” and kits for learning to knit and dye.

How long have you been in indie artist? Since 2006

What got you interested in your art of choice?
I’ve been crafting all of my life, mostly with yarn and fabric. My grandmother and aunt taught me to knit and crochet when I was a young child, but I became completely obsessed with knitting around the time I became pregnant with my first child. Now that I’m a mother to three daughters, I’ve combined my love of fiber arts with my love of my family and the environment by starting my own business related to wool diaper covers and yarn dyeing.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
I love combining color, texture, and style into something that I’ve created completely by hand.

What most inspires you? My children :)

Does being an indie fiber artist affect other aspects of your life?
I consider myself foremost as a teacher in all aspects of my life. I have a Ph.D. in Education, and have loved teaching others for as long as I can remember. Teaching is a part of my parenting, my career (outside of being a fiber artist), and my work as a fiber artist. It gives me great joy showing others how to do the things that I enjoy doing and seeing the looks of pride on their faces when they learn something new.

What is your fiber arts superpower?
Teaching others to knit and dye

How is the fiber arts world different for you today than it was five years ago?
I’m so excited to see the Indie fiber arts scene opening up so beautifully in Pittsburgh. Five years ago all of my sales were online, but now I get to meet many more of my customers in person.

We have a simple flier that can be printed in black and white if you want to share this event with your fibery peeps. Message Gwen if you’d like a PDF emailed to you.