This is a space for more long-form thought than social media posts allow. Here is a space for the sharing of ideas, inspirations, and techniques that pertain to fibre art and fiber craft. If you love thinking about fibre, you’ll like it here (or at least, I hope you will!)
My name is Janis Ledwell-Hunt and here’s me in my (questionable) green hair phase. I’m the founder, owner, and operator of Unfettered Art and Supply (also known as Unfettered Co). I really love writing, and yet I find that the 2200 character limit of an Instagram caption is not enough for the delivery of certain forms of thought. I’ve been longing for a space where I can connect some dots or maybe even just examine some different questions than what I’ve been able to grapple with on social media.
Like many artists, makers, and owners of creative businesses, I’ve found myself increasingly bristling at the act of “creating content.” On the one hand, it’s my job to create content for my business and it’s my pleasure to do so for our customers and community. On the other hand, what’s lacking from social media, I find, is more of an element of control over the sorts of content we create; and more of a rich life for the content itself.
I’ve been thinking quite a lot about how to be more intentional with the time I devote to my business. Until now, I’ve relied heavily on Meta for marketing. But IG is a vexed space that began with a misogynistic, megalomaniac tech bro’s sense of disdain for women’s bodies. That’s coded into its DNA. I have complicated feelings about spending so much of my time in a space like that, especially as that space becomes more and more hostile to the temporalities and creative outputs of artists: to the slow examination of detail, material, composition, expression, and technique that is absolutely crucial to fiberart.
Blogging has a different history
It’s a history that’s energized by creative women at every turn. Blogging’s popularization in the early 2000s was, in large part, driven by women’s desire to reach a broader audience where we could unpack the sheer creativity that went into our daily work. The way we dressed. The way we thrifted. The way we cooked. The way we gardened. The way we exercised. The way we journaled. The way we parented. The way we decorated. The way we crafted. The way we communicated. The way we communed. The way we consumed.
Blogging was a form of social media (and yes, an early form of influencer culture) that was predicated on women’s work. Its founding energetic momentums have often been in resistance and resilience to misogyny. And I like that. It feels more psychologically healthy for me to create content that’s animated by this particular context. So this blog is worth a try: an open space for the sharing of ideas as they arise, and as they pertain to working with fibre/fiber (I’ll use those two different spellings of the term interchangeably from here).
Thank you for being here,
Janis
