What Is A Fiber Artist?

The other day, on my Facebook wall, an old pal of mine asked the question, "What is a fiber artist?"

After replying with a joke that seemed a whole lot funnier at 5:30 AM, I attempted to explain it to him.  Unfortunately, my brief, pre-caffiene, tossed out there explanation seemed to just confuse him all the more, so I thought I'd take a moment to expound upon it here.

What is a fiber artist? 

Well, the short answer is someone who makes works of art out of fiber.  And what is fiber?  It can be many things.  Fiber can be the fluffy stuff we cut off of sheep, goats, or rabbits.  Fiber can be the hair we brush from our cats or dogs.  Fiber can come from more exotic animals, like Yak, buffalo, or camel.

Fiber can also come from plant sources.  Cotton



flax, hemp, even corn and bamboo are all examples of fiber plants.

And of course, fiber can be synthetically made, too.  Acrylic, nylon, polyester, tencel, rayon are common synthetic fibers.  So what does a fiber artist do?  A fiber artist turns these raw materials into finished products.  There are various methods of doing this, but all have to start with turning the fiber in to yarn or thread.  Many people out there like to spin their own yarn.  I do have a spindle



but I'd really rather spend my time knitting.  Anyway, once the fiber is spun into yarn, the fiber artist will take that yarn, and turn it into something useful.  These useful items can range from the simple necessities of life, such as socks



and warm winter hats

to the more decadent lacy shawls.



And some that are downright works of art. 



Now, me, I prefer knitting. Other people enjoy crocheting, weaving, or tatting. Whatever the method, we are all fiber artists.

In other news, I finally got fed up and removed that idiotic Picapp widget.  My page loads so much faster now.  The down side is now I've got a bunch of posts with no pictures were pictures used to be.  But they'd taken all my pictures down anyway when they decided not to support blogs any more--and this after they assured us that the photos we'd already posted would remain live.  I would not recommend this app to anyone. 


Maybe now my traffic will pick up.