Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Fabric Arts – a conversation with Sarazen Anyin
0 Playsin 11 hours
Fibre art is any fine art that uses natural or synthetic fibre, fabric or yarn to create an item that can be displayed, used or worn.
There are says Sarazen Anyin more than fifty different fibre arts from sewing to Nålebinding.
In this episode of podcast Rest and Recreation, Sarazen describes her introduction to fibre arts with embroidery, and how that initial interest became a passion and then a career.
Michael and Sarazen explore the history of fibre arts and the evolution of the technical size of the craft.
Inspired? Sarazen explains the easy way to get started with fibre arts and how to explore the different aspects of fibre arts.
Rest and Recreation is made on Zencastr.
Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing and use our offer code ABECEDER.
Travel
Each country, region, and culture, has its own approach to fabric and clothing. If you wanted to travel the world exploring fabric cultures the best way to make your travel arrangements is by joining The Ultimate Travel Club, because that is where you will get trade prices on flights, hotels, and package holidays.
Use offer code ABEC79 to receive a discount on your membership fee.
You can find out more about both Michael Millward, and Sarazen Anyin at Abeceder.co.uk .
Proactive Positive Ageing.
Sarazen and Michael discuss the health and well-being benefits of fibre arts, how the rhythmic motion of the art form can help with psychological well-being.
When it comes to health it’s a good idea to know the risks early so that you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health, so we recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test which covers 39 different health markers.
Access York Test and use this discount code ABECEDER2.
Matchmaker.fm
Thank you to the team at Matchmaker.fm introducing me to Sarazen Matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.
Three the network
Wave goodbye to buffering by listening on the UK’s Fastest 5G Network with Unlimited Data, Three.
Visit Three for information about telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.
If you have liked this episode of Rest and Recreation, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen any time anywhere.
To make sure you do not miss future editions please subscribe.
Being a Guest
If you would like to be a guest on Rest and Recreation, please contact us using the link at Abeceder.co.uk.
We recommend that potential guests take one of the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abeceder is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think!
Thank you to you for listening.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Rest and Recreation' Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abysida. I am your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida.
Zencastr Promotion
00:00:18
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, Rest and Recreation is made on Zencastr. Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform on which you can make your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms like Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Google YouTube Music.
00:00:40
Speaker
Zencastr really does make making podcasts so easy. If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr, visit zencastr.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code, Abysida.
00:00:56
Speaker
All the details are in the description. Now that I have told you how wonderful Zencast is for making podcasts, we should make one. One that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
00:01:12
Speaker
Very importantly on Rest and Recreation, we don't tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think.
Guest Introduction: Sarazen Anyin
00:01:20
Speaker
Today, my guest, who I met on matchmaker.fm, is Sarazen Anyin.
00:01:27
Speaker
Sarazen is based in Tennessee in the United States. Tennessee is famous for Dolly Parton and Dollywood. So maybe we'll hear some stories.
00:01:38
Speaker
Maybe Saracen knows Dolly. Anyway, if you fancy a trip to Tennessee and Dollywood, the best place to make your travel arrangements is with the Ultimate Travel Club. It's where you get trade prices on flights, hotels and holidays and all sorts of other travel related purchases.
00:01:55
Speaker
There is a link and a membership discount code in the description. Now, hello, Saracen. How are you today? hi i'm I'm doing pretty good today. Great. Now, do you know Dolly? ah Alas, I do not know Dolly, but there there are many artists in the area who make pictures of her.
00:02:13
Speaker
she She's very well known around here. I can imagine she's very well known in my part of the world as well. And she has in some parts of the UK had her book service for children in schools. So she's well known beyond just the world of music and theme parks.
Sarazen's Journey in Fiber Arts
00:02:30
Speaker
Please could we start by you giving us a little bit of a potted history about who you are and what it is that you do. Well, I am a fiber artist, and i have been doing fiber art since I was quite young.
00:02:46
Speaker
I started out doing embroidery. The embroidery was a staple in my family for girls. That was kind of a a thing when you were little, you know, girls would learn how to do embroidery.
00:02:59
Speaker
And took just happened to like it. And through the years I built on it, I learned how to sew. I taught myself how to ah knit and crochet.
00:03:10
Speaker
And then in my late twenties, after my oldest daughter was born, i learned how to spin wool. So I, that put me in touch with sheep fiber, you know, just in a very loose form.
00:03:26
Speaker
I spun yarn for a number of years. i I still enjoy spinning yarn. It's a very meditative and relaxing thing. And through the course of that, I then generated a lot of wool everywhere. You end up, when you do things like that, people will go through their own little spells and, you know, their own craft adventures and they'll decide, oh, hey, you know, you have, you like wool, you would like this. And you end up with quite a lot of it, you know, other people's ah leftover supplies. yeah
00:04:04
Speaker
And I reached a point where it was, i was, um you know I wasn't making things for my kids anymore. i had too many things that I had hand spun disappear or you know not be well cared for. And I'm like, I i need to do something with all of this wool. And that's when I started to explore felting and I learned how to felt and I learned how to Nuno felt.
00:04:30
Speaker
Then I did some needle felting and through a course of what ifs, a series of what ifs, I came to where I'm making the wool paintings that I make now.
00:04:42
Speaker
started out, you know, what if I took this wool and felted it into hats? And then what if I, you know, put put pictures on these hats to make them more interesting? And then, you know, what if I just flattened it out and made art and called it art?
00:05:00
Speaker
And that's where I am right now. Outside of that, I have lived over ah most of the United States. I've lived on both coasts.
00:05:12
Speaker
I've lived in Alaska. my My family of origin is kind of split between the northern United States and the southern United States. So I grew
Therapeutic Aspects of Fiber Arts
00:05:22
Speaker
up traveling in between the two. And ah the cultures are really quite different.
00:05:27
Speaker
And that kind of the intersection of those two cultures informs a lot of the the thought in the story that goes behind the work that I make.
00:05:39
Speaker
It sounds as if you've covered off all of the fabric type crafts and art forms at some point. Yeah, I've got most of them. The one that I haven't really done a lot of is weaving.
00:05:49
Speaker
um And that's because it requires, you know, looms and they're big. so And you need a lot of space for a loom, don't you really, if you're going to do anything serious about with it? Yes, yes, you do.
00:06:01
Speaker
The felting and and everything sounds really interesting. And I have looked at your website and some of the art that you've created, and it is quite spectacular. no yeah Thank you. yes There's some so very striking pieces, which you got into this because it's almost like a family tradition. I think for lots of people, there is a tradition in their families of...
00:06:23
Speaker
needlework of making clothes of embroidery at some point it'll be well we're embroidering things for the chest that girls collect for the things they're going to have in their in their first home after their marriage thing and then moving on to making your own clothes when you mentioned about the spinning being therapeutic i think all fabric art forms all fabric based crafts have an element of the therapeutic about it especially when it's done without a machine when you are there doing your hand embroidery when you are knitting by hand or crocheting by hand or sewing there's an element of the therapeutic about it all
00:07:03
Speaker
I would definitely agree with that. One of the things that I have learned in, I've done some writing on fiber arts on my website, you know in an effort to help people understand a lot of the tradition that goes behind, not just my work, but all of fiber art, that the skills that, that I use in making my work and that are behind really making anything oh of cloth ah go back quite a long time.
00:07:39
Speaker
you know, there's evidence of spun fibers going back 30,000 and even 50,000 years. And, you know, when I think about that, and I think about how long that habit has been with human beings. it just It's kind of mind-boggling.
00:08:00
Speaker
But it it makes sense to me that all of these things on a deeper level just feel you know make your make your interaction with the world kind of make sense.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:15
Speaker
it it seems a little bit ah overblown to say like you're supposed to do it, but there's something about it that is um very soothing to do. and I think you know it has to it has to be in some way related to that.
00:08:29
Speaker
Something
Historical Development of Fiber Arts
00:08:30
Speaker
that was a survival skill for thousands of years has to be something that would be productive and would be enjoyable for people to do or they wouldn't do it. That is true, because it's time-consuming, isn't it?
00:08:46
Speaker
You can't create ah knitted pullover just in one day. It's going to take a lot of time. Oh, absolutely. It's very time-consuming, especially if you consider the historical origins.
00:09:02
Speaker
Of course, you know fiber does not ah hold up over the eons the way some other artifacts would, but the artifacts that have... managed to survive have been early plant fibers. They call them bast fibers.
00:09:18
Speaker
And a lot of times those can come from the inside of like trees and tree bark, the early ones. The one that most people would probably be familiar with is linen.
00:09:30
Speaker
And there's evidence of that going back a few thousand years, but all of those fibers, you know, just to get them and to use them, you have to, you know, pull them and process them. And in some cases beat them and then spin them.
00:09:47
Speaker
And after you spin them, all you have is a string. So the, a number of steps that you have to go through to get to ah finished garment is really quite extensive. You know, once you have, once you have your string, you know, then you have to weave it, which there's the evidence of weaving go back further than say knitting.
00:10:11
Speaker
um But that doesn't mean that necessarily that knitting didn't start earlier, just that we don't have evidence of that, but it's a tremendous amount of work, lot of work.
00:10:22
Speaker
yeah The thing that is really fascinating is that, yes, there is evidence that these fabrics existed, this fibre was being used.
00:10:34
Speaker
But I always wonder how someone worked out that you could take the bark from a tree and turn it into ah fibre which could be used for clothing.
00:10:46
Speaker
i yeah I know it's a huge mystery. you know i i can only, and I don't think that there are any historians or archeologists that know the answer exactly, but from my own experience with doing a lot of spinning, there is something ah very compelling about twisting things with with our fingers.
00:11:11
Speaker
you know, if you look at the things that what we know our ancestors did to survive and what they had to do, the problems that they had to solve in order to survive, you know, they had to do, you know, little steps at a time.
00:11:27
Speaker
And it probably wasn't clothing that they started out using that fiber for, was probably just to tie things together. Because you can make ah pretty short cording with your fingers, you know, just using your fingers and use it to tie like so a couple of sticks together, which then you could use to build like a structure, even if it was, you know, just something to hold a container over a fire so that you could cook.
00:11:59
Speaker
It's useful in that way. Whether you start out using bits of like animal hide, or you start out using bits of tree, there's probably a situation of where something made more sense at first. Maybe it was animal hides, I don't know.
00:12:18
Speaker
And then people found themselves without that particular material available and then went looking for other materials that were like that. And that would, you know, it makes sense to me that, you know, they would find that inside certain trees and
Family Traditions and Historical Understanding
00:12:32
Speaker
different reeds.
00:12:34
Speaker
Yes, it makes sense. What you described makes sense. But what is all the more compelling for me is that, yeah, this started off as something that you did with your older relatives as a family tradition and developed into...
00:12:50
Speaker
an interest which developed, which you then explored and took in all of the different fibre arts. But it's also that, like I suppose with many people, once you get into something, it can become not all-consuming, but you to get the maximum enjoyment from it, it almost makes sense to investigate it, to understand it, to to learn more beyond just the simple physical action of doing the craft.
00:13:20
Speaker
Oh, definitely. i think that different people have different tracks in the way that they go about it. But I do think that if you persist in it, if you stay in it, if it's something that you find compelling, eventually you are going to start wanting to track down the history. Yes.
00:13:43
Speaker
One of the things that ah has been interesting for me in this journey is understanding how they figured different things out in the archaeological record.
00:13:57
Speaker
And one of the one of the ways that they've been able to trace spinning is has been in finding different spindle whorls in the graves of women.
00:14:09
Speaker
And for a long time, they didn't really quite put together what they what those were. Over time, you know, when they started to put together with the traditions of what people are doing today, that became self-evident, even though there was some debate about how they were used.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, it it it pulls you back in. You can't you know you can you can go so far in the craft and enjoying the craft, and and maybe it's also more of a reflection as you get older, but when you think about what it is that you're doing and how it relates to what you ultimately produce, you have to think about the history and how it was that we got there.
00:14:55
Speaker
You know, how can you not think about it? if like for example, if I was going to make a sweater of hand spun, I would spend a couple of weeks, if I worked like solidly every day, just spinning the yarn and then putting it together.
00:15:09
Speaker
You can't not do that and then go into a store and not think about how amazing it is that you can just go into a store and see a sweater And then think about what what the lives of our ancestors must have been like when the only way they could get a sweater would be to put in that much effort individually on a regular basis in order to keep themselves warm and their family warm.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. A whole... yeah you Yeah, that really makes you think. a whole attitude towards clothing, because it's now mass produced, it comes from other countries, a whole attitude towards clothing has changed, hasn't it? It's like, if you make something, if you know that someone has handmade something, you understand the value, the time, the value,
00:16:01
Speaker
and the care that goes into producing something, it does make you wonder how it is possible that know you can buy a pair of jeans for not much more than you can buy a cup of coffee for.
00:16:14
Speaker
Oh, yeah absolutely. i mean, it I think it's one of the underappreciated miracles of our modern life, particularly as a woman. in In learning the history of fiber art,
00:16:32
Speaker
you know, one of the things that is very correlated is that through history, it was primarily women that were doing a lot of the work.
00:16:44
Speaker
And that's why you see in mythology, the fates who were, you know, they made the cloth, they spun the wool, you know, they cut the thread of the life, that sort of thing.
00:16:55
Speaker
And In multiple different civilizations, that kind of work has been associated with women, which is not to say that men never did it.
00:17:07
Speaker
Men definitely have added to the fiber art tradition, but the spinning in particular tended to have been more of a woman's job, spinning and weaving, probably because it's pretty easy to put down and pick back up while you're also taking took care of children, which is of course, you know, how I experienced it because I learned when my oldest daughter, know, was six months old and it was easy for me to put it down and take care of her and then pick it back up again without,
00:17:44
Speaker
having to really think too much about switching from one mode to another, yes you know which would be difficult in and a lot of other tasks.
Gender Roles in North African Weaving
00:17:54
Speaker
Yes.
00:17:55
Speaker
On a trip to North Africa, i was told that but in North Africa, the carpets that the area is famous for will be made by women and the clothing would be made by men. So tailors were men, but carpet weavers were women.
00:18:13
Speaker
And part the explanation for this was that you can make ah shirt or a pair of trousers or fairly quickly, but the women would be working for a long period of time on the carpets.
00:18:27
Speaker
And the explanation I was given was that men don't have the patience or the attention to detail. to make a carpet, but they can make a shirt instead. I think um as a man, I'll have to accept that there is some some truth in that that assessment of all these things. But I think what is great is that you have taken something that was a family tradition and turned it into something that was that you were able to provide things for your family through, but now is also not just a hobby, but a form of artistic expression and is also providing an income for you as well.
00:19:05
Speaker
I think that's fantastic. The big question of course, is that there are all these different forms of fabric craft from knitting, embroidery, crochet, sewing, felting, all sorts of various different things.
00:19:20
Speaker
If there is someone sitting at home and thinking like, I fancy giving that a go, what would be your advice to them to sort like, where should they start? Which one of the fiber crafts should they be thinking about doing first?
00:19:34
Speaker
Well, you know, i think ah I think some of it depends on how much available, ah you know, cash they have to spend. If if you don't have a lot, ah probably the easiest one to pick up is knitting.
00:19:53
Speaker
because all that's required to knit is up a ball of yarn and a pair of sticks. That's it. That's all you need. um And it does require some practice, which is one of the things that most fiber arts require. And I don't think people think about that in advance. it's You have to remember whatever one you choose you're going You have to train your body. It's sort of like learning how to ride a bicycle.
00:20:25
Speaker
And at first, it's going to feel really awkward. you know When you first start to knit, it feels like you're trying to like manipulate ah rubber bands and broomsticks with the tips of your fingers.
00:20:37
Speaker
And it feels very, very awkward. um But if you persist over the course of like a week or two, then you your body will learn how to do it. after that point, then you can decide if you like it or not.
00:20:51
Speaker
But I think that that, that is often a good place to start when that isn't a good place to start.
Understanding Fiber Characteristics
00:20:58
Speaker
Like some people find that early, you know, feeling of awkwardness too frustrating and they can't, you know, hang in there for a couple of weeks before it starts to feel normal and natural.
00:21:12
Speaker
Felting is you don't go through that process. It's a little bit more complicated to get involved in because you have to find the right kind of fiber and you might need to reach out to a class or something to help you get started because there's a lot of technical information that you need in order to actually get a result that is something like what you would want because some some wool and some fiber felts do not, including sheep.
00:21:45
Speaker
Most people think of sheep's wool as always felting, but that's not the case. There are a number of breeds that their wool actually will not felt in the normal wet using soap and water process that we think of.
00:22:02
Speaker
it It's interesting because the more that you get into the different crafts, you start to learn about these different individual characteristics of the materials that you're working with that for the most part, people have forgotten this information because we don't need to have it. you know We go to the store to buy clothes.
00:22:20
Speaker
But when you start to work in it, you start to learn and then you can appreciate these different little details. when you've learnt and then you go into a store to buy clothes, I think you end up making better informed decisions because you're reading the label and looking at what it's made of and the percentage of each different type of fibre that has gone into they the item of clothing.
00:22:44
Speaker
And you understand more about how that piece of clothing is going to where how it's going to look whilst you're wearing it and how to care for it because you understand the basics about the fibers that it's been that have been used to make it. Oh, and definitely. i would definitely agree with that.
00:23:01
Speaker
i mean, one of the big things that routinely surprises people when I meet them and they talk to me is, you know, I make most of my yarn and the garments that I make out of wool, people say, well, then don't you have to take that to the dry cleaners?
00:23:19
Speaker
And you know it's like, no, you know you just have to know how to wash it. And it's pretty straightforward to wash once you know what to do and what not to do.
00:23:31
Speaker
you know You have complete control over whether something is going to felt if you know how to if you know how to wash it. And it's the kind of thing that you learn by necessity when you start working with these materials.
00:23:45
Speaker
when When you're creating something, you can also put that information into what it is that you are making. And I have met some amazing craft women who have you know put together and designed like a bag or a garment with this knowledge,
00:24:04
Speaker
to have a particular sort of wearing characteristic and a kind of drape that you, you just can't, you can't buy that because it's all custom to what somebody wants with the knowledge of the different fibers and how they react and the processes to put them together in a way that for, for most people is just, you know, you just never even recognize that that level of detail is there because you don't see it.
00:24:33
Speaker
You are starting to talk about making at home the type of clothes to the quality, you know, the style, the design, the quality that people who would go to a Paris haute couture, know, a Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, that is what you're talking about making because you've got the knowledge and the skill in order to design something that will, like you say, drape in a particular way.
Craftsmanship and Weaving Technology in the U.S.
00:25:02
Speaker
yeah yeah one don't don't underestimate the the level of skill that you've developed and it's so the way in which you're describing it makes me think that yes you know if you were to start this week with a a knitting kit from one of the craft shops or the big supermarkets you could end up with a hat to scarves pair of mittens and then find out how easy it is it just takes a little bit of time and before you know where you are you could be on the route too knitting jumpers and highly patterned jumpers before you before you know we are it's it's it's the sort of craft that you can do at home you don't need a huge investment like you say wool pattern
00:25:50
Speaker
two knitting needles sticks and you're away and then you can get into the sewing all sorts things you've uh yeah you mentioned crafts women have you met craftsmen who do this as well I have. In fact, there are um a couple of men who ah spin at my spinners guild.
00:26:10
Speaker
And we have a young teenage boy who is also learning how to spin as well. it It's particularly nice to have their point of view when we're talking about things.
00:26:23
Speaker
But I have met others as well. There are a lot of men who weave. In fact, one of the things I learned in reading about the history is that the weaving machines were first brought over to the United States by men. It was weavers who had been employed in England, and there was a ah tension there to keep the technology in England.
00:26:51
Speaker
but they brought it over to the United States. And that allowed the people here to start using that technology to make cloth and clothing here without having to ship it back initially.
00:27:06
Speaker
You know, we we would ship all of our cotton to to Britain to get it processed and turned into cloth. And then, you know, Then you'd buy it back. So the cotton would be grown in in North America, shipped to places like Lancashire in the United Kingdom, where there were masses and masses of cotton mills because the climate was just right for the management of the production process.
00:27:31
Speaker
And then we would sell it back to to the empire. So it's all changed now, all changed. But you know, Sarazen, it is really very, very interesting.
00:27:41
Speaker
Thank you very much for sharing your time with me. It's been great. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me. and I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida. And in this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Sarazen Anyan, who is a fiber artist.
00:28:00
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us at abbasida.co.uk. There is a link in the description. And there is also a link to Sarazen's website, which is Sarazen. What is your website address? Sarazenanyan.com.
00:28:14
Speaker
And there'll be that link in the description as well. I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker.fm for introducing me to Sarazen. If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Sarazen, you have something very interesting to say, Matchmaker is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made.
00:28:35
Speaker
There is a link to matchmaker.fm and an offer code in the description.
Conclusion and Listener Invitation
00:28:40
Speaker
If you are listening to rest and recreation on your smartphone, you may like to know that 3.0 has the UK's fastest network with unlimited data.
00:28:50
Speaker
So listening on 3.0 means you can wave goodbye to buffering. There is a link in the description that will take you to more information about business and personal telecom solutions from 3.0 and the special offers available when you use my referral code.
00:29:06
Speaker
That description is going to be well worth reading. If you have liked this episode of Fit for My Age, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere.
00:29:18
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think.
00:29:30
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye. Thank you.