We recently connected with Kristin Roy and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kristin, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I was stationed in the interior Alaska as a civil engineer Air Force Officer. During the winter months there is little sunlight with arctic temperatures, leaving me feeling very anxious and restless to go out and do something, which was made worse when I gave birth to my first son in the middle of the winter. Between the long nights, darkness and my family being thousand of miles away, I needed something to help my sanity as a new mom. Before my career in the Air Force, I used to spend countless hours drawing and doing many types of art as I had the time and space. As a military officer, and especially a mom, I had a hard time finding the chance to fulfill my need and itch for a creative outlet. In those long hours with my newborn indoors, crocheting became my artistic outlet that I desperately needed.
While I was stuck on the couch in the middle of the night with my newborn, I decided I wanted to make him a baby blanket. I pulled up my laptop and in between newborn feedings on my maternity leave, I watched YouTube videos on basic crochet. During my three-month maternity leave, I finally finished the blanket and my son still uses it to this day (6 years later!). Full of holes where my mistakes were, but still his prized possession.
As I was feeling very isolated at my first duty station and I only did crochet in the little time I had to myself between overseeing construction projects, military duties, being a wife and now a mother, it made it hard at the time to practice and learn new things. It wasn’t until COVID hit until I actually started connecting with other fiber artists, with all the time everyone had locked up in our homes. Connecting with them online in social media and forums, gave me the confidence and helped me further develop my skills in ways I wish I would have taken advantage of sooner.
Kristin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Originally I was a digital and traditional artist of pencil, charcoal and pastels. My time in the last 15 years between studying engineering and my military career left very little time for me to satisfy my creative wants. Crochet and knitting became an opportunity for me to be able to still have some outlet but be able to pick it up and down quickly as needed. Chasing a toddler down the hallway while working on a pastel drawing is just not conducive to the artistic zone I like to be in!
It wasn’t until COVID hit, right after I changed careers and entered the civilian construction management field that I tried to sell my items. It started on Etsy when I saw a need for some solution to help with mask fatigue and soreness people had while wearing masks for hours. With so many of many friends and family in the medical field and front lines, it was easy for me to find motivation to find a solution and got to work on a crochet ear saver prototype. Within a few weeks of trial and error I started selling handmade ear savers on Etsy, which exploded in popularity to my suprise.
This continued for another year and a half and helped me gain the confidence and experience of running a little ‘shop’ of handmade goods. By this point I had much more time under my belt and as the market generated by COVID was starting to dwindle, I knew I had to pivot in my business model. I quickly jumped on making more items for every wear and focusing more on ‘handmade comfort’s that I strive for.
At this point Etsy was bought out and the organization of it changed drastically enough that from a financial standpoint it didn’t make sense for me to stay on that platform, especially since I wanted to focus on more detailed and time consuming crochet projects.
Since opening up my own website and social media accounts, I now have branched into making hats, shawls, scarves, gloves, baby blankets and so much more. With some help from friends and local artisans, whom I met through markets and other shops I sold my items in, my shop has now become much more independent and a true reflection of what I strive for in my shop’s brand of handmade comfort through crochet and knitting.
It has now been a year of really focusing on things that really help me feel accomplished and inspiring the ‘handmade comfort’ feel. But at the end of the day, what I’m most proud of is the networking I have done to expand my skills and offerings even further.
Recently I have started collaborations with other local artisans to branch into new offerings for my clients, such as custom leather patches to put on my hats with Shenanigans by Sam and Iris is Beauty, faux fur material for my pom poms from another small shop providing material (Sheepish Stitches), to making face scrubbies to put in my friend’s handmade body care boxes (Bee Lunar Company) to now perhaps even starting to making crochet handbags with my step-mom/sister business using some of their scrap leather as a base, Saint Crispin Leatherworks.
These networking abilities have helped me cement the business aspect of my shop while still being able to create fulfilling things for those around me. It’s helped me create the community and village I never knew I needed for my shop.
Through all these experiences, I have learned so much about my craft and about myself and what I can accomplish. This has only further improved my confidence and fueled my motivation to continue to adapt and provide more so when clients come and ask with a vague idea, we can walk away with something really awesome that I made for them taking their ideas and making it a reality.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The best part of making the creations is seeing people in the wild wearing creations I made. I love seeing photos of the kids wearing their handmade hats or the newborns with their baby blankets. I’d like to think every creation is a bit of handmade comfort. Everything I make is something that I hope gives them comfort and warmth, knowing that I put care into every stitch. Sometimes it is mind-blowing when you realize it’s because of something you made and not some store bought item made somewhere you can’t find on a map.
In your view, what can society do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Create more opportunities for us to show off our work rather than pushing for people to go for the machine made items made by those with unlivable wages. The hardest thing to do as a handmade artisan is to show people the value of our work, that so much time and effort goes into every stitch we make and every little detail in hopes that someone one day will wear it proudly.
Many people see fiber artists more as ‘hobbyists’ which is further fueled by people underselling themselves of their yarn creations that took so many hours and effort to make. Fiber artists sometimes think there is a stigma that it is an ‘old person’ craft when really there is so much more than mittens and hats to be found. I know many people are starting to become more aware of where their products are from and for those who can afford it, are starting to change their shopping habits to reflect this. By creating more opportunities for us, I believe it will help people turn back to going to their community for items they need instead of supporting massive corporations that do not hold their same humane beliefs. It will also greatly help our market in giving more value to our products and appreciation for our work, opening more doors for creatives to actually live off of their artistic creations.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.EngineeristasArt.com
- Instagram: @engineeristasart
- Facebook: Facebook.com/EngineeristasArt
Image Credits
Not applicable.