We were lucky to catch up with Will Chatlosh recently and have shared our conversation below.
Will, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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 am now a 20-year-old student, now coming close to finishing my undergraduate career in college, and the one aspect of being an artist that has always held me back is time! I am proud to say that I learned to crochet (which is my main form of artwork that I am drawn to) at the age of 11 using YouTube as my outlet for information. I can still picture my first project, when I had no idea what the terminology meant and I was simply working from a woman who verbally walked me through the process of creating a small teddy bear… which is still unfinished to this day. Although I believe time is what holds me back now, I feel great that I spent years and years creating my collection of crocheted animals and items by following crochet designers’ patterns. The skills and experience that I gained from enjoying crochet through middle school and high school are definitely what has led to my confidence within the craft today, and what ultimately led to my interest in creating my own crocheted designs finally. I now view the idea of ‘learning more’ in the realm of crocheting by testing the skills I have been practicing all of these years: how can I work abstractly, or use the stitches I have been working with for years in ways that I’ve never seen them used before?! This is what drew me to start crocheting two-dimensional portraits and crocheted fashion as well. I now feel confident to call myself a crochet artist because what holds me back now is simply having too many ideas! There are so many plans that exist in my brain that I know I’ll never have the chance to make, because there’ll never be enough time in the day, and if I’ve discovered anything, it is that crocheting takes a LOT of time!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Will Chatlosh, and I am a 20-year-old artist and student! I am most proud to call myself a crochet artist because it is the craft I’ve really dedicated myself to for a major chunk of my life. However, I really love to draw as well, and have been in school studying fashion design for three years now, and as a result, have also dedicated myself to creating unique clothing designs and recently designed/sewed my first clothing collection. I discovered crochet through the art of amigurumi online as a kid (the japanese craft of crocheting toys and animals) and was in love with crocheting animals for many years. I was very embarrassed, growing up, to share my love of crochet with my peers and friends, but started an instagram page to showcase the fun things that I had been making. I have been using Instagram to document and look back on the many projects that I have found love in crocheting for many years now, and have slowly grown a following and community, particularly as I have began to branch out with my artwork more recently. I began to crochet freeform portraits during the COVID pandemic, and this has become work that has really allowed me to more artistically explore the art of crochet. In 2022, I entered a large portrait that I had crocheted of Marilyn Monroe into a local, international art competition called ArtPrize in my home city, and had a really incredible experience interacting with other artists and won a prize for the first time as a solo artist. Most recently, I’ve been crocheting more garments and am excited for my future within the world of crocheting.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I often say that I want others to see crochet in a new light, as it has not been seen before. I find my art closely tied to my own self image. Growing up in public school, I was always terrified about being seen as different for spending my time outside of school crocheting, when most other teen boys were definitely out doing just about anything else. I tried really hard to keep my artwork to myself for that reason, although I am still very proud of the items I had created at the time. At the time that I created an Instagram page for my work, I was about 15, and tried very hard to keep it away from my school friends. I’ve grown up a lot since then, and now want to use my artwork as a statement for others to see. I hope that my artwork can come across as another form of my voice, and something that will catch others’ attention… not something that needs to be hidden. With my apprehension to showing people my artwork early on, I learned how to be calculated with what I say through my art, and now my mission is to be heard through what I can create.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Although being an artist involved a LOT of work by myself, listening to music working on multiple projects at a time or crocheting for hours at a time, the most rewarding aspect of my experience as an artist is absolutely talking to other people. I love to talk to new people about their own experiences with art, and showing people my own work is really rewarding. I’ve found that crochet art has become quite massive through social media and the world of fashion more recently, and I actually gain a lot of inspiration from walking into clothing stores and asking myself, “how was this made?” whenever I see a crocheted purse or dress. I gain so many new ideas from other people, and I often get messages through Instagram from other artists: a few times, people have shown my their own crocheted portraits that they created, seeing my own work as inspiration. Building and being a part of a community isn’t something I ever felt I had the power to do by myself, but I am so proud of the journey I have been on as an artist. I still see myself as a college student who struggles with everyday responsibilities, but it is really awesome to experience appreciation for the work I do. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wc-crochet.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wccrochet/
- TikTok: @wccrochet
Image Credits
Photos: Will Chatlosh, Sarah Schafer Models: Sydney Bickel, Madison Nunn, Desiree Bennett, Eva Leirstein, Will Chatlosh