We recently connected with Delaney Dillon and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Delaney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I can’t say everything with my family has been linear. There were some clear and cut trajectories, such as go to school, graduate, go to college, graduate that too, get a career… Like all 90’s kids, we were told that getting higher education was the only way we would be successful in anything. My older sister proved just that. Then, so did my brother.

But all I could see was the chaos beyond the direct course.

I chased deer away from the main thoroughfare. I stopped and examined mushrooms under trees, splashed around in a meandering creek. Climbed a few cottonwoods. Wandered back to the path a few times, just to see where it was going, before trotting off in search of birds nests. I couldn’t walk in a straight line any better than a drunk.

Luckily, I also learned that from my parents. They were married young and weren’t meant to last, and I saw glimmers and glimpses of dreams that they had dashed in order to be parents to us. While I could have spent all my time listening to their words, I am glad I listened to their lessons: Live life for yourself; pursue your passions; don’t be embarrassed about who you are; connect with what makes you happy; believe in faeries and learn how to tell a damn good story.

I will say, having a foundation that tells you to find structure was good for me. It helped me draw the map in my crazy, idle roaming. But the most valuable thing, and something that came from my mother, was being bored by “as the crow flies” directions, which allowed me to see beauty in places often passed by. With this thinking, I couldn’t GET a degree because it required taking classes that were not only uninteresting, but served no purpose to my life. I didn’t need calculus to identify flowers and I certainly didn’t need physics to learn how to clean bones. These kinds of things take observation, interest, willingness to fail and pleasure in the process.

We didn’t have TV in the earliest parts of my childhood. We barely had a computer. But we had acres of land, we had horses and dogs and ferrets. We had star maps and viewfinders. We had art supplies, fantasy books, 4-H and chores. We also had parents that struggled for money and had to scrap for what they provided. These are the trails I followed as I watched them, realizing that sometimes you have to risk the scrapes and cuts while crashing through the brambles in search of happiness.

I can’t say everything with my family has been linear. With children, you can draw all the lines you want, and perhaps all they will do is color outside of them. Sometimes, they aren’t looking at your lines at all, just the amount of happiness they see in your face.

Delaney, 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?

Mountain Hedgewitch first began as an Instagram page in 2017, where I was able to post about all my adventures into the wilderness, the cool things I found in it and my growing knowledge of nature. While I was a pretty terrible student in school, I’ve actually always loved learning, and sharing everything that I was finding out was pretty exciting when it was able to reach so many people. Invigorated, I built my own website and started to blog the things I was already posting about – and yes, it’s really that easy. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be out there. There is time to prune it later.

Things started with the practical magic of herbalism, which I still employ in many products. From there, I transcended into all things natural, including the afterlife and death, otherwise known as Vulture Culture. Thus, I call my work by its true name: Wildcrafting. Having grown up rurally with a healthy dose of a childhood outdoors, that spark of curiosity that you have when overturning a stone to look at the bugs underneath has never ended for me. Wildcrafting has made it possible to satiate the inquisitiveness of exploration, the practicality of craftsmanship, and the honoring of nature and its ferocious impermanence. It urges me to dig deeper, look for meaning in lines in wood or peek behind the veil of old superstitions.

My products are meant to represent all these things. I aim for as many natural or reusable materials as I can, and I do firmly believe that nothing in this world can’t be turned into art. The number of dead things my family have gifted me this year alone might make you wonder about our sanity. So, most of my pieces are a mix of spiritual, decorative and practical. Driftwood garlands, bone and moss shadow boxes, curiosities, ritual tools, candles made from plants, bone candle holders, bath teas, bulk herbs… I try to hit it all, and I want to do more. I’m very obsessed with the history of things, with traditions or little-known enigmas, rather than what’s popular on Tik Tok or trending. I don’t want to make things everyone on Etsy is making. I want to dig into the nitty gritty of something weird or obscure and really make it pronounced in the final product.

Despite that, I’ve never been one to accept the idea that I should change to make others comfortable. It’s been suggested to me that I make products for a wider audience, make things that are more general and easy to swallow, but that’s just not me. Remaining authentic to the craft and to myself is a hard thing to do, yet in my mind, it’s the only way you can be truly happy. If I want people to know anything, it’s the reason I chose a magpie as my logo – I am not only a purveyor of goods, I’m a collector. I don’t make anything I wouldn’t keep myself. Heck, I would keep all of the things I find in the woods if I had the room in my life for them. Sharing them, selling them, giving them away – it’s like giving parts of me away.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned in these years of doing business is that being vulnerable is difficult. Starting something new can be exciting and also hard. It’s a task learning how to brush off those who don’t understand and are unwilling, however it is reckoned by the number of people who are intrigued and want to learn. Despite that all of my jobs involve socializing with people and selling merchandise, I usually don’t like being around folks that much. Just call me a hermit and I’ll call it a day. And yet, my work allows me to connect with people, be it through traditions long forgotten or products newly crafted. Just like they say, do what you love and you never have to work a day in your life. That’s how it feels every time I’m at a festival or show, sharing my creations with people.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Personally, I think every person out there is a “creative”. Perhaps they’ve gone long untapped or their dreams unguided. I just don’t think I’ve ever met a person alive today that couldn’t do something creative and wonderful. Growing up, it was to my irritation when people would look at my art and say, “I wish I could do that.” I would always, always say, “You can. You just have to practice. You just have to love it.” And by “it” I mean “the process”.

Everyone is a creative. But not everyone is determined.

When you really enjoy something – be it gardening, math, drawing, cooking or buying and selling stock – there is a distinct feeling of contentment, usually found in the belly region of your body. That squishy, warm, excited feeling that tells you when something is good and engages you fully into the act. All I can tell you to do to find success… is to follow it. There are little things along the way, such as compliments or likes on social media or, heck, it might be your sales numbers; these things are little pips to keep your energy up and keep you going. But they are anything but a replacement for that first feeling, which is the reason you got into whatever you are doing. This statement might not come from a place of exact science and it might not be what personal coaches are preaching, but all I can say from my own experience is that feeling is what drives me to do what I love. It drives me to keep learning, to stay curious, to get excited about new information and get my hands on a new material.

If you love something, go do it. Follow the feeling. Let people think you’re possessed by it. Go GET possessed by it. And don’t look back.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Sometimes I get filled to the brim with thoughts and ideas that don’t translate into things I can talk about. Art has always been my way of coping, especially during the crappy parts of my teen years. I save all my art (thanks for making me do that, Mum) and, every once and awhile, I go through it again. Wow. That anger, hurt and confusion of my young life is so evident in my art that I can almost recall exact memories of what I was thinking at that moment. Even just the awkward things I didn’t feel like I could express, it was all there.

The pandemic was a hard time for people. I said quite often that I was glad I had been built with such a great imagination to get me through it, because without that, what was left when everything was gone? So much art came out during the pandemic and it was a really big boost for artists as far as making money off of their skills. I think everyone realized how important it is to have creative pursuits and to enjoy these things. To see how things are crafted by hands again, not some anonymous resource from overseas mailed to your doorstep.

As an adult, I still don’t know how to say everything I’m feeling. Instead, my art says it for me. The best part is when other people relate to it. It’s good knowing you’re not alone. Through imagination, the world is a much more beautiful place. I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t wired the way I am.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mountainhedgewitch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountain_hedgewitch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mountainhedgewitch