We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Horn & Fiber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Horn & Fiber below.

Horn & Fiber, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

This is the same for both of us! Creating is our normal and because it is our normal we didn’t necessarily see our creations as special. So we grateful for others ‘seeing’ something in our work that we didn’t recognize. People asked us to make certain pieces that stretched our skill set and helped us to look at our own creations differently. It also taught us to place more value on what we were creating. This challenged our abilities, pushed us to do more research, helped us to refine techniques, and ultimately to become better crafts persons.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Well for starters, Horn and Fiber is a husband and wife collaboration between Clint Byers and Kerry Masarik. Our mission is to craft historically inspired items, while preserving and teaching 18th century skills and lifeways.

Clint is a Honourable Company of Horner’s (HCH) Master horn worker, a blacksmith, a leather worker, and a budding flintlock rifle builder. He was introduced to muzzle loading and living history at an early age by his father; who was also a flintlock rifle builder. In his teens, Clint began making powder horns, shot pouches, and other accouterments for himself and friends. As his artistic skills developed, Clint’s focus turned from just making simply useful items to making historically accurate pieces. “My real joy comes from hand crafting items that are both beautiful and useful.”

Kerry is a textile artist with a specialized interest in ‘field to fabric’, meaning she grows cotton and flax (my friends raise sheep), processes the fibers, spins the fibers to yarn, dyes the yarn using natural plant dyes some of which she grows and/or forages and then weaves the yarn into fabric. Although a lengthy process, doing each step helps to emphasize certain fiber characteristics and create an all around authentic looking fabric.

We both had backgrounds in early human technologies, loved the outdoors and lived off grid all before we even met each other. We actually met a primitive skills workshop. When we started dating, we pursued our shared interests which led us to teaching 18th century living history skills. Everything we did/do just seemed connected to each other. During our first year or so in the living history community, our skill sets were well received we think because of the authentic nature of what we were teaching. I think much of that came from our off-grid lifestyle.

As time went by and our skills sets developed in our individual areas, we realized we wanted to turn our passions into a family business, and hence Horn and Fiber was born. We are contemporary artisans who enjoy creating one of a kind historically inspired items for the serious collector, trekker, or living history interpreter. We want to craft pieces that wouldn’t look out of place if they were somehow magically transported back to the 18th century.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Clint- For me, its leaving behind something that is both useful and beautiful. I often hold an original piece that someone made 2oo+ years ago and there is a connection. I’d like to think that 200 years from now someone will hold and admire something I made and that the same connection will be there.

Kerry-I don’t know that this is the most rewarding part of being an artist, but one aspect I really like, is the challenge. I am weaving pieces of fabric that aren’t well documented and there is no ‘how to’ guide. I love the challenge of figuring out a weave structure and recreating a fabric, it is like working a puzzle. I can see the finished picture I just need to figure out how the pieces fit together.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

“Besides buy our stuff?” Clint says with a smile.

Seriously, I think we have lived in a mass produced, disposable society for so long that it is a real mental reset for many to truly appreciate handcrafted items and the investment of the artist’s skill and time into each piece. Even if you can’t afford to buy an artist work, spreading the word about their work and helping to increase their potential audience is huge. Just like what you are doing here at Canvas Interviews.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @hornandfiber
• Facebook: Horn and Fiber
• Youtube: Horn and Fiber

Image Credits
Picture of Kerry and Clint together by- Pam Lappengard Photography