We recently connected with Michelle Brooks and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I was lucky enough to have been working at an art center when I first became interested in fiber art, so I was able to take my first weaving class for free as an employee of the art center. Fiber can be an unexpectedly expensive medium, since even used table looms can start at around $200 or $300, and even with all the research I’ve done, I haven’t found a working/functional used floor loom that is under $1000. I feel like these high prices serve as a barrier to entry for others to pursue fiber as a medium, and I personally think this is why my Instagram feed is flooded with more affluent white women that are working with fiber, with much less representation of artists of color.

That being said, and knowing what I know now, I wish I had utilized my local weaving community more – rather than scraping together enough money to afford my own used weaving equipment. I’m grateful that in both the urban and rural places I’ve lived, I’ve had access to a weaving school somewhat nearby in both places. Even though I’ve been weaving for 6+ years, there still is much more I have to learn about the craft, and having an instructor to help troubleshoot threading errors, incorrect tie-ups etc, gets the problem solved much faster than when I’m doing the same work on my loom at home. I also can’t stress enough how much being around other weavers’ work serves as an inspiration for my own as well. Whether it’s a color scheme I wouldn’t have expected worked well, or a drafting pattern I’ve never seen before, being able to walk around other weavers’ looms never disappoints!

Michelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My fiber work is collected under the name Stitchering Shop, which is run by me out of my home studio. Instead of having a single particular practice, I make fiber art of all kinds with embroidery, tufting, weaving, and knitting. I previously taught Weaving 101 at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, and can now be found online and on Instagram (@stitchering_shop). I’m most proud of the fact that I’m able to sustain my fiber art practice while also working two full-time jobs.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

We need more accessible funding/grants! Even having some experience with grants from working in nonprofits, I still find the grant writing and funding process to be incredibly daunting. In my personal experience, there was only one grant I’ve applied for where the committee took the time to set up calls with the artists who weren’t selected – so the artists could get a peek behind the curtain into the selection process, and alter their approach to hopefully have more success in the future. From the outside, receiving grant funding seems like its own barrier to entry – since I’ve seen my peers have access to and success receiving more grants after being selected as a grant recipient than they did prior to being selected.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to do away with the notion that learning my craft would be a linear process. There are so many different ways to weave, and so many different kinds of equipment, that even weaving the same pattern on different looms will involve different skills and planning each time. At first this discouraged me, because it felt like I wasn’t progressing as a weaver and retaining enough of what I was learning. But I eventually discovered that the amount of time it would take to figure out a new tool or pattern became smaller and smaller with every project, and problem-solving loom quirks was itself a skill that I was picking up each time I would struggle with the beginning of a project.

Contact Info:

• Website: stitcheringshop.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/stitchering_shop
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brooks-6294a34b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFOzwcY3WM

Image Credits
Michelle Brooks