My mother always said that my father's surname was the German word for spider. I'm happy with this idea and have loved my life of weaving. I've tried spinning and never quite got the hang of the wheel or drop spindle, but intend to re-visit the spindle. I sold the wheel. Still, I come by the name legitimately, and did not want to give it up entirely when I married Mr. MacHale.
Lately I've been having the best time weaving my own web within the World Wide Web and I wanted to introduce you to some of the places I've been hanging out.
I've had a lengthy romance with Pinterest and if you've been following along on this blog, you've already seen some of the exciting stuff that I've found there. For example, there is a whole board devoted to "Woven Architecture". Then there is "Inkle Weaving" of course. And one for the "EtsyWeavers Team" and one for the "NewMexy Etsy Team" and one each for general "Weaving", "Patterns", "Inspirational Color" and a few other things. You can see them all here:http://pinterest.com/aspinnerweaver/
Then I decided to work on my LinkedIn profile. This is a really interesting kind of social network focused on business with all sorts of groups you can join. There are tons of weavers there and I have linked up with a few new ones. I am honored that some of my co-workers, friends and associates wrote lovely recommendations for me there and I enjoyed writing recommendations for others, too. This is one of the few social networks where this is an element. And, according to a recent marketing session I attended online, if you are trying to sell a product or service, this is the place to be.
The TAFA List (Textile and Fiber Art) has been tugging at my attention ever since I got an invite from it's creator, Rachel Biel, to join. So, on Saturday, I joined and spent a great deal of the day (off and on) building my profile there and adding and tweaking it until I was happy. It is a very cool site for textile arts professionals world-wide, including weavers, quilters, crocheters, felters and fiber artists of all varieties making a wide range of things. But it also includes collectors, teachers, wholesalers, importers, etc. I like the way the site looks and the way it gives me a one-page layout to showcase my work and link to everything I've got going including a place to present my video and an event page for the class I will be teaching in August in New Mexico.
And, after chatting with another New Mexico weaver, Cat Brysch, I decided to join an Albuquerque guild, Las Aranas Spinners and Weavers Guild. I will be looking forward to getting to know some of the members before I move there. (Date yet to be determined.)
"Las Aranas" means "The Spiders" in Spanish.
So, here we are back where we started this post.
I'm destined to be a spinner, weaver and builder of networks.
Many beautiful creativity that I found on this blog.
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