My name is Iona. I am a handweaver hailing from Michigan by way of New Hampshire. I spend as much time as I can weaving and sewing and knitting and spinning.
I consider myself an artist and a craftsperson. At Earlham College I took a weaving class during my second year and I was instantly hooked. I picked weaving as the focus of my art major and made my senior project about weaving cloth to be sewn into garments.
Since graduating I have been continuing to weave while working in customer service and food service jobs to support myself. In the last ten or so years I have developed a sense of the type of woven goods I prefer to make.
There are still some mysteries for me about the aesthetics of the woven goods I produce. I have found that the ones I find the least appealing end up selling more quickly than ones that I feel confident about.
This might have something to do with my pricing. I probably under-charge for the ones I don’t like since I think they will need help selling. (Actually my friends tell me that I under-charge for all my work. I just can’t bare to charge more than I could afford. So I end up paying myself a couple dollars an hour when I factor in the cost of materials. Sigh. I’m working on it, ya know?)
