FAST Member Interview- Julie of jschubertdesigns

If you’re a member of FAST and would like to be featured in the weekly interview, visit this thread in the yahoo group to get the questions, then send your answers (and a picture or two if you’d like) to me at merigreenleaf[at]yahoo.com (or a convo to merigreenleaf). These will be posted in the order I receive them.

1.) What is your name?
Julie Schubert

2.) What is your Etsy shop?
http://www.jschubertdesigns.etsy.com

3.) Besides your Etsy shop, do you sell anywhere else?
I’ve taken commissions from people that have seen my weavings, but don’t have them for sale anywhere else. Will have my handspun in a local shop soon……she’ll buy ANY local handspun yarn! Cool…

4.) How long have you been making art/crafting?
I’ve been making things for as long as I can remember. But my love for weaving started in a junior high art class. The teacher introduced us to card weaving…..and I was hooked! I’d never really thought about how cloth was fabricated before….but when I did, I wanted to make all of my cloth from scratch! From raising the animals, to spinning and weaving, then finally creating the garment. Ahem…..still haven’t done it! BUT am learning to spin right now…..so maybe there’s hope yet!

5.) What kind of fiber arts do you do?
I weave and sew and do needlework.

6.) What’s your favorite thing to make?
My favorite thing to make is wearable art……using the body as a canvas! But most often I’m held at bay by the ‘bread and butter’ weavings……..scarves and shawls.

(Click the below link to read the rest of the interview)

7.) What do you think is the strangest or most unusual fiber arts item you have made or been asked to make?
I’ve never made anything very unusual. My most crazy idea of something to make, was a ‘hair shirt’ for an old philosophy professor (a sad, adorable man who would sing opera to us during class). I bought some really hairy, scratchy goat yarn and was going to weave it will barbed wire. But the love of my loom…..and the thought of it getting all scarred from the barbed wire…..kept me from completing the project. Still have that yarn, 30 years later!

8.) Where is the craziest or most interesting place you’ve ever crocheted, knitted, felted, spun yarn, etc?
….sigh…..no place unusual.

9.)What is your favorite place to work?
In my living room, listening to music (mostly Tom Waits or Two Loons for Tea)

10.) What inspires you?
I’m stimulated by color and texture and the play of light on objects…….and peeling paint, and lichen, and water….and mushrooms, flowers and people. Everything around us can be inspirational, it just depends on how you look at it!

11.) What is your favorite color?
I love almost all bold, saturated colors!

12.) Do you prefer a specific type of fiber?
I work with natural fibers…..cottons, linens, hemp, alpaca, angora, wool, mohair. They all breathe, like they’re an extension of your body.

13.) Is there any other kind of art (fiber-related or not) that you’d like to learn?
I’d love to learn how to felt. Am learning how to spin. Want to get back into pottery. My photography could always use improvement.

14.) Tell us a bit about yourself- where do you live, what’s your job, do you have a spouse/children/ pets, any other hobbies, that kind of thing.
I’m a 51 year old mother of three, have been ‘single’ for about 16 years. Until a year and a half ago I was the produce manager at a health food store, but the heavy lifting in cramped quarters ruined my back, so I decided that I needed a change of jobs. Decided to take a chance, cashed in my 401K, and tried to see if I could make a living weaving. Sigh, couldn’t. So am now working three or fours days a week at a store that sells kaleidoscopes…..and am weaving during the rest of the week. One cat, Mir, a cranky old guy……got to love him! And a boyfriend who’s a well known musician in his field of recording…..not mainstream music….who shares my love of seeing things in a different light (Jeph Jerman…there, had to ‘plug’ him!).

15.) Tell us one quirky thing about you (or one thing no one knows about you).
………I’m an open book.

16.) Do you have any advice for other fiber artists?
Follow your passion, and don’t be afraid to take chances!

Tags: etsyfast, member interview

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under featured member. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.