Exploring Slowcrafts

What is Slowcraft? What do I mean by Explore?
And what to expect from this website?

Slowcraft

When I think about crafting, I think about time. Not just about the time it takes to create the final product, but also the time invested in learning and practicing the skill, and experimenting with variables like materials and techniques. All these elements contribute to the concept of slowcraft.

Learning isn’t always easy and we are bound to stumble. Mistakes are not setbacks; they are opportunities to grow. As adults, we often seek quick answers and how-tos, neglecting the why. Children understand the value of exploration and play (drawing circles repeatedly until they get it right), wanting to experience the cause and effect, always asking “what if” and “why”. Spinning a 4-ply fingering weight sock yarn isn’t made on the first or second try. This is the same for baking lofty bread, weaving balanced cloth or colour-blending in embroidery. Experts in all of these fields spent countless hours slowly exploring, experimenting and sampling. Crafting is a deliberate, unhurried process. We need to let go, enjoy the process and explore. 

Explore

Variables add spice to our crafts as well as play an important role in the end result. It is important to slow down and explore the different possibilities. Changing the draft distance between our hands could add more air to our yarns. Altering the sett on our looms could result in a more structured fabric. Maybe it is as simple as doing a low-contrast colourwork knitting project instead of something bright that would stand out in a crowd. But what is too subtle, too stiff or too airy and is it just our personal opinion or fact? The personal element of what is too stiff for myself could be perfect for you which is why taking this journey ourselves reveals so much about what we want from our craft. This takes sampling and experimenting to know what is right for you. And this is why playing with variables is an integral part of our crafting.

I also understand that we can not be constantly learning. That can be exhausting. Crafting sparks joy and serves as a form of meditation. It is completely okay to pause and appreciate the skills we’ve acquired, to create and play with ideas already swirling around in our heads. A new colour pallet, texture, a new flavour. Yet, even in these moments, I think we are unconsciously “playing”, we are always exploring.

This Site

This website is not a how-to website. It adopts a blog-style format where I document my slowcrafting explorations. Rather than constantly creating new posts, I update existing posts as I progress in these explorations. This allows for reading through an entire process instead of jumping from page to page.
Bookmarking pages is encouraged instead of relying on RSS feeds since updates won’t appear in traditional feeds. My Instagram account and a future newsletter (stay tuned) will announce updates to existing and new posts. Because this is all about slowcraft, the updates won’t be too often.

On Instagram, I often receive questions about materials, tools, and where I learned specific techniques. I aim to link everything to the best of my ability to help others on their own personal crafting journeys. 

Exploring Slowcraft is the documentation process of craft discoveries and all the wonderful projects that come from the deliberate and mindful process of slow-making handmade crafts.

Join me on my journey in the making process, or simply by reading along.