Getting Started

Let me just start by warning you that this will be a little bit of a non-traditional crafting blog, and telling you a little about myself and my passions.  Throughout the years, I've experimented on and off with different forms of arts and crafts, dabbling in drawing, painting, pottery, crochet, cross-stitch, paper crafts, origami and anything involving stationary.  On the other hand, I'm a hardcore gamer and computer nerd.  And last, but not least, I am obsessed with Sociology, specifically the areas of it which critique pop culture and the impact and meaning it has on society.

Perhaps because they seem so disparate, I've always treated these passions as being somewhat mutually exclusive, however one never truly exists without the others.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I've created stationary and cards with a more expected, traditional feeling (see photo), but really I get the most joy out of the more quirky stuff I make, like "Oh hai" greeting cards (see photo)...they just make me giggle.

[Recent commission work in a more "traditional" craft style]

I didn't really think about why this was at first and just wrote it off as my "sense of style", loving the unexpected.  However, as I've gone along in my studies, I've stopped to think about why this is and realized that I find the contrary nature of technological, computer or internet-based sentiments with a somewhat outmoded method of communication (and other similar contradictions) fascinating.  I know I'm a dork, sorry.

["Oh hai" greeting cards - blank on the inside]

In the end, it seems to come down to my roles and interests.  I think we're forced to artificially fragment parts of ourselves into this group, or that activity and leave the rest behind.  Yet, for me, when I can combine different interests and ideas into one cohesive project/activity it leaves me feeling EXTRA fulfilled, and I think it's because I'm bringing those parts of myself back together.  

I'm a nerd-crafter, a social commentator, a needlepoint-ing feminist and a video game studier; and those things are okay.  I don't have to choose one to be today, or tomorrow.  And you shouldn't have to either.

I hope to blur the lines between these identities as I go along, drawing attention to the false delineation and clear cut lines between manufacturing and hand crafting, low-tech techniques and pop-cultural subjects, traditionalism and modernity, and other contradictions I have yet to discover.  But most of all, I hope to make some fantastic arts and crafts that I (and others) can enjoy.

-Aja