Why I've become a YouTube content creator


I had been a knitter in the traditional sense of the word for years before I'd ever heard of wire knitting. Remember craft-book-of-the-month clubs?  I purchased a book around 1999 about wire jewelry making and Viking style wire knitting was featured.

It would take over a decade before I actually decided to give it a go. I wanted to make jewelry and while metal-smithing seemed elusive, wire knitting just seemed more accessible, and less intimidating. Once I started, I was hooked.

In 2016, I took the plunge and became a full-time craftsperson. It was around that time that I began to think I might have skills to share with others.  I offered a few classes and discovered I really enjoyed teaching.

In early 2018 I was moving from a craft incubator studio in a nearby city, back to my studio in my back yard.  I had applied to and was accepted into the Economusee Network and was making changes to my studio to turn it into a combination workshop, retail space and teaching area.  Then life changed. I had a health crisis that I barely survived.

In 2021, I decided that while I could no longer be a full-time craftsperson, I still wanted a creative outlet and to begin making again.  Then I rediscovered my YouTube channel that had sat neglected for three years and noticed that some of my earliest videos were actually seeing regular traffic.  And some folks left the nicest comments.

By the end of 2021, I realized I want to focus on teaching, via YouTube.  Late in the year, I began posting new videos.  Slowly I'm building up a series of short videos (the longest is 20 minutes) to help people learn what they need to to turn a length of Viking style wire knitting into a piece of jewelry.

In the near future I will also be covering how to knit in wire frames, how to set a cabochon with knitting as well as a different approach to wire knitting (using the method I first saw in pictures of the American sculptor Ruth Asawa).

Being a YouTube creator lets me share my passion for wire knitting with the world, despite my current physical limitations and despite a global pandemic.  I am so grateful for the creative outlet and the little community that is rising up around it.

The videos are available free of charge. Please feel free to drop by and check out my channel and please spread the word! Nothing would please me more than to see wire knitting catching on.


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