Detours Around the Loom: One Woman’s Quest to Weave Creativity and Family Life into a Beautiful Tapestry

Meet Leslee Fiorella:  “Textile designer, weaver, modern crafter, mom and wife trying to find her creative groove (and keep it) amidst the daily demands of life and family.” (via www.detoursaroundtheloom.blogspot.com)

Leslee’s talent for weaving and working fibers of all kinds is immediately evident in her striking texture and color combinations:

Leslee deeply enjoys her tangible, creative work.  She has no lack of passion for her craft.  Yet, like many other mother‘s of young children, this woman finds it takes a concerted effort to walk both paths of being her family’s center and pursuing her career.   She finds focusing on creating balance, rhythm and play key to successfully managing both motherhood and professional pursuits.

Balance. Leslee began 2010 with a renewed commitment to create balance and fulfillment in her life. Considering the needs of her five year old son and one year old daughter, as well as her own needs outside of mothering, she began to create a vision for how she might frame her daily and weekly routines in a way that might be more fulfilling for all members of her family.

On scheduled days, she escapes to her studio to clear her mind, organize her thoughts, and free herself creatively. Her studio, a space that is clean, organized, and has natural light, eases her into a wonderful, peaceful “creative zone.”

Leslee also began to create a virtual space to gather her thoughts.  Using a blog platform, she moved her fragments of work from tidbits stashed in random boxes or corners to a true showcase of work she’s culminated over the past decade.   Her blog, “Detours Around the Loom” serves as a  beautiful, inspiring space where she can reflect on her work and process its meaning in her life.  “It’s also an amazing way to create community,” says Leslee who adores reading other women artisan blogs who offer camaraderie and inspiration.

Rhythm. Drawing from her recent life experiences as a Waldorf-inspired mother who tries to support a rhythm for her family, Leslee incorporates the yearly seasons into her work and planning.  With her eye set on selling some of her textile products at this year’s upcoming Winter/Holiday fairs, she’s beginning her work now to ensure that she doesn’t overload herself during the holiday season.  The cocktail napkins pictured below are some of the prototypes she is experimenting with.

Wisely, Leslee is working now so she can preserve some time to celebrate and relax with her family during the many Winter season holiday festivities.  Creating a distant milestone for selling items gives her time to breathe, play, and allow room for the potential “unexpected flurry of notes” (via Lilipoh Spring 2009.) that may take her rhythmic beat in another direction.

Leslee is also on the look out for “unexpected beats” that may show her rhythm needs adjusting.  “If I find myself getting short with my son or feeling overly frustrated, I take that as my cue that things are out of balance.  Then I have to rethink our routine a bit.”   She believes a mother’s commitments must be sustainable in a family context, and strives to find ways to honor both her self and her family needs.  Encompassing the yearly seasons into her life is something she is finding useful in terms of developing a longer-term rhythm.  She used January as her season to make a fresh start, plans on using Spring – Fall to prepare for Winter vending, and hopes to preserve energy and time for making the most of Winter holidays.

Still, it is the larger season of life that Leslee often ponders.  Looking back at the past ten years, she’s become a wife and a mother, and fought to keep bits of her career work alive.

As she settles into the concept of the seasons of womanhood and motherhood, she can allow herself some grace in knowing that family needs and corresponding rhythms change over time.   As a mother with a wee babe in arms, the space and time she can create for creativity and play may be of small scale.  However, as her children age, she may well find there is space for her to dedicate more of her weekly schedule to returning to her career path as a Textile designer.

Play. Leslee learned early on in her path as a textile designer that her most meaningful work is accomplished through hands-on connection with materials and finding ways to bring soul or “warmth” to her weaving.  Resisting her training to focus on an end product (in her case often fabric or carpeting used for furnishing hotels and offices), she loves the freedom to allow her work to evolve under her fingertips.

Keeping to her commitment to enjoy playing (without thinking of the end product!), Leslee packed a swatch of ethereal gauze and a few interesting yarns to bring along on a family road trip.  Finding the micro-scale fun, and immediately gratifying, Leslee created the sample piece pictured below.  Using an embroidery hoop in her lap, she found she could create, journey, and laugh with her family simultaneously.

Leslee is finding ways to enjoy her “detours around the loom”, while honoring her own needs to nourish her creativity and career.  Her resulting work is deeply textured and compelling.  Watch her weave the beautiful tapestry of family and career by following Leslee Fiorella at her inspiring blog:  Detours Around the Loom.