Fiber Monday - Creating awareness

On my business cards and website I have a tag line that says, ,"Creating awareness to make room for positive change." This is pretty straightforward when it comes to working with horses. It is actually a pretty good definition of what Equine Assisted Learning is. It might not be immediately evident how it fits into my fiber activities and teaching. Since I have nothing to show you that looks very different from the last time I showed it to you, I thought I'd discuss this idea a bit. 

I think my fiber activities and my tag line actually fit quite nicely together. There is nothing like watching fiber being prepared for spinning, learning to spin on a suspended spindle, then realize all you have done is make the yarn that needs to them be turned into fabric to help you see the clothes you are wearing in a new light. If we learn to appreciate textiles for what they are, perhaps we can become better consumers of them, or at the very least consume less and extend the life of what we have. 

We actually do not need to buy that $8 dress from Shein or Amazon. The fabric it is made from is definitely not worth it's cost to the environment. And it is a cost. Take a listen to this podcast episode about a clothing market in Ghana that is literally drowning in cheap and poorly made textiles. Textile Waste and the Catastrophe at Kantamanto by Haptic and Hue.

By playing into the hands of major corporations who care nothing about anything but money, we become complicit in a significant ecological disaster. This is actually at odds with the ideals of the beginning of our country. (Yes, I realize everything seems to be right now.) Did you know that Benjamin Franklin testified before Parliament in 1766 regarding the colonists' reactions to the Stamp Act and how they might react to other taxation by the Crown? Here is a very brief excerpt:

"Q. How can the commerce be affected?

A. You will find that, if the act is not repealed, they will take very little of your manufactures in a short time.

Q. Is it in their power to do without them?

A. I think they may very well do without them.

Q. Is it their interest not to take them?

A. The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed because the fashion in a respected country; but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mourning…"

I suggest that we take back our lives and our planet by refusing to play into the hand's of greedy corporations who value profit over all else. (And whose profit then lines the pockets of dishonorable men bent on overthrowing our current form of government.) Buy less, buy better when you do, mend or remake or make what you can, and throw away little. Stop being just a consumer of stuff.