I have known Michelle for a VERY long time. We first met at university way back in 1992, when she was studying Photography and I was studying Jewellery (and oh the stories I could tell!… but I won’t, ‘cos she’ll get me back)

Michelle Snowdon is the face and hands behind Wooldancer, a home for artisan handspun threads and wearable art accessories. She has studied under textile luminaries such as India Flint, and has her work published in the latest book from Lexi Boeger, titled handspun. And she is about to host a workshop with international uber-felter , Vilte (you gotta check out her work too, it’s jaw-droppingly beautiful!). Not only all of that, but she was also recently asked to provide the yarn for a fabulous campaign promoting Australian wool with the team of Woolmark and world-renowned photographer, Anne Geddes!!

 

 

Michelle started spinning in 2002. She tells her story –
The earliest beginnings of Wooldancer were in a warm and colourful barn by the banks of the Yarra River. Beside a milking cow and a peep of chickens there stood a huddle of women twirling sticks with CDs. As a kid I developed an interest in re-purposing things from my dad who used to make all kinds of crazy science toys from junk, and so when I spied an ingenious reuse of mundane objects I was all over it. One of the women caught the glint in my eye and came over to show me how she made yarn with the stick. I was hooked. That was over 10years ago.

Handspinning is an ancient craft. Nomadic tribes used rocks to spin flax and animal fibres, and used the yarns to knot nets, weave baskets, and eventually knit clothing. Now, in contemporary practice, artisans have all manner of man-made and natural fibres available to them.

Michelle ensures her practice always strives to be gentle on the earth. She chooses to use certified organic merino wool and locally grown fibres, and uses dyes that have minimum impact on the environment and minimal water waste. And she produces each item every step of the way using antique technology: the spinning wheel.

 

 

 

Of her inspiration, she says –
It is not only the textural allure of natural fibres, but the creative possibilities of making an item of clothing from the ground up that inspires me. Having my hands on the whole process from fleece to fashion brings creative freedom, as well as integrity and authenticity into the finished products. 

Ideas for pieces are informed by the threads as they are created. I tap into an intuitive creative energy in the process of spinning; it seems the ideas grow from the textures and the primordial spiralling energy of the process – it is meditative, and it was very healing after the birth of my baby twins.

 

As for the hardest thing in her creative life, Michelle says it is the juggle of being a mother and a creative – to be present as a mother with her growing children, and to provide for them by doing what she loves. Although it was tough back in 2006 when she first started on Etsy (lots of family-unfriendly hours spent listing products for customers on a different timeline), she says things are a lot easier now with online biz, and she no longer feels being in Australia is a hindrance to international sales.

 

 

 

 

Besides processing the raw material through to finished product, Michelle also runs workshops from her studio in the Blue Mountains. She will be teaching ‘Journey Threads’, a 5day freeform yarn workshop at the renowned Fibre Arts Australia forum in Ballarat in April 2012 (more info here).

You can find out more about Wooldancer on the website here – wooldancer.com, or visit her on Etsy.

With big thanks to Michelle for the images and quotes 🙂