About Me
Follow the Fox
I hit a wall in 2023. Thanks to a very loving and supportive spouse, I was able to walk away from a work situation that was making me feel increasingly unnecessary. It only took a week of unemployment before I had to make myself start doing… something.
I’ve always been very good at starting hobbies and never sticking with them. However, a hobby I had started gathering supplies for, but hadn’t really thrown myself into, was waiting for me patiently. It took some time and a LOT of instructional videos, but after reminding myself it’s okay to fail, skills and a passion began to take shape.
Fast forward through a couple dozen random projects and an arising realization that I had absolutely no conviction to hunt for another standard job and it became clear what path I needed to take.
“Follow the Fox” has been a personal mantra for me for a lot of years now. Sort of a personal philosophical paraphrasing of a section of the book Sacrament by Clive Barker. There have been points in my life where I stood at a point of indecision unsure of what to do. A little voice in the shadows of my mind would whisper, “follow the fox,” to me. I take it as a reminder that the path forward is not always a safe one. It may not even be the best one, but it is very likely the right one.
Welcome to the right path.
Me at the end of a long day at the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire 2023.
The Importance of Creation
It has been so tremendously satisfying to just create. I have made several things for myself that filled a need I didn’t know I had. Simple things like a cup for pens and tools on my desk. A carrier for my water bottle at conventions and festivals. I made a handbag for my spouse that she uses daily.
It makes such a difference to see the purpose of the work I do.
Flaws and All
Leather appeals to me. Full grain leather tells a story.
Brands. Bites. Scars. The healed flaws give each piece a unique and beautiful character. Our scars remind us of what we’ve survived and that we can survive more.
The journal cover pictured here was the first full project I completed. On the day I finished it, I wrote in the notebook I made it for: “It’s not perfect. It’s not really even good. It’s just important because it exists.”