Today we’d like to introduce you to Catelyn Johnson and Talia Lefton.
Catelyn and Talia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We were two recent college grads who just realized that we would probably never again have access to the space, equipment, and community in our respective programs, and so it was true for everyone we graduated with, and everyone who graduated before us. Every single one of us would have to find or afford and house enormous pieces of equipment like looms, long arm quilters, board sheers, just to name a few. It seemed obvious to us that there should be a fiber arts community space open to anyone who wants to learn and create, with all of these very large, very expensive tools available (and not just to those few who can afford tuition.)
From the very start we have been committed to enabling physical and fiscal accessibility to fiber arts. So we talked with Common Cod Fiber Guild, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to partner with them. They became our fiscal sponsor, and with them we began fundraising for space and our collection. We successfully opened our fledgling library July 2017 in SoWa!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, our first fundraiser on Indiegogo had a goal of $35,000, which would be enough for a 1,000 sq. ft. location for one year, and a bit left over for starting the library collection. After two very long months of hitting up and shaking down all our friends and family and Common Cod’s guildies, advertising outside of our network and posting tons of flyers, we only managed to raise about $5,000.
But! Instead of seeing this as a failure, we saw it as first, last and security, and began offering classes to local libraries for a small fee. We ran about 20 classes at 7 different libraries. When the perfect sublet opportunity became available about a year after the Indiegogo campaign, we dove in head first with a small loan from family.
Please tell us about Fiber Arts Boston.
As a fiber arts studio space and tool library, we specialize in anything related to fiber arts: knitting, crocheting, dyeing, quilting, cosplay, origami, bookbinding, wet & needle felting… the list goes on and on! I am very proud that we welcome and support every single discipline under the “fiber art” heading, with many different teachers and artists offering classes and workshops in our space. We are “one-stop shopping” and non-profit, whereas many other fabric and yarn based businesses are dedicated to only a few disciplines and usually for-profit.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Catelyn: Definitely learning how to knit from my great-grandmother. I remember soft purple yarn, under and over, her perfume, patience, and love. My mother still has on her bedroom dresser the little finger puppet I made with nana.
Talia: My favorite memory from childhood is the arts and crafts building at the overnight camp I used to go to in the summer. I would take as many crafts classes as I could and spend almost all of my free time there too. I loved looking through the boxes of miscellaneous materials that had been collected and donated for years and making things from whatever I found in those boxes.
Pricing:
- $100 for a year-long library pass – borrow from our circulating library for a whole year!
- $100 for a 35 day studio pass – use the whole collection, circulating and library-use-only for 35 days
- $20 for a 1 day studio pass – use the whole collection, circulating and library-use-only for a day
- Volunteer for us and get a 35 day studio pass for free!
Contact Info:
- Address: GPS address: 105 Malden St, Boston, MA 02118
Mailing address: 38 Wareham St, Boston, MA 02118 - Website: http://fiberartsboston.org
- Phone: (857) 277-0670
- Email: fiberartsboston@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fiberartsboston/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fiberartsboston/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fiberartsboston
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
