Some of you may have noticed I have updated Archaic Arcane’s banner at the top of the site. I’ve put it on a rotation with the old banner, so here it is again if you see the old one above.

This came about finally due to a project I’m working on right now but realistically, I’ve been wanting an actual logo for almost 10 years.

I let it marinate in my mind and would periodically think about it but nothing really spoke to me.  Then at the beginning of July, I began a collaboration project.  I can’t say much about it until later in the month but one of the things they asked for was a copy of my logo in PNG format and a transparent background.

Whoops! I guess I better make one? They’re going to want business cards too, aren’t they?  Oh boy. Nothing like a little pressure to spur some action! I’m not too sure it’s great for creativity though. Not to mention, I haven’t done any serious work in Photoshop in probably 10+ years and even then it was more for a book review than anything.  That said, working with CAD these past 2 years has made Photoshop easier to deal with.

One thing I had to do is sit down and seriously consider where I thought AA might be going in the next couple of years and how a logo would reflect that.  I didn’t want to be redesigning again in 6 months or a year. That wasn’t as easy as it might seem at first.

See, Archaic Arcane has spent the last 10 years – yes, 10 as of April – repeatedly sneaking up behind me and pushing me forward.

At first, it was only supposed to be a blog where I babbled at myself periodically about sewing machines I was collecting and learning about.  It was never intended to be “work”.  If I had planned it, I would have chosen a name that was easier to spell! Archaic and Arcane is how I felt at the time.  The world was advancing technologically if not socially and I was embracing everything that was old and at risk of being forgotten.  I guess I still feel this way so the name is still appropriate for me.

At the time, I had a mostly full time business with my I.T. work but the toxic lifestyle was burning me out.  The blog lead to me fixing other people’s machines from time to time and buying, repairing and selling some machines usually each Fall.

Eventually, I began fixing more and more machines and had to move to the basement from the spare bedroom I was based in.  Fixing machines meant I needed parts.  That meant setting up with a Canadian parts supplier. This eventually lead to me selling sewing machine parts in addition to fixing the machines though I wouldn’t launch the online shop that would let me consolidate everything I sell in one place for another several years.

Around that time, I traded a bunch of vintage machines to someone who turned out to be a distant cousin for a short arm quilting setup.   That eventually lead to a long arm.

The long arm lead to working with a local shop (now closed) and getting certified to service the brand of domestic sewing machine they were carrying.  Naturally (?!?!) eventually I also began long arm quilting for others.  Then, I published a few sewing patterns on Craftsy – back when that was a thing. That was mostly thanks to encouragement from the cousin I mentioned above.

Archaic Arcane became a little more known in the vintage sewing machine world as I began posting videos to YouTube.  A couple of times in person, I’ve had people ask me: “You’re not Archaic Arcane, are you?” usually before I’ve ever given my name.  Something about how I explain things leads to people recognizing me, even though none of you (unless we’ve met in person) has ever seen even a photograph of me.

Here I was – just a gal who wanted to blog about vintage sewing machines, suddenly immersed in the life.  IT work was falling by the wayside more and more and I was doing more repair and quilting than I was computer work. And I was happier than I’d been in most of my over 20 years in I.T. but I began hankering for something that was mine, not business.

So, I started knitting again (the last time before that was likely around 1985 and I was in elementary school) when Ryan broke his toe in 2014.  I knitted him a toe sock to tuck inside the opening of his cast.  Open toe casts in the winter here are seriously unkind!

Then I started knitting more consistently.  Some shawls, an afghan, socks, gloves, hats.  A friend began talking about the spinning wheel she left in Switzerland.   She had it shipped here and I offered to take beginner lessons with her. Within a year, I was teaching specific topics about spinning – or more accurately about maintenance of spinning equipment.  I didn’t then have the experience to teach spinning.

Spinning in general though had me hooked.  I kept it to myself for 5 years.

Until last year. Last year, I began getting requests and offers to teach spinning. That lead to the 3d printed spindles – I needed tools to be able to teach on and ordering at retail from most places priced the first class – at the library – out of affordability.

This lead to a pilot program where I had nearly everyone I knew testing the spindles I worked up in CAD.  I wanted to make sure they’d hold up to newbie hands and drops.  I even enlisted Ryan.  Yes, it’s true! He understands the mechanics of spinning but doesn’t enjoy it.  He learned to spin to help test the spindles and because I needed to know I could teach a class before I had real students in front of me. That’s his yarn on the red spindle.

That lead to a local shop seeing the spindles and wanting to carry them.  Then that visibility lead to inquiries starting with the yarn crawl after the Fibre Frolic back in May.

Somewhere along the line, I also started doing very minor wood-turning stuff to improve the spindles from their original incarnation – notching the sticks only.

Playing on the lathe and building skills, I started making support spindles – just for myself.  So far.

Still all this time, I managed to say, no – I don’t really do this fibre stuff, I fix sewing machines and print some spindles for Kim’s shop.  I’m not a fibre person (meaning, I’m not a “creator”, fibre business, etc.), I’m not creative person (I’m technically proficient), I don’t need cards (besides a basic VSM repair card) or a logo.

A month or so ago, I started hearing “What’s your Instagram handle?” Uh… it’s full of the Miracle twins… it’s not specifically fibre related. Maybe I need to change that?  Bandit and Grey got their own Instagram account (it’s currently private but I do approve people) and I started focusing what I posted on Instagram more.

Then this collaboration came along and I thought, here we go.  AA is pushing me forward again.  I had to seriously consider “Do I want to do this?  Do I want into this industry?”

Around the same time, it occurred to me as the Tour de Fleece happened this year and I was posting regular progress and suddenly seeing more “likes” and gaining followers (partly in thanks to this collaboration that I’ll talk more about later in the month when I’m allowed to.) that I was indeed a fibre person, I am a creative person albeit a different type of creative than I traditionally think of and I needed to start posting like it.  So, I got myself a background for my spindle pictures and dragged it outside every day to take my progress shots.

I dusted off my very rusty photography skills and tried to apply some of the principles.  As I sunburned in the height of summer, I began thinking about doing shots like this in winter and knowing full well it couldn’t be outside, I needed to control the light inside for these shots.  That lead to a photo “tent” and some rudimentary lighting.

As I write this tonight, I finally understand.  I’m not an “influencer” (though I do pride myself on being an enabler!) but I am what IG calls a creator.  For the first time in my life, I’m embracing being a creative person for the sake of being creative.

Oh yeah, and I’m looking for a Circular Sock machine because I clearly don’t have enough to occupy my time.  That said, I have a LOT of hand spun yarn I’d like to make into socks and other roundish things and I think this might help.

I agreed to the collaboration, and thus to go into this next (adjacent) phase with Archaic Arcane with my eyes open this time and fully aware it’s not the end of the line for the sewing machines or anything else I do. I agreed to go into this with a real logo too.  A couple of them, in fact.  So if you see any of these logos around, or happen across a business card like the ones below, they’re all my various personalities.

 

 

 

Alright, enough babbling.  Back to working on a new 3d printed spindle design – a faster one for more experienced spinners who like to spin thinner higher twist yarns.  My main hold back is the sticks.  I can’t turn fast enough to do full custom sticks and still make them affordable.

Or maybe I’ll head to the lathe and try to finish another supported spindle. This is the one in progress.  I still have enough time to have this one come flying off the lathe in pieces though.

Focus does not appear to be one of the things I’ve committed to in the near future anyway. Nor is brevity.

Today’s Post Title:

Even though it’s not strictly right, the song that kept running through my head while writing this was:

Temple of the Dog – Pushin’ Forward Back.   RIP Chris Cornell

In reality though, it’s the opposite.  That which is old has been pushing me toward new things which are in a way also old. Maybe the title was right after all.