FiberArts Magazine Farewell

Snail mail has brought me many an "aw, man!" moment in the past but none as crappy as the notice of the demise of FiberArts mag. The only periodical that covered the broad range of the eclectic wonder that is fiber artistry is no more.

I've subscribed to FA off and on for over 15 years. It would have been "continuously subscribed" had I not been a grad student and subsequent underpaid stooge working for the man during that time.

Anyway, I really should have seen the writing on the wall. The issues have become much slimmer over the past few years and more recently the articles have been much more art-quit oriented. That would have been fine except that the house that publishes FA also keeps Quilting Arts magazine in their stable. Two mags with the same focus coming out of the same publishing group does not bode well for the mag undergoing changes.

I had feared for months that "Fiber" would be completely supplanted by "Quilting" and leave me bereft and a sea wondering what was up in the world of fiber. I needn't have worried. Upon notification of the death of Fiberarts I was concomitantly informed that the remainder of my subscription has been switched over to Quilting Arts. Ooooo. Irony.

Indeed, if I weren't so heavily anti-depressed via modern chemistry, I would find this particular irony just insulting. As it is, I'm simply sad to see them go. It has been hard for me to find a welcoming niche in the world of fiber art. I don't sew. Or paint. Or mix my media. I crochet. I don't even feel particularly at home in that world either in that I don't make clothes or accessories. All I want to do is tell stories using crocheted applique elements as the characters. I haven't yet fully realized that vision, but I hold fast to the dream. After all, waking-dreams are the only thing that get me out of bed in the morning.

In FiberArts I found articles about other crazy dreamers telling stories with fiber and string and cloth and whatever else they could get their hands on. To be fair, I do see some of that in Quilting Arts, but lately they are more about altering the surface of cloth, particularly with paint and dye but through other rather fascinating treatments as well.

But now where will I go to find the lost-wax glass knitter or the power-extreme embroidery mavens? The articles on "what did they say that was made of" or the outdoor installations of sculpture made with light.

Alas, business is business and a no-longer profitable title has to eventually meet the chop. Especially in today's economy. Now there is a phrase that I have truly grown to despise. No money nowhere. I get it. I feel it. It sucks. And now it kills. Oh well, at least it is better to go out with dignity than as some pale, junior-league knock-off of another title.

So long FiberArts. Know that at least this one crazy string tinkerer mourns your passing.

Hook On with nobody to watch
C