Spotlight: Noreen Crone-Findlay, Fiber Artist

Noreen Crone-Findlay has been a fiber artist since a young age. She knits, crochets, weaves, sews, and more. She creates one-of-a-kind dolls and is now teaming with her family to create one-of-a-kind rigid hettles for weaving. Listening to her heart and her dreams, she is releasing her latest book Crochet Stars: 25+ Customizable Projects Full of Love, Laughter, and Inspiration.

How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Light bulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?

I have been an artist all my life. It’s in my DNA.

My mother and grandmother were accomplished knitters, sewers and embroiderers, so I began early in the fiber arts. My mother said that I began knitting at about the age of 2. By the time I was 9, I was designing and knitting Barbie doll clothes that I sold to classmates to fund my knitting addiction. When I was 15, I bought my first knitting machine (working 2 part time jobs and babysitting to fund it and that ever present yarn addiction).

I taught myself to crochet when I was 18 and was enthralled by the painterly and sculptural possibilities of crochet. Crochet struck a deep ancestral chord for me as I felt so connected by crochet to my Irish ancestors and their lace making. I still am devoted to lace making (tatting for many decades and Teneriffe on and off).

Embroidery was a major part of my life in my early 20’s and then I fell in love with Igolochkoy and punch needle embroidery for it’s painterly nature, too.  And, I had always been called to tapestry weaving, so that’s important to me, too. 

Part of my weaving practice, a huge part, actually, is narrow band weaving. I have always loved designing and making one of a kind dolls. For many years, I carved them in wood (can’t do that anymore because of the challenges of living with Long Covid – ugh). 

I have sewn, knitted, crocheted and woven dolls forever, and then some. (More about that later). With all of these mediums, I have always loved to approach them in quirky and unexpected ways in order to create images that are layered and metaphoric. 

I have always loved making dolls. There is something so engaging about the combination of making a representation of the human figure and then telling a story with it. Because of my love of yarn, I have always loved knitting, crocheting and weaving dolls, which I still do in so many ways. 

I have evolved this love of doll making into my sculptural mixed media woven works that combine crochet, triaxial weaving, tapestry weaving, narrow band weaving, lace making, painting, beading and other media to create wall hung ‘Woven Women’ that are an expression of the feminine divine.    

You work across multiple mediums. Tell us more about your evolution to different creative endeavors.

I have loved working in so many mediums. I have always enjoyed making the tools that I use in my art making.

For many years, I carved my own crochet hooks, designed and built my own looms, designed and carved my tatting shuttles.  

I can’t do woodworking anymore because of issues related to living with Long Covid, but am thrilled that my family and I have been working for the past year on co-creating beautiful one of a kind rigid heddles that are specifically for narrow band weaving. I do the original design for the heddle, hand it over to my son, who then refines the design and writes the computer programming for the laser engraver. He’s now training my daughter to do the laser engraving and cutting of the heddles. The heddles come back to me, and then I paint each one as a one of a kind piece. I do the designing of the narrow bands, write the pdf’s, and make the video tutorials (as I write this, we are still in the preliminary stages of being able to release them out into the world). 

My daughter in law will have them in her booth at yarn shows once we are further along with the up and running-ness of it all.  Whew… lots of hard work, but joyful, too.

I’ll have photos of the heddles on my blog, instagram and Facebook as they become available.

For the current series of Woven Women mixed media woven works, my husband welds the armatures from steel rod, based on my drawings. I am so lucky to have such wonderful co-creators!

If we asked a good friend of yours to describe your work, what would they say?

Creativity to the max, whimsy, inspiration and a deep seated sense of kindness. 

Another deeply important thing for me is my focus on designing and making small ‘Compassion Creations’ (like the Comfort Bears that I knit, crochet and weave).  I make comfort gifts to give to people who are dealing with something that is making their journey harder. 

I always keep a pouch of tatted or woven butterflies in my pocket so I can offer them to people to say thank you to them or to make them remember that they matter and are appreciated. 

I love designing small things, like the little stars in the ‘Crochet Stars’ book so that people can carry them along in their pocket and give them to the people that they find who need that little moment of sweetness and delight in receiving an unexpected and charming little gift. 

Now that ‘Crochet Stars’ is almost released, I am so excited to be able to start giving little ‘Glimmer’ Stars from the book out to people.  While it was in the production stages and off at the printers, I couldn’t ‘scoop’ myself by giving them away, but whee! Now I can! 

I hope that ‘Crochet Stars’ will inspire people to join me in making lots and lots of appreciation stars that say to other people: You matter!  Thanks for being you!

Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?

I work a lot from my dreams. In fact, the Crochet Stars book began as a series of dreams. Many years ago, I had an incredibly delightful dream about Star Babies laughing and tumbling and chuckling, sliding down the Northern Lights. It was such a lovely dream that I designed many versions of the Star Babies over the years.

When my precious son in law died suddenly from a Covid related heart catastrophe, I turned immediately to crochet for solace. I found great comfort in my crochet and talked to my wonderful editor, Candi Derr about the healing process of crocheting small meaningful things to help with the grieving journey. 

I began dreaming of the Star Babies again, and it reminded me about The Little Prince giving the Aviator the laughter of the stars to remember the Little Prince when he had gone back to his planet.

I also remembered the lovely Inuit belief that the stars are actually the campfires of our loved ones who have gone ahead. Their campfires flicker in the sky, carrying their love and laughter back to us here. 

As I kept designing stars, the Star Babies evolved into the Laughing Stars in the Crochet Star book. They inspired me to design other stars that are a way of sharing love, laughter, memories and healing the sorrows that life unfolds for us at times. 

I find that this is how my work evolves. I get an inspiration from a dream or a poem or a photo of an ancient image or something in nature, and I start drawing and sketching and then as I make one iteration after another, each one influences and inspires the next piece. I ALWAYS work in series, as I need to have that progression of inspiration that unfolds as the series grows.

When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?

I am definitely both. 

I am lucky to be very very creative, so inspiration and improvisation comes naturally to me. 

BUT, as a designer, it’s essential to be extremely well organized and to have the ability to understand how to write and build good ‘sturdy’ workable patterns that help people see how they can achieve results that are going make their heart sing.  

And, oh my goodness! The editing process is rigorous, so being able to stick with it through the fine tooth combing process of a manuscript…. well…. whew…. just plain….. whew….. Thank heavens for brilliant editors!  I love them.

How do you manage your creative time?

Oh mercy, this is a hard one for me nowadays. I am living with Long Covid, which is a post viral chronic illness that has a pantheon of awfulness that kicks people to the curb. It’s very much like living with a brain injury mixed in with a whole bunch of other yucky things.

I am having to learn that I HAVE to recognize when I am pushing past my now  diminished energy reserves and to stop before I push myself into a flare or crash.  Having been a super high energy person who could go-go-go and produce-produce-produce, work-work-work, before Covid smacked me sideways. The post viral chronic illness of Long Covid slammed me good and proper. This process of learning how to manage my creative time…. oh my….. it’s a challenge in body, mind and spirit.

I am lucky that I can still crochet, knit, sew (a little) and weave on small looms.  I have said farewell to my large looms and to woodwork, carving and working with glass. 

The mind boggling fatigue that accompanies Long Covid means that I really can’t do the level of social media that I used to be able to do, so I don’t have as much of a presence online nowadays as I did a few years ago.

Do you schedule start and stop times?

I absolutely have to, or I go into a ‘crash’ or ‘flare’ state which is freakin’ horrible. Yup. Discernment is essential.

Or work only when inspired?

I have to listen to my body. When I am exhausted, I really can’t work, so I keep sketchbooks and notebooks (well a bunch of them) close at hand to write and sketch into so I don’t loose the inspirations that still (thank goodness) come up.  Lots of them will never see the light of day, but that’s okay, too.

Are you a “finisher”?

Oh, yes, indeed. To write books, you absolutely MUST be a finisher. That being said, I am learning the fine art of NOT being a finisher, too.  Sometimes you just have to let go of something and park it. 

How many UFOs do you think you have?

LOL. More than I could possibly count! I also frog lots of UFO’s with the attitude that ‘failed’ projects are merely one more useful way of storing yarn. Life itself is the very best UFO there is!

Describe your creative space.

Colorful, maximalist, sometimes incredibly messy. South facing with a bay window full of plants. The walls are covered with finished work, swatches, sketches, WIPs, tools and stuff – lots and lots of stuff

Working across many different media, how do you organize all of your creative supplies? 

I am lucky to have a studio in our home and a little storage room that has one end set up as a photo area. I need to have yarn, tools, fabric, drawing supplies sorted and accessible so shelves and carts and all the things that help me keep things close at hand, with hopefully not too many things vanishing into ‘that really good place’ where things get put and then disappear.

Do you use a sketchbook or journal? How does that help your work develop?

Oh, yes! I have a ton of sketchbooks, journals, notebooks, stickie notes and random stacks of paper. I constantly make little sketches, doodles, notes, lists, and

I write out all my patterns by hand first, scratching out errors, and erasing and re-writing, over and over and over until I get the pattern instructions just so. I don’t write the instructions on the computer until I feel like they are ready to ‘go digital’.  I am sooooooo analogue!

Typing the instructions into the full on ‘almost there’ format of a finished or almost finished pattern is a totally different process. Very left brain and analytical, whereas, the hand drawn, hand written instructions in my odd shorthand is very right brain.

How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?

All the time! I am always ALWAYS cooking up new projects, ideas, concepts and what if’s.

Yes, I ALWAYS work on so many more than one project at a time. Many, many!

Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?

Well, the Crochet Stars book came up from a foundation of the recurring Star Baby dreams, but also from the dreams that I had about my beloved son in law right after he died. In one of the dreams, he told me to write a book about grief to help other people deal with their grief, too. That then evolved into Crochet Stars, which is a book about making lovely things that connect us to love, the healing power of laughter and how connected we are. 

On the surface, it’s a little pattern book, but hidden in it is how we carry the heartfelt love of our precious ones and how we live with love and loss and longing and sadness and joy and the gratitude. The deep gratitude for the healing power of a simple little process of making small but meaningful things that carry all these messages for us. 

Stars. We all see them. And, like Joni Mitchell sang to us: We are stardust, we are golden!

Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?

I love the whole design process. I absolutely adore it. It’s juicy and delicious. 

The challenging part is when the gremlins come out to play and I get doubts about whether the work is, or, I am – you know what’s coming here…. good enough. Oh the awful doubts about ‘good enough’. Sigh.

Also, I really don’t like having to be patient about living with a chronic illness.  But, then, it’s an excellent teaching in compassion. But, pfffftt, it’s hard at times.

Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?

Yes! I always want people to come away from my work feeling inspired, more creative, bolder about their abilities to make things that matter to them and to feel enhanced, inspired and to love life a little more.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?

Oh my goodness, I have received so much great advice in my life. 

The first thing that pops into my head is something that my beloved drawing professor drilled into his students long ago and far away: ALWAYS carry a notebook or sketchbook in your pocket and a pen and a paper! You never know when a great idea will pop into your mind or something wonderful needs to be drawn right then, or a dream fragment suddenly reappears and needs to be captured before it elusively slips away.

How has your work changed over time?

I don’t know, it’s still unfolding. I have embraced so many different techniques throughout my life, but I think that it’s all still me.  

Where can people see your work?

My blog has lots of my stuff on it and I tend to pop in there the most and my website is woefully under constructed but you can see some of my Woven Women tapestries and mixed media weaving there, and Instagram and Facebook. For my how to videos, my YouTube channel is pretty comprehensive.

Website:http://crone-findlay.com
Blog: http://tottietalkscrafts.com/
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/NoreenCroneFindlay
etsy:http://NCroneFindlay.etsy.com
Facebook:facebook.com/NoreenCroneFindlayDesigns
Instagram:www.instagram.com/noreen.cronefindlay/

For Comfort Bear patterns: https://tottietalkscrafts.com/2019/11/27/comfort-or-blessing-or-pocket-or-prayer-bears-crocheted-knitted-and-woven/

Browse through all of Noreen’s books on Amazon.

Interview posted June 2024