Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashton Zager.
Ashton, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My weaving adventure began in 2014. My husband and I were young newlyweds living on a tight budget, so I decided to make all of our Christmas gifts that year. I stumbled on a basic weaving tutorial on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot. I made my first loom out of scrap wood and nails and used a plastic knitting needle.
My first weaving pretty much fell apart, but I was hooked. I found myself weaving late into the night over and over again, and before I knew it, I had more weavings than I had space on my walls. I began selling on Etsy where I had some of my first sales (mostly to friends in the family). As my craft improved, I gained the confidence to reach out to big businesses such as West Elm and Anthropologie where I’ve been featured in pop up shops.
Then, in 2017, when my first son was eight months old, I decided to leave my full-time job to pursue weaving full time, so I could be home with him, and it’s been slowly growing ever since. I’ve now branched out to teach classes and have recently finished an eBook video course where you can learn to weave online with no prior experience. I also sell kits with my eBook.
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?
Absolutely now. It still isn’t. They call it a “starving artist” for a reason. Life as an entrepreneur artist is full of ups and downs, thrill and heartache. Putting my art out into the world is vulnerable, and it would be impossible not to take it personally when a piece takes a long time to find a home.
Social media makes this life look very pretty but what you don’t see is the 5 AM wakeup calls so I can get my creative fix before my two young sons (three months and two years) wake up for the day.
What you don’t see is me marching through downtown Asheville going door to door to business to see if anyone would like to offer my art in their stores. I love the adventure of it though. The personal risk involved only makes it that much more exciting when the sales actually happen.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I’m an artist and teacher. My first love will always be tapestry weaving, but I’ve branched out to make woven necklaces, keychains, and even Christmas ornaments. I’ve also started teaching local workshops this past year and just recently finished up an eBook on round weaving that will be released on December 1st.
With the option of pairing it with a weaving kit containing all tools and materials required to create your own weaving, you’ll learn to weave at your own pace on your own time with these online videos and written instructions. I’m very proud of this as it’s the first of its kind as far as round weaving goes.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I’m a fighter. In terms of reaching the goals I want to reach and doing the things I want to do, I usually make it happen by pure determination and stubbornness. This made me fairly hard to raise because I’m not very easy to say no to. But this trait also provides the right blinders when facing obstacles on my way to where I want to be. I also believe in doing things all the way or not at all so you can bet great detail and thought is put into my work.
Pricing:
- 25$ eBook on round weaving
Contact Info:
- Website: ashtonzagerfiberart.com
- Email: ashtonzagerfiberart@gmail.com
- Instagram: @ashtonzagerfiberart
- Facebook: facebook.com/ashtonzagerfiberart
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