Labels (For Us, Not for Projects)

I really wish I were an illustrator, so that I could draw something out to show you the image that pops in my head every time I read the word “sewer”. For now, words must suffice. Picture this, if you can:

Michelangelo—no, not the painter, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle—chillin’ in front of a late ’70s Singer Touch and Sew, chain-piecing HSTs in the TNMT’s sewer lair from the ’80s/’90s animated show. He keeps screwing up the corners and is getting increasingly agitated.

Splinter looks on, counseling “Possess the right thinking. Go slow, it is not a race.”

Mikey gets one right and yells, “Quiltablocka, dude!”

Okay, so maybe we should’t go into my head all that often…

But anyway, the real point of that is that the heteronyms sewer (as in icky, gross, refuse tunnels) and sewer (as in a person who sews) kind of merge in my mind, and despite the pop-culture references of my childhood playing out in my head—or maybe because the TNMT theme gets stuck in there afterwards—I don’t really dig being called a “sewer”.

So, my question is, do you label yourself? Is there a label you hate? A label you love? Intense feelings either way about labeling in general?

I started out as a seamstress—I only sewed clothing from patterns, didn’t do much fitting, etc, and so the definition fit pretty well. But, as you can see from my blog, I do very little clothing these days and a lot of crafts and quilting.

I’m not a quilter. I quilt, sure, but that’s not the only thing I do with fabric.

I’m not a crafter, because I quilt, occasionally make clothes, and do many other things.

I’m not a fiber artist, because I, personally, don’t consider what I make to be art, necessarily, even if other people may, and my focus in all fiber-related things is to make something to be used, not be displayed as an objet d’art.

I usually fall back to sewist, but it is a modern portmanteau of “sewer” and “artist”, so again, it’s not a particularly ideal description, but it is the best I’ve found so far.

So, today, I am a sewist. Tomorrow, I may be something else. Or maybe I can just introduce myself as, “Hi, I’m Rachael. You can call me Rae. I make things.” (but I don’t think I’m a “maker”), and leave it at that.

Sort of non-sequitur P.S.: I dislike when “so” is written as “sew” in crafty/sewing/quilting blogs (e.g., “Sew, there you have it!”). It seems so twee or corny. There, I said it. Keep on using it, if you like, but you’ll never see me write it. Bleh.