Feature: Legacy Lane Fiber Mill
With the NB Crafts Council Fine Craft Festival coming up next weekend in Fredericton, I thought I'd feature a couple of the artists I know who will be there. One of my faves is Legacy Lane Fiber Mill! I've met Alyson Brown a couple times and she is the kind of person whom it feels like you've known forever. It was her passion for fiber arts and her sister Amy Carpenter Tonning's passion for business that prompted them to become entrepreneurs and start a fiber processing mill ten years ago. They started out in Amy's basement processing 10 pounds of fiber a day, and they now occupy a building in Sussex which includes a mill, office, studio and shop space and process over 40 pounds a day!
Legacy Lane now employs three full time employees (sometimes up to nine people during busy times!) and they produce a selection of wholesale products such as yarns, in-soles and dryer balls and handmade items like woven blankets and rugs. They recently added a knitwear line, and also host workshops in their shop. These girls are super busy and love their job!
I had the privilege of visiting their studio and shop, and it is really well set up. They can do everything all in the same building. Check it out!
Keep reading for a little Q/A I did with Alyson Brown:
When did your love affair with fibre begin?
Actually it was kind of by accident. I went to the craft college to study jewelry, but in the first year you get to try a few different studios, and I took a spinning class with Liz Miller and I totally loved it. I thought "I need to explore the studio a bit more!" I took the foundation in textiles program but I wasn’t a 100% sure. We got to weave a blanket and during that process and when I cut off that first piece… I knew. So I started full time in the textiles department and graduated in 2005.
What are your favourite jobs to do around the mill?
The most exciting thing is that every day can be what I want it to be. I’m never doing just one thing. If I don’t feel like weaving that day I can work on knitting, or felting in the mill. I now have the creative freedom to make what is in me to make. We’ve finally seen enough growth and gotten to the point in the business that I get to be the maker, I can say “I think we should start making ponchos now".
What does a typical day look like?
Usually I’m up at 6:30 am and I work pretty steadily through the day, often late into the evening. A down day is when I get to work from home. Balance is always hard when you love what you do. It’s not always seen as work, but that’s the joy of what I do. Some days are making and playing, sometimes it's emails and admin, other days I help in the mill to finish an order. Every day is different. Sometimes I work long days, but I can also take a day off.
How do you balance work with family?
My husband is a metal artist (Jamie Brown), and since we’re both craftspeople we are very understanding of each other’s time. Sometimes we don’t see each other until bedtime, and sometimes spending time together means working side by side with our laptops in bed.
How has the business changed over the years?
We started out with just Amy and I and the mill, I worked as a part-time waitress in the evening. Our mom did some part time admin work and some childcare for us because we both had babies. In year three we hired our first employee. Now we have three full-time employees, we have a weaver, two full-time office staff, part-time weaver and product development (me)
Now we are able to do more than just processing, like hand-weaving, in-soles, rugs, and we're now offering a knitwear line, line of wholesale yarns, and wholesale products like insoles and dryer balls. On top of all that we run the retail shop as well, and workshops and classes.
We love what we do. We’re strengthening the fiber industry, we’re putting out handcrafted products in the world. We're excited to keep growing!
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