Diana Taylor
I was born in Lafayette, Indiana, the oldest of four, in 1951. My mother was a singing, painting antiques dealer and my father was an entrepreneur, and a craftsman able to build and fix anything. I am pretty sure that all my life has been spent creating, devising and designing! Even as a 5 yr old, I dressed tiny dolls in 50s style chiffon scarves manipulated into miniature ball gowns. By the age of eight, I was knitting cabled earwarmers for my girlfriends, and embroidering samplers. I wore my first self-made muu muu to a luau when I was 11. Even in grade school, I was well on my way to developing a life-long fascination with fiber and textiles.
Although I did wrangle a scholarship to Purdue University, I only managed two art-related courses before I dropped out. In my twenties, spent living in Europe, and raising four kids, I was sewing practically all of my family's clothing, knitting their sweaters and making quilts, doilies, filet crochet curtains and crocheted rugs (from cut up polyester pants!).Back in the US (1979) I had a full-fledged crafts operation, stitching everything from War Eagle Mill flour sacks into tissue box holders (it's in Arkansas) to stuffed and painted armadillos! For seven years, I was the owner of Granny's Fan, Inc., an artisan studio producing wonderful folk art from rescued quilts and embroidered linens. Among my customers were FAO Schwartz, Bloomingdale's and Spiegel. Along the way, I have outfitted drag queens, prom goers, cheerleaders and brides. I have slipcovered, costumed, curtained and soft sculpted.
After moving to Little Rock in 1988, I closed Granny's Fan, got divorced and went to work in Advertising. During the next ten years, I renovated an old house, and helped to start the Little Rock Wind Symphony( in which I played clarinet for 10 years). My children all grew up and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. I finally joined them and five grandchildren, in 2003, figuring they were never coming back to Little Rock. I gave up my lucrative job, my circle of friends, the house I had renovated and my band.
Leaving all that behind and becoming a California girl in my 50s was a shock to my system, I don't mind admitting. Although I fully intended to make my fortune selling real estate, I was overtaken by the creative energy here. After inventing my now famous FICKLESTICKS, I started Stickball in 2004, and took my line of stickfigures, giant fruits with ficklesticks for stems, animals with legs of ficklesticks, retro dolls and other work to market the following spring. I am still selling my original ficklesticks pieces to several artisan galleries, museum gift shops and boutiques. In the spring of 2007, I wrote a book about the fabric art sticks I had invented. C&T Publishing, is releasing Fast, Fun and Easy Fabric Ficklesticks, Art Sticks to Bend, Wrap, Weave and Wear in July 2008.
I am currently making Ficklesticks, teaching, lecturing and writing another book, working two days a week at Stonemountain and Daughter, the most amazing fabric store, and living in Berkeley, CA. Thanks to all for making this life possible!