Today we’d like to introduce you to Haley Harnagel.
Hi Haley, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I have been an artist my whole life. I started in performing arts at a young age, participating in all the local performances I could in my small Idaho hometown.
In 2011, I attended college in Southern California and worked with a non-profit performing group that allowed me to travel internationally, teaching children music and dance. Though I loved my time performing and traveling, I realized I didn’t want to pursue acting as a career, and California wasn’t my vibe. I was at a crossroads when my older brother offered me the spare room in his Minneapolis apartment. I jumped at the opportunity and found my way to Minnesota.
I switched my degree to marketing and continued my education online while working at a coffee shop in Uptown. With the significant change in location and the hours spent studying and working I set all art on the back burner. Occasionally trying to try my hand at painting, ceramics, cake decorating, sewing, floral arrangement, embroidery… I was just looking for any way to use my creative energy.
I jumped into fiber arts in 2017 when I first tried macrame. There was something about the tactile feel of the cord and the repetitive nature of the art that drew me in. I spent hours looking at the craft finding inspiration and knowledge wherever I could. What started as a dabble into macrame moved into a quick stop into macraweave (macrame and weaving together) and then a full-on nose dive into weaving. I made my first loom in 2018 and self-taught myself weaving as a hobby. In 2021, I participated in the 100-Day Project on Instagram.
The 100-Day project is an online challenge where artists both amateur and professional commit to their art for 100 days and post about it daily on their grid. The commitment can be 10 minutes a day or something more elaborate like I did. I created 50 small tapestry weavings in 100 days to try and grow my craft. I would design the piece, prepare my loom and materials one day, and weave the piece the next day. Each weaving took me between 4-6 hours from concept to finish. I felt that commitment to my art practice escalated my desire to turn fiber art into more than a hobby.
I had already been self-employed for a couple of years handcrafting natural skin care products and teaching yoga when I decided to launch my online art shop Life After Average in 2021. That same year, I participated in my first art festival, had my work exhibited in a gallery, taught my first art retreat, and completed a large community macrame installation for an arts non-profit. The community macrame installation was a 9’x12′ macrame tapestry built in three panels that integrated other community artists’ work. The piece was titled “Intertwining Stories: A Macro Macrame Project”.
The concept behind the piece was to find a way to bring community back together after the pandemic. To provide a space for people to share their stories in a collaboration. I believe every time a person practices art they leave a piece of who they are whether intentionally or not. Their feelings, life circumstances, dreams, and goals, are imbued into their art because art provides an opportunity to let go of the present and open a space and energy for something more.
That was my goal behind “Intertwining Stories.” The whole project started as a series of macrame classes to teach the community the art of macrame. I designed and created the 9’x12′ macrame panels in 52 hours with 60 lbs/1.5 miles of cord and roughly 3,900 knots. 16 other artists provided materials in their medium that we incorporated into the piece. The community was then invited to come complete the installation of the whole piece by finishing portions of the piece using knots they had learned in the classes and helping to integrate the other artists’ works. The whole installation was open to the public and live-streamed on social media.
In 2021, my attention shifted from my other endeavors to art. I still sell handcrafted skincare products and occasionally teach yoga, but my main business focus is Life After Average. In April 2022, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl who now fills my days with more joy than I could imagine. I am a stay-at-home mom and full-time artist. I create my art and manage all other aspects of the business during nap times and after she has gone to bed. As a family, we spend summer weekends doing art festivals and I now teach macrame and macreweave at the Textile Center in Minneapolis.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would love to say it has been a smooth road, but like with anything worth doing, it has not. I’ve had the typical business struggles of managing content, taking risks, and running a business. I take all the photos, post the content, manage/design my website, pack orders, sign up for art festivals, and apply for gallery exhibitions, which doesn’t even include making the art. So, management of time is always a challenge. I’ve not gotten into a fair share of art festivals or galleries I’ve applied for. I have had days at art festivals where I don’t make a single sale or festivals I don’t break even. Outdoor shows in the rain are always a challenge, regardless of how prepared I am.
My biggest struggle came after I had a baby, though. It took about six months for me to get back into making art and probably another three months to not feel guilty about taking that time. I still struggle with the balance of motherhood, creating, and business. There are only so many hours in a day, and I often push the computer work and business aspects to the back burner. If I have the time to make art, I always choose that over computer work. It is important to me that my daughter is part of the art aspect of my life so she is what I like to call a festival baby. She now comes to all of the art festivals and gallery openings, which presents a whole other set of challenges, but most can be handled with a cuddle and snacks.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I would classify myself as a fiber artist. I work in multiple fiber mediums- macrame, weaving, embroidery, and needle felting. My specialty is woven tapestry. I think of my weavings as “graphic weavings” like “graphic tee.” My tapestries often depict items- animals, planets, and fruits to name a few. I feel this sets me apart from other weaving artists because it’s not a style I have seen often. I also make abstract weavings, macraweave tapestries, embroidered notebooks, woven embellished hats, macrame coasters, and macrame tapestries, but the graphic weavings are what bring me the most joy.
I primarily make smaller woven tapestries (8″x 12″). By keeping the pieces smaller it allows me to try many different designs and that helps to keep my creative energy from stagnating. I design my pieces ahead of time and many times an idea just pops into my head so I jot it down in my notebook or they live rent-free in my head until I get them out on the loom. I also give myself a theme or challenge and see how many pieces I can make under the restrictions that I place. Some themes and challenges I’ve worked with recently are Halloween and color restriction.
I’m currently working on using my scrap fiber (small pieces of yarn that have been cut off in the weaving process) to make my roving/yarn to use in my pieces. I’m just learning how to spin now and am excited to be able to recycle that unusable fiber back into yarn, while I get better at spinning I’ve been using the roving in weavings. I say it’s a color restriction because I’m challenging myself to only use the scrap fiber I already have to make the colored roving. By keeping the pieces smaller it also allows me to keep my prices accessible. I hand-craft every item I sell.
So, to account for the time and materials it takes to make a weaving I keep them smaller. I like to encourage people to display them in a gallery wall design because it allows them to have pieces from many artists. It mitigates the need to commit to one large piece of art and allows them to support more artists they enjoy.
I’ve worked on some cool projects but the one I am most proud of is the large-scale macrame piece I did for an arts non-profit. “Intertwining Stories: A Macro Macrame Project” was my idea from start to finish. I came up with the idea and pitched it to the organization as their yearly fundraiser, arranged and taught all the macrame classes for the community, arranged the other artists whose pieces were showcased on the final piece, spent 52 hours tying knots, organized the community to come and complete the final piece, and ran and hosted the online live stream. It was a labor of love and overall an incredible project.
The connection with the community and other working artists wasn’t something that I’ve come across in other areas of my work.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I almost exclusively consume fictional media, but I find it plays a pivotal role in my creativity. Fiction helps me to find whimsy in the everyday. To keep my head in the clouds and my goals lofty. For some, keeping their head in the clouds isn’t what they strive for, but for me, it helps me not take everything so seriously. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the tasks of it all.
I can get overwhelmed when I feel like there is too much for me to get done, but it’s hard to stay serious when you are watching a Studio Ghibli movie or reading a fantasy novel about magic before bed. I also find a lot of inspiration from movies, books, and music. I read a ton of children’s books now that I have a little one and the inspiration is endless.
Some of my favorite fiction come from my childhood, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a book I read every year. Studio Ghibli movies are my go-to when I need a pick-me-up, my favorites are “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “The Wind Rises”. The artistry in Studio Ghibli movies is magnificent and a great pallet cleanser to the intensity of the real world. My favorite children’s books currently are “Knight Owl”, “A Little Ferry Tale” and “Little Joe Chickapig”.
All three of these books are about following your dreams and being the best you can be. They are like little pep talks. We all teach our children to follow their path, but sometimes we need reminders too and should listen to the message the books we are reading are saying.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lifeafteraverage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeafteraverage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifeafteraverage/
