Protecting the Tools of the Trade: How Fiber Artists Can Care for Their Hands

If you work in the fiber arts-spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, sewing or any other medium that requires constant contact with fibers, yarns, and fabrics, you know the toll it takes on hands! Many fabrics and fibers require delicate handling, yet keeping hands soft and usable is a constant battle. Read on to learn how you can maintain and protect your hands while creating your art!

Treat your hands like the precious commodities they truly are! While it's not necessary to take it to the extremes like a hand model might, you need to realize that your hands play an important role in creating the best pieces of art. Especially when working with delicate, snaggable fibers and fabrics, you know the importance of having soft, smooth hands.

Eat right and take your vitamins! That's right, diet is key in maintaining skin and nail condition! Think: WYEIWYG (What You Eat Is What You Get)! Diets high in junk and low in nutritional value will send your fingernails into a frenzy of chipping, splitting, and all-out chaos and disorder! Get proper amounts of water, calcium, and protein, along with vitamins, to ensure that your fingernails and skin will maintain a smooth, and naturally-polished veneer!

Wear gloves! The three times when gloves are most important:

1. Winter! You know what that cold air will do to your skin, right?

2. Gardening or any work that is hard on hands and nails

3. During sleep-to moisturize

Purchase a sturdy set of rubber gloves for doing dishes, and working with harsh chemicals and solvents. These activities suck the moisture right out of the hands, and leave you with dry, scaly flakes where your skin used to be! Use gardening gloves for working in the dirt, as it too likes to feed on the moisture within the hands! Finally, purchase a pair of thin cotton/knit gloves to wear to bed. Slather on your favorite deep-treating/healing hand lotion, slip on the gloves and effortlessly soften your hands whilst you snooze!

Manicure your nails, for utility instead of beauty. Artists who work with fibers and fabrics know that having nails is NOT conducive to ease of use. Keep nails trimmed very low, rounding the corners of the nail. File and buff edges to a very smooth finish, and keep cuticles trimmed or pushed back with an orange stick. Moisturizing will help to prevent hangnails, and cracked skin around the edges of the nail, however, apply some Vitamin E oil around nail beds to further soften cuticles and the rough edges! Nothing is more frustrating than working with delicate, loosely-spun yarns or knits and sheer fabrics that snag if you breathe at them wrong, while having to contend with rough, brittle nails and dry, cracked skin on your hands!

Wash hands thoroughly and often, during the course of your work day. Not only does this keep nasty skin oils away from delicate, light-hued fabrics, yarns and threads, but it also prevents irritation that can be caused by dyes and chemicals that are used in production of the machine-manufactured mediums. Don't believe me? Spend a day working at the cutting counter of a fabric store, and tell me how lovely your hands feel at the end of your shift!

Keep a supply of Benadryl cream/lotion on hand and, if possible, wear clean, thin cotton gloves when handling your fabrics and fibers. If you have especially sensitive skin, working with the chemically-treated fabrics, and the dyed and hand-painted fibers may invoke irritation, itchiness and even rashes. Switch to natural fibers and dyes, if your allergies are too severe!

Protect your medium. I know this doesn't much apply to protecting the tools of your craft; however, it involves the hands so let's pretend that it does apply. Bear with me for a moment, as I explain! While dark or brilliantly-colored and patterned fabrics and yarns are definitely forgiving, anything of a lighter hue (from ecru to pastels, and even brighter colors, such as golds and yellows will absorb the oil and dirt from your hands. Therefore, before beginning your day's work, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and very warm water.

Things to consider:

* You've only got two hands (and in some cases, less), so you must treat them like the most expensive  instruments of your craft!
* Use a moisturizing, color-free hand soap during the work day
* Pre-wash fabrics before handling to eliminate many of the irritants
* Do NOT use hand lotions during the work day, unless you won't be working with anything that may stain.
* Always wash your hands after working with dyes, chemicals, or handpainted and less-than-colorfast fabrics such as denim and some quilting cottons to avoid transferring that color to any other fabric or yarn