I feel as if I have reached a point in this project where I am starting to question fundamental aspects of my original goals. I have every intention to continue as planned, but I am both challenged and pleased with the questions that have started to come up. My conversation with Owyn Ruck is one that I will continue to reflect on for a while. She has a profoundly dedicated, clear approach to craft that has everything to do with the body and the spirit, and very little to do with academia or the realm of the intellectual. Though she is college-educated, she stressed her extreme discomfort with the role of craft in academia, proposing that those who operate within these colonial structures of power cannot come close to conceptualizing the personal, cultural, and spiritual connections endemic in actually putting your hands on craft art. I was quite thrilled to add such a valuable, radical perspective on craft to my already fascinating growing list of conversations, but our conversation also made me reflect on the trajectory of my project and potential traps I could fall into. I strongly agree with Owyn that over-intellectualizing a practice that is historically so personal is unfair and often even damaging. This even came up in String, Felt, Thread, the concept of many craft artists being angry that craft was becoming aestheticized; displaced from cultural context and ultimately commodified like the rest of the art world. In pushing to demolish the hierarchy of materials, is an induction into the capitalist politics of the art world really something to strive for? Then, if not recognition and all the dangers that comes with it, what exactly is the purpose of demolishing the hierarchy of materials? I think I am getting to the point in my theory where I am starting to pile on questions without answers, giving me a general feeling of concern that I will not be able to come to a conclusion through my work when my project is complete. I think the key way I will avoid falling into the trap of over-intellectualizing this subject will be continuing to have conversations with a wide variety of people on this subject, and prioritizing what they have to say candidly about their work, rather than directing the conversation towards a clear academic subject. I think the human aspect of this project so far has definitely been the strongest part for me, but I do not think the reading I have done has necessarily negated my values in any way. I just think I need to be critical of my sources and zoom out to look at the bigger picture of all these forms of knowledge coming together.