Conversations with Arlinda McIntosh

Hi Arlinda, 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?
My entrepreneurial journey started unintentionally.  I married at age 19 and unexpectedly became a single parent in my mid-twenties.

I was faced with the challenge of finding the means to immediately finance my newly single-parent household, so, I can’t really say that I actually chose this as a particular career, I’d rather say that I tried something as a necessity that came naturally to me which was creating and sewing and I just continued on that road until I reached Sofistafunk 30+ years later.

I didn’t know if it’d work or not but I knew I had to do something because doing nothing just wasn’t going to get the bills paid.

I would later find that creating what I now call “fiber woven conversations” (aka clothing that have silent conversations with the onlookers is what I enjoy.

I’m certain that failure was and still is available as an option but I wasn’t then nor now swayed to choose it.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
LOLOLOL Smooth road?  Absolutely not but I thank aging, wisdom and every stumble along the way in addition to our newly launched Ibex design that I use as a metaphorical reminder that when my goings get rough, and mountians get high, to climb, don’t look back and forge ahead with fortitude.

Stumbles and exhaustion have surely happened but I know if I quit I’ll never know what would have happened tomorrow.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Once upon a southern day 65 years ago, when thread spools were wooden, a girl child was born.

I describe myself as a “Thread and Cloth Story Teller” a maker specializing in and known for Voluminous Skirts.

I’m most proud of My VIVID and Uninhibited imagination, it takes me on many fiber-woven journeys around the world without not one “Wheels Up”, my past fuels my present for a future full of jubilance, wonder and content.

What sets me apart from others?  Me.

What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is kindness and nonjudgment.

If I’d come into this world and not offer kindness to aid another what then was my purpose? I’d rather use the time it’d take for me to judge someone for something more useful.