27. Hooking Hats and the Art of Making Friends, with Phil Ferguson

Phil talks to us about traveling throughout Australia, the out of the box ways he likes to meet people and why crocheting hats in the shape of food makes him happy.

Show Notes

Phil Ferguson is an artist living in Australia. He makes food themed, hand crocheted hats and has been featured on the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Frankie Magazine, BBC, and Instagram’s very own Instagram page (How’s THAT for being boss?). Although Phil is far away from us in a time zone much different than ours, we’d like to thank technology for making our reunion possible and Apple and the internet for creating podcasts.

What makes the master behind these awesome creations happy? For starters, getting away. Most recently he took a weekend trip to Sydney where he was able to relax in his hotel room, eat lunch with his friends and even meet a few new people. He tells us the last time he went to Sydney, he went with a plan of parties and events to attend. This time, he had no agenda and even took to dating apps to meet new friends in the short time he was there.

In general, Phil loves traveling and has been all around Australia. Originally, he is from Perth which, for those of us who don’t know, is all the way on the other side of the country. Now that he lives in Melbourne, he gets to travel pretty frequently throughout Australia’s east coast cities and aspires to go overseas (He hasn’t been since he was around 7 years old.) No matter what kind of traveling Phil does, the important thing is that he aspires to do it with a purpose: meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.

On meeting new people, Phil tells us he’s tried to do this in a different way. In general, he likes to think of himself as a problem solver who hustles but never solves things conventionally. So instead of meeting people the traditional way—like at work—he decided to put himself out there. His art is niche. Phil figures that if someone is drawn to things he makes, they will probably be drawn to him as a person and vice versa.

Speaking of his artwork, Phil is attached to it emotionally which is why he rarely ever sells it. There are pieces he does on commission which are born from someone else’s idea. Because he didn’t think of it on his own, he doesn’t necessarily feel the attachment. His own concepts, creativity and hard work are a different story. He values all the effort he puts into his own ideas far too much to sell them to just anyone.

Since moving to Melbourne, Phil has grown into his true self and is happier than he has ever been. Since October of 2015, Phil has worked only on his crocheted hat creations because he realized his full-time gig couldn’t live in harmony with his art. In other words, prioritizing one job made the other stressful. He explains it in this way: being a creative is fluid. You spend all your time and energy on conceptualizing and producing your art. It’s of you and it is your own. When you are in a role that’s not your own, you’re placed there to perform a task, you can’t wait for the day to be over. Your mind wanders. You think of tons of things. Including dating and obsessing over boys.

In general, most of Phil’s friends are in their late 20’s and early 30’s. Despite the fact that he is in his early 20’s, he relates to them because he has found what he wants to do for the rest of his life. This doesn’t necessarily mean only making crocheted hats in shapes of food, but it definitely means being a freelance artist of some sort. He feels most other people his age are still studying or finishing university, often moving towards a career they may not actually end up wanting to pursue.

Of course he still have friends his age, but not just anyone. Phil finds that it is impossible to maintain actual friendships with everyone he meets. If it is too much work, it’s not worth it in his eyes; that makes him feel like he is wasting valuable time. He feels the same about dating.

Phil is a very outgoing person. If someone follows him on Instagram or Facebook, he often asks to meet up. Unfortunately, people always take this as some type of weird romantic gesture, when In reality, he’s just trying to make friends. When he does intend to date someone, however—which includes meeting people while he is out—he feels bombarded if he is talking to more than one person at a time, and this feels more like juggling people versus developing a relationship organically. Starting as friends, spending quality time with someone and trying to have no expectations, good or bad.

So, how exactly did phil get into crocheting hats that look like objects? He moved to Melbourne and besides work, had not much else going on. He began crocheting and the idea popped up to create something more elaborate. He began to post pictures of these on his Instagram and the food items became the most popular. Voilá! Here we are!

What else makes Phil happy? Himself, memories of his birthday, being at home and the word “dammit!”. You can follow Phil by visiting his Instagram.