A Hobby Ignites a Passion and Purpose | Krista Webb
Welcome to My Hero 360! In this inspiring interview, Kerri Fitzgerald talks with Krista Webb, a wood-burning artist who has not let her Usher syndrome diagnosis define her life and abilities. Krista shares how turning a new hobby into a passion and career opportunity helped her get through the difficult times following her diagnosis.
Key Highlights:
- Hear how Krista Webb first became acquainted with the wood-burning pen.
- Discover how wood burning became a therapeutic outlet for Krista in the wake of her gradual vision loss.
- Learn about how Krista expanded her social media platform to create educational videos that depict the spectrum that is blindness.
- Be inspired by how the white cane has given Krista independence and freedom to navigate the world with vision loss.
—
Transcript:
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Hello and welcome to My Hero 360. My name is Kerri, and today we are highlighting the hero story of Krista Webb. My Hero 360 is a platform dedicated to amplifying the stories of remarkable individuals who inspire and impact others through their words and actions. Krista, thank you for joining us today.
Krista Webb:
Hello. Thanks for having me.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Thank you. To begin, can you introduce yourself and provide a little background for our audience?
Krista Webb:
My name is Krista. I live in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. Although I do like to point out that my heart is in Washington state. I am married about 16 years, and we have 2 boys who are 10 and 12, and then I don’t want to leave out my dog. He is 7 years old and he’s an American Bulldog pit bull terrier mix.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Can you tell us the story of how you got into wood burning and other woodworking endeavors? It’s such a unique skill to pick up and really makes for creative and one-of-a-kind gifts. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Krista Webb:
You’re right, it is one of a kind. It was one of those things like, “What is this? This is actually a thing?” How did I learn about it? My husband is a woodworker on the side just for fun. He builds things here and there. There was a project he was building, and he had bought a cheap $10 wood-burning pen that doesn’t have a controller, temperature controller, on it.
Anyway, I’ve always been a crafty person, and when I was going through his scrap wood box, a light bulb came on, and I wanted to put together this wall decor with this wood and that wood. I assembled it, and then I asked my husband, “Hey, that wood burn pen that you used that one time, can you just outline a couple things here and there?” He was busy at that moment, so he’s like, “Why don’t you just try it?”
I plugged it in and I did not understand how it worked. I was baffled, and I thought, “Is this broken? It looks crappy. It’s horrible.” Then the curious side of me, I hop onto the Facebook group and I type in the wood burning Facebook group or something, and then my mind was blown away.
That’s when I learned that there are different types of wood-burning pen [that] can control the temperature. There’s different kinds of wood that it’s better to burn on than others. The list goes on with all these things that I didn’t even think about when I picked up the wood burning pen. The rest is history. I became addicted, and it became a therapy, and I started creating.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Your Instagram account is just a treasure trove of all of your creations. What would you say is your favorite item to create for people, and where do you derive inspiration for these creations?
Krista Webb:
A lot of my inspiration just comes from my experience, from my condition, what I live with. I am deaf-blind or hard of hearing/legally blind, and so a lot of that ties with maybe Braille or American sign language. Some of my wood burns like to incorporate Braille or even a hand with sign language. Some of the things that I like to burn on are either ornaments or keychains. A lot of them are wall decors, even cork hats, hats that have that cork on it. I really enjoy burning hands.
I like burning American sign language. Sometimes people, maybe the Robinson’s want their last name with R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N in sign language below the text. I think that’s really cool. Or even using both. Sometimes I incorporate Braille and sign language or it’s just Braille and it’s kind a mystery for a lot of people who don’t know Braille, but they know it’s something symbolic. But yeah, I really enjoy, like I said, I think keychains, ornament, smaller stuff is typically my go-to.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
You take orders, right? You get requests for custom pieces. How did you kind of build up that clientele and name recognition and now you’re having people come to you and requesting you create things for them?
Krista Webb:
One of my love languages is gifting. It started with creating and giving to my family and close friends, and people were telling me, “You need to sell these; you need to sell them.” But I enjoy creating and I enjoy giving. Why do I want to… I don’t want to stress the finances. Although, it would be nice to have that bonus, right?
Then I looked into it, and it was kind of stressful because I’m like, “Whoa, what do I price it at? How much do I charge?” I started with Etsy. I started selling on Etsy around COVID actually. I would create these… when people were wearing masks during COVID, I made mask holders.
I would have maybe someone’s last name or some sort of phrase or text with a hook. From there, I think it was soon after that is when I created an Instagram. I joined the Instagram world and just started learning about wood burning in general and connecting with the wood burn community. That’s how I took off from there and people found me on Instagram.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
That’s really awesome. You had mentioned that you have low vision and hearing impairment. You were initially diagnosed with hearing impairment and started wearing hearing aids, I believe when you were 2, and then were later diagnosed with Usher syndrome. You talked about experiencing anxiety and depression going through all of this. Can you talk about the experience and the mental as well as physical effects of your journey with Usher syndrome?
Krista Webb:
I’m 37 right now and I was diagnosed at age 19. When the doctor told me, “Oh, you’re deaf because you have a condition called Usher syndrome that ties in with your hearing and vision loss.” I was driving, I could see just fine. What does he know? Back then, there were not a whole lot of resources and even support or organizations to go to. How did I know that he was right with this diagnosis?
A couple years later, I started noticing one of the first symptoms is night blindness, and I realized I can’t do this night driving business anymore. I had to hang up my driving keys, my nighttime driving keys at least. Then at age 31, I stopped driving entirely. But the night driving part, that was really hard. I was depressed. I was really sad because I really enjoyed night driving and I think reality hit me, “Well, maybe the doctor was right after all.” Like I said, didn’t have any support system.
I didn’t have the Facebook group or the Instagram people to connect with. It was really hard for me to cope through that. Then maybe, I don’t know, 5 years later, I started connecting with [and] meeting people. I started meeting people who also have Usher syndrome or retinitis pigmentosa, which is the vision loss, or even any kind of blindness. Just meeting other people, although you don’t want people to experience that kind of stuff, like, “Oh…” But it’s nice to know you’re not alone and other people get it. They understand.
We can be each other’s cheerleaders. You got this, and you go for it. Go ahead and get O&M training with your white cane, or go ahead and go for it and get a guide dog. That really helped, just really owning up to my disability, and it’s been a journey I would have to say.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
When we previously talked, you mentioned that the wood burning, it gave you something to do with your hands and your mind, right? To kind of take it off of this focusing on what you were going through with your vision loss. Can you talk a little bit about that and how important it is to have a passion and a hobby?
Krista Webb:
Very important. I became legally blind officially at age 31. Soon after that, that’s when I picked up, coincidentally, I picked up wood burning. Wait, what? A blind person and a fiery pen. That seemed like an interesting hobby for a blind person. But I was passionate and it kept me busy.
Because it kept me busy physically and mentally, and it gave me that drive to just live another day. I know not very many people talk about this, but it’s easy to get yourself in that rabbit hole, in that deep rabbit hole and you start questioning your life. It is worth being alive? Yeah, I did go down that rabbit hole.
One of the reasons why I’m here today is what I tell people is because of my boys, the reason why I roll out of my bed is I got to be strong for them. But also having a hobby, keeping yourself busy while my boys are at school, I got to keep myself busy. My wood burning is one of my go-to make it through the day and enjoying the process while I’m wood burning.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Yeah. You’re making something beautiful that people cherish and they give as gifts, and that must be so rewarding I would imagine.
Krista Webb:
It means the world to me. That affirmation, it means the world to me that it’s a win-win situation. Yeah. Not only is it my therapy, but they’re supporting my therapy and me trying.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Right. That’s awesome. Your Instagram account is full of your wood-burning creations, but also some of the content that you create is really educational as it relates to vision impairment and the way that different conditions impact vision. I think it’s a really important use of your platform because I think there’s misperceptions about the spectrum that is blindness and vision impairment. What prompted you to start to create more of these educational and informational videos?
Krista Webb:
I think just sharing my story and one ways of sharing my story is actually through my wood-burning art. Then I just started transitioning to real-life stories, not just through art, but also let’s show some examples of me using a white cane, crossing a crosswalk, or just sharing stories of this happened today when I went to the restaurant or things like that.
I think meeting with other people virtually on social media, I think it helped encourage them to perhaps use their white cane or their mobility aid. I think it’s one of my goals is to help encourage people to do what is best for them and to encourage them to be brave and to get out. There’s a lot more happiness out there than maybe we are telling ourselves.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
What has been some of the feedback that you have received on some of that more educational content?
Krista Webb:
A lot of it has been very positive. People have reached out saying, “Wow, totally relatable.” They share the content on their social media. Then there are also those people who are… they share ignorant comments, which is fine. We’ve all been in that ignorant boat, even myself. I think if you don’t ask, you don’t know. But there are unkind comments that people have written.
I think that, I just hope that those unkind comments turn into a realization, “Oh, maybe I should have been a bit kinder about this. I didn’t realize.” Like you said earlier on, there’s not a lot of people [that] know that blindness is a spectrum, and that’s a phrase that we say a lot in the blind community because about 90% of the blind see something.
That’s a lot of us. We are busy constantly educating people that we may see some light, maybe we see shadow, maybe we see a little bit, but that doesn’t mean we’re faking it. I think that’s why I use my social media is to help educate. It’s a great way to help educate, spread the word.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Right. Yeah, that’s the kind of the beautiful side of social media and then the not-so-beautiful side that you shared. But it’s really the content that you’re sharing, both your wood burning and the educational is really important. I think that helps hopefully change some hearts and minds, as you mentioned, through education and understanding and seeing representation of what you’re doing.
It’s really great. You mentioned earlier in our conversation that you’ve always been very artistic, and when we previously talked, you shared some of your tattoos with me. Do you want to talk about some of them because they’re really cool?
Krista Webb:
Yeah, absolutely. I think tattoos are really cool. I got this tattoo, oh… I don’t know, maybe 10 years ago. It’s on my left arm and it’s a blue ribbon. I’m going to lift my left sleeve up here. It’s a blue ribbon and below the ribbon reads, “Even broken crayons still color” with some broken crayons, different colors. Although, I do need to freshen up the tattoo color.
But the whole message behind it, we’re all broken one way or another, but we can still thrive. We can still do great things in this world. I think that’s the whole purpose of this whole message here with me, with the blue ribbon representing Usher syndrome. That yes, even though my eyes are broken with the way I look at it, some people might not look at it that way, but the way I look at it is, even though my eyes are broken, I can still live a great life.
Yeah. Then on my right arm, this one I got earlier this year, and it’s a realistic eyeball inside of a dream catcher. And I’ve always been a fan of dream catchers, but the eye in the middle, I feel like, so the symbolism behind dream catchers is to keep the evil away and to protect you.
I like to think that the dream catcher is protecting my eye. Maybe with a little bit of vision I do have, I just hope that the dream catcher, the spirit or whatever is just protecting from my dying rod, dying quicker. Take your time. I don’t need no more dying cells today. I don’t know, but I think it’s a pretty cool tattoo, so I’m pretty proud of it.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Yeah, that eye is, like I said, stunning. It’s just so well done. The message behind the tattoos is really beautiful as well.
Krista Webb:
Thank you.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
My Hero 360 is all about recognizing individuals who have embraced life’s challenges and turned it into something powerful and hopeful for others. Can you share some ways that you have not let your own obstacles define you?
Krista Webb:
I think because I use a white cane, it has really given me the independence, the freedom to navigate by myself. Because of that, I have confident to travel by myself. I’ve traveled to Arizona, I’ve traveled to Washington state. Pretty soon I’m going to be traveling to New York City. This is just by myself and not with my husband who I may use as a guide or even my kids. Because of my white cane, I’m like, “Oh, it’s my sidekick. We got this.” I think that has really helped me just get through this and just enjoy life.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Yeah, that’s great. We like to conclude our My Hero 360 interviews with the same question to each person. That question is, what would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now?
Krista Webb:
I would say that being disabled is not a bad thing. Being disabled, the word disability is not a bad word. Another thing is there is a spectrum to almost everything, I would say. Spectrum to vision, spectrum to hearing, spectrum to different conditions out there. There’s so much out there that we have [not] yet learned about. I think that’s what I would tell myself if I was younger, that it’s okay to own up to your disability, that being disabled can be cool.
Kerri Fitzgerald:
Thank you for sharing this experience with us, Krista. We know that your story is really going to resonate with a lot of listeners. Everyone should go check out your Instagram and all of your designs. They’re incredible. Thank you for partnering with us on this. We really appreciate it, Krista.
Krista Webb:
My pleasure. Thank you.
—
Connect with Krista Webb:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blindlove.woodburning/
About My Hero 360:
At My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. By sharing their stories, we aim to inspire and provide hope for humanity. Follow us to hear more incredible stories of unsung heroes who make a difference in the world.
Follow Us:
- Instagram: @myhero.360
- TikTok: @myhero.360
