Written by Jalish Dawes
Anjella Warnshuis sat in a leather- black office chair to knit a semi tank top at her desk. She occasionally finds time to work on small crafting projects.
“I am a craft addict,” Warnshuis said, who is an office manager for the African American Studies program and the Zora Neale Hurston Institute for the Documentary Studies.
Warnshuis has been crafting all her life. Warnshuis began drawing and coloring in elementary school. She was first exposed to sewing in high school.
“After taking two semester of sewing in high school, my mom bought me a sewing machine,” Warnshuis said. “She would buy me the most inexpensive fabrics. As a single mom, she did not have a supportive income, which is part of the reason why I have been always a crafty person because we were never rich.”
Warnshuis’s mother’s unsupportive income during her childhood led her to become a creative person.
“We did not buy Hallmark cards,” Warnshuis said. “We were not going to pay $3 to $4 when we could get computer paper and draw our own cards.”
Johanna Garnue, Warnshuis’s long time best friend, remembers her teenage-shocking experience when she visited Warnshuis’s bedroom for the first time. Garnue has known Warnshuis since the eighth grade.
“She had string-table over a long corner,” Garnue said. “She had a drawer full of fabric and a sewing machine in the corner. She had yarn hanging everywhere.”
Johanna remembered Warnshuis showing her unfinished crafting projects.
“Her room literally looked like a messy craft shop than a bedroom,” Garnue said. “I expected it to be more spacious.”
Garnue considered Warnshuis’s crafting hobby as peculiar for an average teenager.
“I will say definitely her room was not a typical girl’s room,” Garnue said. “It was like a workshop.”
Garnue remembered seeing teddy bears and craft items on her bed.
“She sewed shirts together,” Garnue said. “She sewed pillows together.”
Garnue does not visit Warnshuis’s house often.
“As an adult now, I have visited her house a couple of times,” Garnue said. “I do not come to her house a lot because she has two cats. I am allergic to cats.” Garnue, every so often, teases Warnshuis over her large amount of craft supplies at her house.
“I have told her in the past, if I cannot find what I need at a crafting store, like Jo-Anne’s Fabric and Crafting Store or Michaels,” Garnue said. “I am shopping at her place.”
Garnue felt Warnshuis’s crafting hobby has not changed that much over the years.
“All of her crafting stuff is consolidate into one room,” Garnue said.
Sharon Body, Warnshuis’ friend in the Colbourn Hall, feels her crafting bring sout her personality. Body has known Warnshuis at least for four years. They became friends while working in the same building.
Body says she thinks all the bright colors she uses in her crafting symbolizes her warmth and nurturing side. She has used her crafting supplies for Women Studies events in the past.
Winsome Newland, Warnshuis’s bible study leader, feels that Warnshuis is good at crafting. Newland also believes Warnshuis is a generous person in terms of making crafting items and giving them away to others.
“She will give her yarn to anybody,” Newland said. “She gives away good stuff. I am talking about she has quality yard, and she gives me some to try it.”
Newland does not give away her crafting supplies.
“I take much time to do it [crafting]; I only make stuff for me,” Newland said.
Newland feels Warnshuiss’ creative-personality shows in her creating crafting items.
“She is able to make a bunch of stuff out of absolutely nothing,” Newland said.
Newland is able to sum up Warnshuis’s personality in two words.
“The two words that comes to mind about Anjella is kindness and creativity,” Newland said.
Germayne Graham, the president of Black Faculty Staff Association at UCF, unknowingly agrees with all of Newland’s top word choices for Warnshuis’s personality. Graham has known Warnshuis for three to four years. Warnshuis was elected as event chairperson over the BFSA for this current academic semesters.
“She is very creative,” Graham said. “She comes up with new ideas.”
Graham appreciated Warnshuis’s personality while she was working as the event chairperson in the BFSA.
“She is very nice person to work with because she has a kind personality,” Graham said. “On top of that, she is self-sufficient. I love working with her.”
Anthony Major, the director of the African American Studies program, feels Warnshuis has a talent in event planning.
“She is good at maintaining the events for both the African American Studies program and the Zora Neale Hurston Institute for Documentary Studies, which is one of the reasons I thought she deserve to be promoted to another job title,” Major said. “I felt she deserved it and I also felt she deserved a raise because basically, she was doing the job of two people and doing it well.”
Major said Warnshuis occasionally got annoyed with people who asked her dumb questions about the African American Studies program.
Anjella Warnshuis may spend time knitting in her black office chair, but she knows her job is to strictly advise approximately 32 declared African American Studies minor students. She is responsible for completing the paperwork and budget for the Zora Neale Hurston Institute for Documentary Studies. She also is the lead event planner for the John T. Washington banquet every year for UCF.
