Local Talent Tuesday with Hollie Jenkins

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I have an interview with Hollie Jenkins of rePresent today. Hollie happens to be an old friend of mine from our days at Waller High School, which is about 2 1/2 hours from Austin. Now, by a stroke of total luck & coincidence, we live in the same neighborhood here in Austin. So we frequently go on walks with her adorable daughter (pictured here) & their dog, discussing our crafty adventures.

Hollie makes the cutest, reversible baby bibs from thrifted fabrics and remnants that people give her, and also shares her bib scraps with me. The pieces Hollie cuts out for neck holes make perfect little ears for my elephant toys. Proof that one woman's scraps are indeed another woman's treasure!


Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Hollie: At first I just made bibs for gifts for my friends, but after my daughter was born, I started focusing on making and selling my bibs as a business.


I work at home. I’ve been a SAHM (stay at home mom) for over a year. Basically, my bib business is a part-time job, because taking care of my daughter is my full-time job. I work on my bibs while my daughter sleeps, when she is on play dates, and in the evenings. I’ve created my own work area in our study, but I also do a lot of cutting in the evenings in our family room.




I’ve been selling my bibs for over a year. I started by selling them to friends, but now they are sold at Terra Toys/Dragonsnaps, Parts & Labour, and Austin Baby.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Hollie: I get most of my fabrics from relatives and thrift stores. Lots of times, a relative will give me a big box of fabric she has leftover from quilts and clothes. People hold onto fabric remnants for decades because they don’t like to waste things. When they find out I’m making bibs, they’re glad to finally put their old fabric to use.

I never know what I’m going to get, so it’s exciting. I get most of my inspiration from these fabrics. Certain patterns lend themselves to specific themes. For example, a floral pattern makes me think of gardens and birds. My mother-in-law recently gave me [some] adorable fabric with horseshoes printed on it, so I’ve been stitching a lot of horses.


Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Hollie: My ideal productive day would start the night before. I would cut out several bibs while watching TV with my husband. The next day, when my daughter takes her nap, I would sew the bibs together. After she wakes up, I would turn the sewn bibs right side out and press them while she eats lunch and plays. Ideally, she would sleep for two hours and enjoy playing by herself. (I think I can hear other moms laughing at the chances of this happening, but this is my ideal productive day, right?) In the afternoon, my daughter would go to her daily playdate at her friend’s house for two hours. During that time, I would finish and embellish the bibs.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Hollie: I’ve really been surprised at how making my little bibs has helped me feel so fulfilled. It’s important to have a creative outlet. I want to continue making and selling my bibs even after I start working outside of the home again. I’ve been considering branching out into other products that keep you neat, like napkins and craft aprons. Even if I don’t sell them, I want to keep creating new things.

Local Talent Tuesday with Samantha Hlavaty

Hello there! Hope you've all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I'm back in Blogland today bringing you an interview with Samantha of Nepenthe's Bathtime. Sam makes wonderful bath products from the highest quality essential oils, fragrance oils, colourants & botanicals - all vegan-friendly & not tested on animals. Read on to learn more about the inspiration behind her products (and that wacky name!). My personal favorite scent she makes is Ginger Lime - if only this blog post was in Smell-o-vision...


Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Sam: My studio is our kitchen, which is also deemed the soap lab half the time. Creating soap and bath products began about 5 years ago as a hobby and a way to diffuse after a stressful day of work, and has managed to morph over the years into a full time business, especially within the last year. Last summer I decided to put more focus on it and set up a few shows to see where it would take me. Three shows became seven, invitations to sell at Feats of Clay and show at the East Austin Studio Tours, and I was filling orders until Christmas Eve. It was an amazingly busy few months! I continue to sell my creations at shows, on Etsy, and [through] my website.


Beth: Why soap and bath products & what's with the name?

Sam: As a child, I loved to raid my mom's gardens and make little concoctions out of the flowers and herbs. Unfortunately for her, at that age I had absolutely no clue what preservatives were. To this day, I am uncertain of how many moldy jars of mush she discovered throughout our home. I’m afraid to ask! Thankfully, I’ve learned a lot over the years. In general though, I have always loved bath products, aromatherapy and botanicals. Mixing with this a passion for art, design, and colour ... it was a natural fit!


Nepenthe is actually the name of my dog who was adopted from the Town Lake Animal Shelter in 2000, and she still manages to keep me on my toes with her mischievous antics. The word “nepenthe” loosely means a Greek mythological potion which washes away pain and sorrow and creates happiness. As well as a fitting name for her, it was an appropriate name for my bath line.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Sam: Anywhere and everywhere... in nature, architecture, traditional art, fashion, food, music, design, and the list can go on. I love looking at the foundation of objects & colour combinations, figuring out what attracts me to them and then seeing if I can replicate that feeling or concept in soap. I continuously challenge myself to push the limit of design in my medium without compromising the products' quality.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Sam: I envision Nepenthe's Bathtime as a storefront cottage, filled floor to ceiling with bath products & botanicals, nestled in a cozy tourist town. I would absolutely love that! For now, my goals are to find my way into more stores, do even more custom work for showers, parties, corporate, etc, and provide private labels.

I will be teaching some soap & spa classes this summer at Marmalade Skies, which I am really excited about. I am also currently working on DIY soap & spa kits which I plan to release this Fall.

Postponement

Sorry everyone, but I am in a bit of a time crunch today & won't be able to post the interview with Samantha of Nepenthe's Bathtime. I want to do it right & not rush it, so I will save the feature for next Tuesday. Nepenthe's Bathtime's Etsy shop is currently on vacation until May 20th, so next week will be better! In the meantime though, check out their wonderful Tea Soaks. They smell amazing!

Local Talent Tuesday with Tracy Owens Chasteen

Today we have a peek into the busy, busy world of Tracy Owens Chasteen, jewelry designer & owner of Polished Two. Tracy makes lovely jewelry from a variety of materials including ancient and replica Ming Dynasty pottery shards, Czech glass beads, wood, brass, semiprecious stone, copper and shell. She's an Etsy superstar with over 2300 sales in her shop - I just know that Etsy is going to pick her to be a Featured Seller any day now! Tracy also sells in local boutiques & craft shows, and is always helpful and willing to share her small biz knowledge with the rest of us on the EtsyAustin team.


Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Tracy: My studio is a room in my condo that started out as a guest bedroom and office for both me and my husband, but my huge bead and jewelry supply collection sort of forced the hubs out. We furnished the room with a Murphy bed, two desks (one for each of us), and a whole wall of Elfa shelving for my beads. But once I started selling my creations online, I took over his desk as my packing and shipping station, slowly taking over the entire room. And within the next few weeks I plan to add in several more rows of shelving for my growing supply needs. The guest bedroom/office has gradually turned into a bead warehouse and one woman jewelry-making studio.

I don't make my creations full-time in the traditional sense. I have a day job in marketing and business development that I love too, so I juggle them both. I go to work Monday through Friday and do my regular, full-time job in an office building, then come home in the evenings and on weekends and work on my crafty stuff--making new jewelry in my studio, packing orders, and working on promotions and networking activities related to my Etsy shop. If I actually sat down and figured out how much time I spend keeping up with my Etsy shop and stocking it with new goodies each day, it may turn out that I spend the equivalent of full time hours--but I'm doing what I love, so it works out well.

I've been selling crafts ever since I can remember. Even back in high school I was making and selling hair accessories and shirts decorated in puffy paints. Then I moved in to rubber stamping. After collecting thousands of decorative rubber stamps, I started a little catalog business. I had to give up my mail order business when I moved into the college dorms, but as soon as I settled in Austin after college, I got into jewelry-making. I started out just selling my stuff to friends and co-workers and doing an occasional craft bazaar or trunk show, but after I while I had my eye on starting a website. I found Etsy a few years ago and loved that I wouldn't have to design and maintain my own website...and the rest is history. Now I sell almost exclusively via Etsy, but my jewelry can also be found in several boutiques that have found me through my online shop.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Tracy: My inspiration comes from everything around me--especially my super huge bead collection. Having a lot of beads in front of me--even when they're in a messy pile--is an inspirational source of ideas because I'm always noticing new and different color combinations, often combining colors in unexpected or fresh ways based on where the beads lay all over my desk. I'm also inspired by vintage designs. I love going to estate sales and checking out the vintage jewelry collections. Sometimes I buy inexpensive pieces to recycle, but most times I turn into a regular looky-loo who just admires the wares that have been carefully collected over the years. I find other inspiration in fashion and design magazines, boutique shopping, and in custom requests. I have some regular customers who've given me some [of] the best ideas!


Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Tracy: My most productive days are often Sundays. Since I work all week, my evenings are mostly spent packing orders and working on promotional or marketing activities, but I make a few pieces here and there. On the weekends, I usually go out of town--often to the Texas Hill Country--to get away and relax. When I get home on Sunday afternoons, I'm ready to create, inspired to try new things, and have the dedicated time to put everything else aside and design new jewelry. The ideal, productive Sunday for me involves sleeping in late and spending the rest of my day and evening in my studio.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Tracy: My goal as an artist is merely to keep developing my craft. I would love to learn some new jewelry-making techniques to integrate into my designs. As a business, I love that I can have an Etsy shop and sell something that I love to make while having the total flexibility to keep my professional job as well. I feel confident in the diversity of my skills that I can always make a living no matter what the economic situation is and one way to really enhance my skill-set is to keep learning and growing in my craft. There is always something new to learn.

Local Talent Tuesday with Kristen Pumphrey

It's time once again for Local Talent Tuesday, and this time I've got Kristen Pumphrey from Pommes Frites (get it?). Kristen makes an assortment of things - "Reused, Repurposed, Really cute!!" Her clever book safes, hand-carved into vintage books, are super-cool. They'd make great gifts for that hard-to-buy-for guy or gal on your list. And her obsession with plaid has resulted in adorable buttons and magnets!



Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Kristen: I work at home. My boyfriend and I have a two bedroom house and I quickly adopted the second room as my "work room." Finally a place for all my junk! In addition to Pommes Frites, I work two part-time jobs (at Art House as a gallery attendant and as a hostess at Woodland... I'm a professional greeter!).

The beginning incarnations of Pommes Frites started back when I worked at Adorn Magazine as an Editorial Assistant. I was making owl-shaped soy candles and did a few craft fairs, like the Bust Craftacular. But of course, it was hard to build a business when you already crafted all day long at your day job! When I moved to Texas, my big goal was to "officially" start my business, and that happened in October 2008. I mainly sell on Etsy, but also sell at some local craft fairs.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Kristen: I like to create things that make me (or others) laugh. I love old books, and hate to see such pretty ones on the bottom of the clearance pile or on their way to the trash. I think I find my biggest inspiration in thrift stores, looking at all the things people gave away and wondering how I could give it another life.


Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Kristen: Since I work two other jobs, it's really about squeezing in work time when I can. After I get off work, I'll carve a book. Before work, I'll take pictures while it's sunny. When I have full days off, I listen to hours of "This American Life" and carve, carve, carve. Then I sand and glue. Then make a few buttons.

Some days, I can get up to five books finished, but other days, I'll get distracted by dishes or Etsy and only get a couple done. That's the problem with working from home. Since my work isn't really portable, I jot down notes all day long - ideas, to-do lists, doodles for new logos. The most productive tool I've discovered? Having a designated workspace! I've become 200% more efficient since that happened.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Kristen: Big picture goal? To support myself full time [with] my business! Ah, that'll be the day. Until then, I'm happy just creating what I can, when I can. I love what I do!

Local Talent Tuesday with Jamie Dorfman

Today I bring you an interview with Jamie Dorfman, the designer behind ax + apple. Jamie has a great eye for vintage pieces that she turns into fabulous, one-of-a-kind jewelry. Her table at shows is always one of the prettiest, too, with her pieces cleverly displayed on vintage books & picture frames to draw you in.





Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Jamie: I have been a chronic thrift/antique/estate sale shopper since as far back as I can remember. I remember being 14 and buying tees at the thrift store and chopping them up or reinventing old clip-on earrings into brooches. As I got older, I started getting more and more compliments on my personal style and "where'd you get that?" sort of attention.


I decided about 2 years ago to take a stab at making pieces to sell. I started ebaying and selling in random boutiques wherever I happened to be living. The ax+apple line has only been around for about 6 months, but the reaction has been incredible. I have finally honed in on a look and feel that encompasses my passion for vintage fashions while keeping everything modern and fresh.

You can find ax+apple jewelry at www.axandapple.etsy.com, in Feather's Boutique on South Congress, and at Kick Pleat on 12th.

I work out of my one bedroom apartment, which can get a little intense. But I love that my work is always accessible. I get inspired at the most random times.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Jamie: Antiquing antiquing antiquing. I can spend all day everyday in antique stores and never get tired of it. I let the charms and links I find speak to me. For example, recently I have been working mostly on my Pen Knife Collection.

Pen knives were originally invented to sharpen the tips on quill pens and designed not to interfere with the appearance of dress clothes. They were attached to the end of a watch fob chain and slipped in a pocket. So what I do is find old watch fobs and repurpose the links into necklaces. Then I very selectively find pen knives to hang on the chains. So the concept and materials are the same. But now they become neck pieces instead of being hidden away in a pocket. Vintage and fashion forward at the same time. The knives are so beautiful. They are statement pieces all by themselves.


Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Jamie: I have my studio set up in my kitchen. It is the simplest process ever. I pull all my materials out and lay them on the table, put my ipod on shuffle (I have to have my music) and stare at it all until something jumps out at me. That really is it.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Jamie: Brick and mortar baby. The reaction to the ax+apple line has been overwhelmingly positive. And I would love to start sewing again. I do a lot of vintage alteration. I am hoping in 2 years time. Knock on wood!!

Local Talent Tuesday with Jen Bryan

Welcome to the second edition of Local Talent Tuesday! This time we're featuring Jen Bryan of Lucy Blue Studio. Jen creates really cool jewelry & accessories, using mainly her own photography & original, digital collages (although sometimes she uses vintage illustrations). She also keeps a great blog called Crafty Redhead. Thanks for talking with us, Jen!

Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studio.

Jen: My studio is in this weird little second living room. We think it used to be a bedroom or a formal dining room but the former owners added a wall and some weird 70's half walls with banisters. I knocked those out and put in shelving. I am now doing my art full time, though I prefer having a job. Makes it easier to not sell consistently, plus the less time I have for a project the less likely I'll procrastinate. I got my DBA in Oct of 2006 but didn't really do much with it until the fall of 2007. I mainly sell on Etsy. I do a few shows when I can and finally started approaching stores to carry my work.

Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Jen: I find inspiration everywhere. I know this is the most common answer, but it's true. Nature, my friends, movies, museums, my favorite restaurants. I think all creative people soak in their surroundings like a sponge only to regurgitate it later in some recognizable (or not) form. The best ideas always come at 3 in the morning when the previous day's events finally gel into those weird little thoughts that randomly pop into your head when you are tired or half asleep.

Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Jen: A really productive day requires that there be no one home but me, as in, Wes has gone out of town. I get distracted by housework, dinner, [and] various domestic things if I think there is going to be someone around to appreciate those things. I always get on the computer first thing though I'm starting to think I need to make that the last thing I do in a day, then I go into my studio and hunker down. I focus so much on what I'm doing that occasionally I can forget to eat.

Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Jen: My big picture goal is to be able to pay the bills with my art. I'm not sure I want to license it out or anything and I'd always like to be able to handle the labor end of it without having to hire anyone, yet still do well financially. To make a stable living would be a good thing.

Local Talent Tuesday with Curlin Reed Sullivan & Laurie Wisbrun

Happy Local Talent Tuesday! I'm really excited to bring you this new feature here on Crafty Mishmash. I'll be gushing about a different crafty Austinite every Tuesday (or possibly only every-other-Tuesday; we shall see). I've written up a few questions that I thought would make for interesting interviews, and I hope you'll agree.

Curlin & Laurie are local gals I've had the pleasure of meeting, and both are absolute sweethearts. They've recently been collaborating on the lovely new things pictured here - so perfect for spring! So without further ado, here are today's crafty supah-stahs:






Curlin Reed Sullivan
of Pippingtooth Studio

& Laurie Wisbrun
of The Scarlet Fig

Beth: First, please give us a little background on your studios.

Laurie: My background is in advertising (on the business and strategy side, not on the creative side). After nearly 20 years of doing that, I decided last year that I really wanted to make some changes and explore some of the creative things that I really love doing. I was living in Brooklyn at the time and working in Manhattan and really wanted to stay there. But when you want to quit your day job, that’s really not a realistic place to be and be able to not have a “real” job. I went to school here in Austin and before I moved to Brooklyn I had lived here for 15 years. So it made sense for me to come back here. Austin is such a creative town and I knew I could integrate myself into the arts community and still be able to rely on my marketing and advertising network for project and freelance work when I needed it. And it’s Austin after all!

So I really scaled my lifestyle back and rented a tiny little apartment over on South Congress. Where a dining room should be, you’ll find my “studio”. Which is really just my fabric stash, my sewing machines and all of my supplies. It’s cozy for sure!

A few weeks after I moved back, I took a surface design class with Kat McTee at Art Cloth. And Curlin was in the class. She and I met and it was like creative sisters separated at birth. Since then, we’ve been working to find projects to collaborate on and spend a great deal of time together brainstorming and working to leverage each other to grow each of our businesses.

In terms of where I sell my work, I rely primarily on my Etsy site. I’ve just recently started to build my plans for targeting wholesalers.

Curlin: I work in my sunny treetop Pippingtooth Studio overlooking my garden. I also have a clay studio w/kiln downstairs. I'm so lucky to have such nice studio spaces at home because I toggle between motherhood and Pippingtooth biz-gal all day long. I started Pippingtooth almost 10 years ago. Collaborating with Laurie this past year has been a blast. We work very easily together because we share a similar aesthetic and we both worked in advertising for many years (I was a copywriter). I sell my work online from my website. My cards have been carried in stores across the country and Laurie helped me relaunch the wholesale side of Pippingtooth this year. I've exhibited at trade shows in NYC and have had success licensing my art with different companies.


Beth: Where do you find the inspiration &/or motivation for your creative work?

Laurie: In terms of inspiration for the textile designs, I have a love for pattern that goes way, way back. I was always that kid who was wearing too many patterns and throwing together things that traditionally didn’t ‘match.’ And in my book, a chair or a sofa is a real marvel. To have something utilitarian like a chair that serves a purpose but can take so many shapes and have so many personalities... I just love that! Lots of the designs I’ve been working on really celebrate my love of simple patterns, modern colors (that maybe go a bit against the grain) and the beauty of chairs.


Curlin: Golly... I find inspiration everywhere... plant shapes, flowers, leaves, stones. I work with them to create my botanical character studies, so a blossom can make me swoon; a twisty vine can send me into the studio in seconds. I love wonky shapes and imperfect lines, how clay slumps, how watercolors wander their own way. I'm drawn to any work that shows the hand of the artist. I'm interested in first instincts and works that have not been fussed over too much. I think that's why folk art inspires me. I love when art is accessible and available to anyone in terms of price and venue. I'm not inspired by art scenes that are self-important, exclusive or snobby.


Beth: Describe how a really productive day of making art goes for you.

Laurie: For the first few months of starting out, I really worked without a schedule and without a plan. I just did whatever felt creative and fun. I initially thought I would be hand sewing many of my products but found that [the] design process was what excited me and the production wasn’t nearly as rewarding. So I shifted my focus a bit and really dove into the design side of the business. Since I made that realization, that’s the area I have really been focusing on and dedicating the most time towards.

Once Curlin and I came upon the idea for the paper tabletop, that was a great way for she and I to be able to collaborate and bring our two styles together. Curlin’s style is really folksy and celebrates natural materials. And mine is more focused on pattern and color. The paper table top has been lots of fun to design together.

A really productive day would look like:

-Wake up and drink coffee, walk the dog, check email
-Spend some time working on designs working solo here in the Lilliputian apartment
-Head to Curlin’s studio and have fun gabbing and working on some new product and on marketing/PR plans for the existing stuff we have collaborated on.
-Head home and fulfill Etsy orders.
-Work on marketing/PR plans for the textiles. Lately I’ve been doing research and compiling my list of targets to approach for wholesale.
-Read blogs and see what else is going on in the design world.

And then of course there are days when none of this happens and I’m doing freelance marketing work. The name of the game these days is flexibility. But I love it because I am finally doing something that I can be really, really excited about!

Curlin: up at 6:30. boys off to school with hubby. coffee. email. NY Times online. coffee. blogs. studio. noodle around with new ideas, old ideas, clay, paper, new product ideas. more coffee.

The days Laurie comes to the studio are some of my favorites. I love collaborating. It's my oxygen (I created my 2009 calendar this year with another talented artist & graphic designer, Kristy Battani).

pencils & computers up at 2:30ish when i realize it's time to pickup my kiddlins. after dinner, the studio often beckons. I love being up there and creating things that make me smile.


Beth: What are your big-picture goals for yourself as an artist & your art-related business?

Laurie: Frankly, I’m still figuring that out. But I know one goal is to explore licensing some of my designs. I’ve always wanted to be a textile designer and would love to get Scarlet Fig fabrics out on a much broader scale. I feel like I’m off to a good start as people have been so receptive to the designs. I’m still figuring all of that out but really loving the process.

Curlin: Big picture: have fun everyday. make things that make me happy. work with other talented folks often. design and create new products with Laurie. make some money. have fun. have fun. grow. learn.