I am a small town girl who loooves the big city. I started making soap about 5 years ago after telling my mom I needed a hobby and receiving a soap making book in my Christmas stocking (thanks Mom). Since then, I just made batch after batch and realized that I loved creating usable naturally scented art. So, I officially started Etta + Billie a little over a year ago so that I can provide lovely handmade 100% natural bath a body products that look and smell great. When I am not furiously making soap and products, I love to cook and read and if I have time try to watch the Wire season 3. I desperately want a dog but must resign myself to fish for the time being. I like to collect 80s prom dresses and other 80s clothes (and started way before the 80s got trendy). I am currently working on be a good blogger, eating seasonally and making conscious choices in my life.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? What pushed me to start crafting was a frustration with my day job and feeling like I was never creating anything useful or beautiful. My mom was also super crafty when I was young, she went through many hobbies including sewing, stained glass, weaving, macramé, paper making, pottery, and the list goes on. I didn’t catch my Mom’s craft obsession until a few years ago, but it feels great to have found something I am passionate about. I do still have a day job and am thankful for the insurance and regular paycheck but am counting down the days till I can soap full time.

Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. I dont have a set process in place for coming up with ideas, I get these flashes of inspiration and make sure to write them down. Sometimes it comes from cookbooks or cooking shows, sometimes while I am taking walks and sometimes it just happens while I am on the bus. I go through my ideas and figure out which ones are worth testing. From there I mix up a scent an use perfume strips to test it making sure to note how I like the scent after I initially create it and in a couple of days. Then I will make a “test batch” of whatever I am working on, giving it to family and friends for feedback. I keep tweaking it until I love it!

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is coming up with scents and products that people absolutely love and creating them in the most sustainable way possible. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling :). The worst part is cleaning up – I hate washing dishes!

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? The best advice I have been given is to not let fear or doubt stop me from doing the things I need to do to make my business work.

Anything else you would like to tell us about your business? I am really excited about some new products that I will be launching in the next couple of months – one of which will debut at the Maker Faire!!

website: www.ettaandbillie.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/alanarivera
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EttaandBillie

I was born in Taiwan in 1978 and I have lived in America for most of my adult life. Since I was young I have had a love for color and form. With the support of my parents I came to California in 1996 to pursue my education in art. While a student at San Francisco State University I began to focus on ceramic sculpture. After I graduating in 2003 I went back to Taiwan for a year to reconnect with my family and culture. I moved back to the Bay Area where I can live with a wider range of artists. I currently teach ceramics in several places as well as maintain a studio practice in Oakland, CA.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I remember back when I still had a 9-5 job, I was so unhappy and not motivated to do anything creative, so withsupport of family and friends I quit my job and went into the craft business. But I do still work outside of my studio; I work about 10-20 hours a week teaching ceramics in the bay area, and the rest of time I get to stay in my own studio!!

Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. I love animals, all different kinds of animals. Every time when I see an animal I just want to narrate for it, and sometime I feel like I am the animal that I am drawing, this drawing process has a special connection with me.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? I like being able to make money doing something I love. The worst part is having no guarantee of the amount of money I will actually make.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? “Don’t undersell yourself.”

I have an open studio June 5,6 and 12,13, It’s at my home/studio in Oakland and is the best way to learn about me and my work. You can find information about events that I will be at on my Blog www.justhue.blogspot.com, or shop on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/pikahue

Casa Murriguez, Casa M for short, makes environmentally and socially sustainable handmade housewares and home decor featuring illustrations by Sharon Murriguez. Products include throw pillows, tea towels, art prints, stationery and other such items that will turn the style knob of any room in your home up a notch. No need to choose between style and conscience when you can have both!

Sharon Murriguez, the owner and currently the one-woman manufacturer of all of Casa M’s goods, is an Oakland-based artist who has been making art since she was 3 years old. Through the years, Sharon has focused her studies on filmmaking, photography, and printmaking. She is excited to see all of these creative endeavors intersect with the production of Casa M goods.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I love making stuff and I was ready to take the leap into self-employment! I left my day job working for s non-profit last September and I am not looking back. Even though managing and balancing the creative and administrative elements is a constant challenge, I can’t imagine having it any other way.

Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. In developing Casa M wares and more generally in my artistic process at large, I’ve found my biggest inspirations to be from everyday things. Whether it’s the view from my living room window, photos taken from a walk around Lake Merritt, images that pop up on Google searches for “vintage audio,” long distance road trips, or doodles drawn while riding BART, bits and pieces of all these experiences can be found in every Casa M design. I love the process of prototyping, from making a new illustration to figuring out how to pattern it to exploring different color and construction possibilities.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? I love having the creative freedom and flexibility to actualize an idea for a design, product or color palette. I also have gotten really into understanding the business side of things and have found it very empowering to understand the holistic reality of being a self employed business owner. And of course I have a ton to learn.

The worst part is always feeling like I wish I had more time and money. It has been a real challenge to increase production volume when every step in the making process is so labor intensive and materials are costly. It all takes time and sometimes I have to check my impatient tendencies, take a deep breath and appreciate the process. And sometimes these are the challenges that force me to be more creative.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? The best advice I have received – which is totally relatable both to business and craft practices – is to put the right systems into place to make your life easier to be as efficient as possible. I’ve got my own little assembly line process for all my products and that has helped with scaling up production.

Website: http://www.casamurriguez.com/
On Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CasaMurriguez

I’m the creator and author of the comic strip “Wondermark,” which is syndicated in some newspapers but also runs online. My website, wondermark.com, is the hub of the entire enterprise, which is where I write and design interesting things for people to read and look at and enjoy. Most of what I do is just creating free entertainment for folks, but I also put a lot of time into crafting books, stationery and gift items, and art pieces for folks to add to their lives in physical form.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? Making my comics and their related projects/products is my full-time occupation! More precisely, managing the business that revolves around the comics and so on is my job, and it’s a lot of administrative nonsense most of the time, but the core of it is my creative product in its myriad expressions. I started making comics as a fun lark when I was working in advertising — a business that can easily eat all of your creativity — and when I began to apply my efforts in the service of fun products that people wanted to buy, it led me down a path that eventually led me out of advertising and into “whatever I want to do next, let’s do that.” So that’s been comics, books, handmade stationery items, wall art and prints, original art and commissions, design work… what fun!

Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. My comic is mainly about “absurd things happening to ridiculous people,” which is to say that it can be about anything! So inspiration comes from everywhere, and whenever I think of some peculiar situation that might work as a comic, I turn to my collection of 19th-century books, find some neat illustrations in there, fire up the ol’ coal-powered scanner and get to work on a collage. The use of authentic old engravings gives my work a very distinctive aesthetic quality, and it serves as a unifying theme across all of my work — whether it be in book form, or other designed work like cards, posters, calendars, etc. So in a nutshell: 1. Think of something strange. 2. Make it look old-timey. 3. There is no step 3?

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? The best thing is that the Wondermark name is infinitely expandable! It can encompass comics, novels, strange anachronistic books, greeting cards, trinkets like stickers and T-shirts, short stories, posters and other types of weird art prints, even live performance and lectures! Basically anything I find interesting, I can explore with Wondermark. The worst is probably the constant desire to top myself. Everything I do is (hopefully) better than whatever came before it — which is great for you, but bad for my sleep schedule.

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? Always make the thing you like, rather than trying to please some imaginary audience. Making the thing you like will attract readers/fans/customers/whatever that share your tastes, which means that anything else you make, they’re probably already on board with. And be nice, too. That way you make things that nice people like. Having an audience of nice people who like what you like is the perfect situation. Making something mean or callous or calculated or simplistic or dumb attracts people who like those things, which is not the ideal audience to have, in my opinion.

Rebecca Morrissey started MsCraftypants 2 years ago in an attempt to stay home with her newborn and still do something she loves. She has been a seamstress since high school and loves putting fabric together in new ways to create functional pieces with color and design.

Rebecca: “You can say my day job is watching my two-year-old son, but it’s really a night job too. I make time for my craft wherever I can. It wouldn’t be possible without my awesome husband who pushes me to keep working when I’m tired, stressed or just plain worn out. He’s always right too: sewing makes me feel productive and happy. I love that sense of accomplishment you get from creating and building something yourself.

Ideas come to me from all over the place. My first idea was to create a diaper pad that I could easily use in the smallest bathrooms around (you know who you are you tiny back rooms of hole-in-the-wall restaurants). I have now conquered that moment of not being able to change a smelly uncomfortable kid because the bathroom is actually worse than their diaper – Ha!

I usually come up with a problem I want to fix and then go from there.
Example
Problem: All the baby gear out there looks like an infant wears it instead of a modern parent lugging it around.
Solution: Design my own baby gear with bright colors and loud prints that are also functional and washable!

The best thing about what I do? I love having someone comment on the diaper bag I’m using and getting to reply, “Thanks I made it!”

The hardest part is never feeling like I have enough time to do all the things I want. I wish I didn’t need sleep/get tired. Don’t get me wrong – I love sleep. I just wish I had more energy in a 24-hour period.

My advice to anyone hoping to turn their ideas into a business: stick to your guts. Try new things and don’t stress too much if your first attempt doesn’t work out. Working through failed designs helps perfect your eventual product. And remember: no one else out there has your point of view. Be an original. Secondly: make a specific place and time for yourself to work on projects. Crafting is more than a hobby; it is a part of you and your opinion matters. If you are serious about making your creations into a business, check out a great book called Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco. You’ll be glad you did. A friend of mine gave it to me and it’s a good way to look at your passion professionally. Sometimes I think we don’t regard crafting as serious work. Seeing other people succeed and getting tips from them on how to do it can give you the gumption to persevere when you are feeling silly for even trying.

I hope to see everyone at Maker Faire! Its more than just a craft show, it’s a crafty extravaganza of innovation and the most amazing inventors are there along with their toys – that you can actually play with! To put it bluntly: it’s my Mecca. If you are creative at heart, then you know exactly what I mean.”

MsCraftypants makes baby gear and bedding for the modern family. Her focus is on design and function and No Pastels!! For more info you can visit her site: www.mscraftypants.com. She is currently working on her stash of goodies for the upcoming show and hopes you’ll take a look.

I started cutting paper three years ago and have crafted since I could sneak into my mom’s sewing box. Bird Mafia is a way for me to combine my art with my love for crafting. Every Bird Mafia item is hand-printed with cut paper inspired designs and constructed with the most eco-friendly materials I can find.  I love lines and movement and the way paper-cutting translates an image or a texture.

What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I started out cutting paper like mad, but I found that I was holding too much back in the fine art world. I wanted to extend, and as I have always loved “making”, crafts seemed like an obvious step. I don’t have a real “day job” in the common sense of the phrase. I am a mother and I make vegan candy at a local café, but other than that I live and breathe Bird Mafia.

Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. My process goes something like this: draw a lot, find that special drawing that has just the right lines, cut this drawing out of paper, if worthy of reproduction, burn into screen and print on anything I can make that I find clever or useful. With the stipulation that I can get my hands on materials that fit my convictions.

What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? Worst – Only having two hands.  Best – Hands down, doing what I love everyday and sharing it + meeting some really amazing people (and some of my favorite artists/crafters.)

What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? I’m just rounding out my first real year of the biz and indie craft shows. I haven’t had that one amazing piece of advice that has really stuck with me yet. Though, the community of crafters at the shows I have done, have all been amazing about giving me helpful tips here and there.

PROMO: Get $5 off a t-shirt purchase at birdmafia.etsy.com, when you mention this interview in the comments section. (the $5 will be refunded to you through paypal.)

website: birdmafia.com