|
An interview with Whitney Phippen
Written by Elliott Johnston
Saturday, 19 December, 2009
Photo by Whitney Phippen
Matter Daily is kick-starting our crafting coverage by running a series of Q&As with local craft market organizers. The second in our series is an interview with Whitney Phippen, a maker of handmade necklaces, greeting cards, and more. Phippen, whose pendants have been featured in national magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, is also the founder of the Fort Collins-based crafting group Handmade Militia, which puts on craft markets, supply swaps, potlucks, and YART sales (“a little bit yard sale, a little bit art sale,” Phippen says). Unlike the FREEdom Markets discussed in Part 1, Handmade Militia fairs ask for payment from crafting vendors, and in turn Phippen does all the legwork with set-up and promotion.
Matter Daily: What is a craft? How big is that definition for you?
Whitney Phippen: A craft is anything that takes time and energy to make. It’s something that you sit down and think about and make with your hands—even if you use a computer. You are still using your hands on the computer, so I think just anything handmade.
MD: How did you get into crafts and the craft culture as you know it today?
WP: I’ve guess I’ve always made things, and I don’t like working for other people. So I’ve always tried to find a way to make money without working for someone else, so it’s always been like, “What can I make? What can I make that I could sell to someone else, make money, and then I don’t have to get a job?”
But now there is a crafting scene, and I hadn’t really realized how big that had gotten until a few years ago. When I started hearing about the Austin Craft Mafia, the Renegade Craft Fair—which are huge—I didn’t really know that what I was doing was popular, I had just always done it as a way to make money.
MD: So, for example, what were some of the first crafts you made money on?
WP: Jewelry.
MD: And you still do mostly jewelry right?
WP: Right, I’ve switched my styles a few times, but mostly jewelry. Actually, the first thing I started with was greeting cards. I did collages and put them on greeting cards and I would sell them and go around to different stores. This was all before Etsy or anything like that. I’d go to the stores and try to get people to buy them. And then I went to the jewelry again. And then I started sewing. I had always sewn—in junior high I had always sewn dresses for girls for dances and stuff—but sewing was more…I didn’t see how you could make any money at it, so I never really tried it as a way to make money, so it had always been more of a hobby. So, now I do a little bit of it all.
MD: How did the Handmade Militia come about?
WP: Last year. I think it was around October. I was getting tired of driving to Denver or somewhere else to do a craft fair. And, you know, with the holidays and everything, I just thought, “Well, I’ll put on my own craft fair.” And I thought, “Well, if I start a craft fair, then it has to have a name.” And so I thought, well, “Handmade Militia, that will work.” And I just started to do the first craft fair at Gallery Underground last Christmas.
MD: I’ve been interested in the names of the local fairs, like Handmade Militia and Susan’s is called FREEdom Market. I’m wondering where that revolution/rebellion theme comes from.
WP: Well, for me, it was inspiration from Austin Craft Mafia, Renegade Craft Fair, and others like that. They all have rebellious overtones. I wanted to come up with something along that same vein so it would sort of fit in with all the others.
M
| “I just think it’s really important for people to know how to make things. It’s amazing how many things in your own home you could make yourself, if you just sat down and took the time.” |
D: Do you see crafting as rebellious?
WP: No. Definitely not anymore. I saw that movie, Handmade Nation, and they sort of approached it more from a punk rock stance, that crafting is really something on the edge, but to me, I guess because it is just what I do, and I realize that there is other people out there, that, it’s just what they do. I don’t see it as a political stance in any way. It’s just what we do.
MD: It’s interesting because sometimes with the punk rock/hipster approach to it, it can seem at odds with the older generation, our mother’s generation of crafting. Maybe you don’t see a break with traditional crafting, you see more of a continuation.
WP: That’s right. That’s something I try to stay away from because I don’t like that idea of how, in order for crafting to be current, it has to be different and bizarre, or it has to threaten the past. I don’t see that at all. I think it’s just a continuation. It’s just a new way of approaching the same old ideas. I mean, knitting has been around forever. And people just keep finding new ways to make it cool. New yarn, new supplies, all that kind of stuff. I think that’s really cool.
MD: And what do you think about the approach of the experimental FREEdom Markets, where you don’t pay to vend your crafts? Because the way you do it is pretty traditional right? With yours, the crafter pays some money, and then you as the organizer get the space and then you take care of everything. And then that process lets you put on more events and to sustain yourself as well?
WP: Right, exactly.
MD: So it seems like it’s great that both approaches can coexist. And it seems like it just makes for a better scene or…
Photo by Whitney Phippen
I think its an interesting thing too because a lot of people in this crafting world approach it really differently, even just in the world itself. There are a lot of them who make things because we have to; because we wake up in the morning and we have to make something. That’s just the way it is. And then there are other people who lost a job and so they have to figure out, “Okay, what can I make quick and cheap and sell?” and they approach it from that way. And I’m not saying either way is better. And so I think both the [free shows and paid shows] will appeal to the right people.
MD: What would you say to someone who is curious about it and wants to get into it?
WP: Crafting in general?
MD: Yeah, and locally. What would you say to someone so they might not be intimidated by it? What are some misconceptions about crafting?
WP: Well, I think there are a lot of people who don’t have enough self-confidence in what they do. I think everyone has to realize that what they do, even if they make greeting cards—there are thousands of different ways to make greeting cards—I think everybody needs to know that what they do is special, because they are the ones doing it. It’s their hands touching it. You can give ten different people the exact same supplies and tell them, “Hey, make me something” and you will come up with ten different things.
I think people should have a little more confidence and not be afraid. It’s not scary. I mean, it is, but when you are surrounded by a bunch of your peers who are doing the same thing, it makes it a lot easier. And it’s really fun. You get to meet a lot of nice people that way. And I think for us creative types, it’s hard sometimes to meet other creative people who really get you. So it’s a good way to do that too.
MD: And do you feel like your markets have been successful? Do feel like the craft community is getting more self-assured and vibrant here?
WP: I think so. My first show, the first holiday one, I think I had like sixteen people apply and I could only fit fourteen. This last one, I had thirty different vendors at this show. People just came out of nowhere. I was getting applications all the time; it was great. The only thing about it was a lot of them came from Denver, which is great but I would like to see more people from around here. I meet people who are like “Oh yeah, I make hats, they’re not that cool but…” and I’m like, “Just show them to me, I’m sure they’re awesome!”
So it’s definitely getting more recognition. I think people are starting to think of a craft fair as somewhere you can go get something cool locally, instead of where grandma sells all her little beaded ornaments.
| “I don’t like that idea of how, in order for crafting to be current, it has to be different and bizarre, or it has to threaten the past. I don’t see that at all.” |
MD: What do you think the roll that the internet has played in crafting for you? You talked about having to cold call shops with your greeting cards earlier.
WP: I think Etsy has made it so much easier to be a successful small business crafter. Before, you would have to design your own website or find someone who could design your own website for you; manage the website, and try to figure out a way to talk to people. Like what do you do? Just walk into a store and say, “Hey, I make this stuff, do you want it?” And that part is really hard. And with Etsy I think it has gotten a lot easier, because you can go somewhere and wear something that you made, and if someone says, “Hey, I like that,” you can say, “Well, here’s my Etsy shop, check out all my stuff.” And it’s just a great way to reach a global audience. There is no way you could have sold stuff all over before.
MD: Is that how you became featured in Better Homes and Gardens and other magazines?
WP: Yes, I believe it was my Etsy site.
MD: It’s really fascinating that media outlets like newspapers are struggling for air in the online environment, but so many creative types are finding all these new audiences that were never possible before.
WP: Yeah. It’s pretty amazing, really. I think the furthest away one of orders has come from is Finland. How would I have ever met that person before?
MD: So it sounds for you it’s not about crafting as a trend or new movement. Were you influenced by your parents or did you just get into it yourself?
WP: Well, my parents have been self-employed types of people, and they would run their own businesses. And I think just growing up with entrepreneurial parents is what I wanted to do. As far as just making things, I’ve always been drawn to it. I’ve always just seen things, raw materials, and have always wanted put them together into something else.
MD: Can you talk a little bit about what you make and what you use to make it?
WP: Yeah, so for my necklaces, I make a couple different kinds. I do custom silhouette necklaces, which are my biggest sellers. (Online, not in person. People just don’t seem to get them in person). I use old, vintage, and antique rings. People send me a picture, and I do a silhouette of their kid and then I mount it behind the ring and mount it into this really cool pendant using resin and then put in on the chain.
It’s all kind of around the idea of recycling things, using them for things that they weren’t intended to be used for.
And then with my other necklaces, I get old optician’s testing lenses and I take images cut from old books and mount them behind those to make little pedant necklaces. And I sew. I use a lot of vintage fabric, but I use a lot of new fabric too. And most of my collages and artwork that I turn into collage and journals and stuff like that uses old papers and old photographs. So I’m sort of addicted to old things.
MD: What are some of your hopes for the markets and Handmade Militia? Where would you like to see it go locally?
WP: I’d definitely like to see it grow. I’d love if it could become a well-known craft fair that people wanted to come to, that they would travel across the state to come to. That would be great. I would love, someday, to have a store. I’ve always toyed with the idea, but I don’t know if it will ever happen.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how Handmade Militia could work towards using all of our skills in making things towards helping other people. I think with the holidays coming and everybody starts to think about charity, I think it would be really cool if we could figure out a way of using all these skills that we have to make these things, if we could then help someone else.
I just think it’s really important for people to know how to make things. It’s amazing how many things in your own home you could make yourself, if you just sat down and took the time. And if you do actually make them yourself, how much more meaningful and how much cooler they are, than the things you go buy at Target. I think that’s what I’m really passionate about: the part where handmade doesn’t have to be this $300 necklace, just because it’s handmade. It doesn’t have to be this exclusive thing. You could put handmade stuff in your daily life.
That’s what I like to teach people: how to just incorporate it, bring it in. And then you get heirlooms and then you have great stuff you can pass down to your kids and gifts. Handmade gifts are the greatest thing because someone actually sat down and thought about you while they were making something. To me, there is nothing cooler than that.
For more info on Handmade Militia, go to www.handmademilitia.com.
For more info on Whitney's work, go to www.luckymebeads.com.
|
