April 2009 Gimme Some Luving with Margot Potter

I skipped last month’s feature where I bring you four of the best articles from other artisans and online business makers around the globe, to bring you an extra special feature this month. I was hoping to have this ready last month, however sometimes things don’t go as planned.

Every once in a while I will feature an interview with an artisan or business maker. Today I bring you a special treat … the Impatient Crafter ™ herself, Margot Potter.

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Where do you live, any nicknames, what keeps you busy, and anything else you would like to share?

My name is Margot Potter and my nickname is Madge. I live in a 128 year old school house in Amish Country in the Northeast US. I work in my studio from home writing books, magazine articles, blogging, creating jewelry and craft designs and consulting for manufacturers in the craft industry. I appear regularly on air at QVC as a rep for a private label jewelry line. Most of my work revolves around freelancing, which means a lot of time is spent making and developing connections and fine tuning my brand. I’m known in crafty circles as The Impatient Crafter™ and my focus is inspiring creativity for the Average Jane. I want to help folks who are time and technically challenged to find pathways to expressing themselves creatively, so most of what I do is deceptively simple. I also like to inject everything with copious amounts of humor, because I believe there’s no point in doing it if it’s not fun!

What started you on your “beading” path? Did you have a mentor or something/someone inspire you?

I first made jewelry as a kid at a local bead shop. Years later I met some Native Americans who taught me basic woven stitches like peyote. I realized rather quickly that this type of tedious and time consuming beadwork was really not my cup of tea. So I started stringing my own designs. It wasn’t so much someone else mentoring or inspiring me as it was discovering another outlet for my creativity that eventually led me to a career. That being said I come from a family of artists, and my mother who is an incredibly gifted artist always encouraged us to be creative.

My husband and I had a bead shop and gallery. About halfway through the years we owned our gallery we both realized how much we hated selling beads. I took the beads home and made jewelry for family and friends and also for a company called Beadalon. A woman who worked there bought my finished designs from the shop and they put them in catalogs and I’d write up instructions to accompany the designs. It’s a long story, but eventually I realized that showing other people how to design through books, videos and magazines was the best pathway for all of my many talents to come together. I’m a professional actor, a vocalist, a writer…this career allows me to utilize all of those things synergistically and it’s been an amazing ride!

Where does your inspiration come from?

The more apt question in my case would be where does my inspiration not come from? I am constantly and endlessly inspired by the world around me. I have been trolling flea markets and thrift stores for years and vintage items have always fascinated me. So there’s a lot of that retro/vintage/eclectic influence in my work. I also love color and am always looking for innovative new color combinations, often in unexpected places. A garden, a beach filled with colorful umbrellas, a fabric on an old dress, a pile of rusty metal in an old forge…if you begin to see the world like an artist you find that color, texture and inspiration surround you at every moment. I usually recommend that people start by going into their closet and taking a look at their personal palette. This is their color comfort zone; from there it’s a matter of expanding outward.

I find it hard to go anywhere without being inspired by something. My brain has a little queue of ideas waiting their turn patiently. So far, knock on wood, I’ve never run out of ideas.

What tool can you NOT live without?

My brain is the one tool I can not live without. It is the key to everything I create. I’m not being facetious, I’m being honest. Other than that…I guess I’d have to say my computer is my second most important tool. So much information and inspiration is right at our fingertips these days, it’s an amazing time to be alive. It’s sort of like my back up brain!

What organizational “skill has made your studio work for you?

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I am utterly lacking in organizational skills. I can organize thoughts and sentences and articles and books…but put a pile of seemingly unrelated things in front of me and I freeze. My husband does all of my organizing. He provides me with the tools I need to keep it all together. I have so many supplies, without him I’d be buried! We find Ikea has the best and most affordable solutions for craft storage; I use clothing wardrobes with sock drawer inserts for wire, rubber stamps and smaller items. The deep drawers hold inks and glues. The wire baskets hold ephemera. My beads are on Ikea utility shelves turned upside down and angled so I can see everything when I’m designing. All of it is thanks to my hubby Drew. Thanks, honey!

Best thing to happen to you this past year?

Seeing my kid sing a solo in her first play is by far the best thing to happen to me this year. She’s amazing. As far as professionally, last year I was sent to Tokyo as the envoy for the jewelry making segment of the craft industry by CHA (The Craft and Hobby Association.) That was amazing. What an honor! What a fascinating place.

What do you believe to the most important skill an artisan must have? and why?

I think the most important skill would be the ability to ‘create without filters™.’ That’s my mantra. When we allow for the possibility and don’t censor ourselves because we’re worried what other people might think, our work becomes richer and more uniquely ours. I think it’s equally important for an artist to be able to take off the art cap and put on the business cap. You have to believe in yourself, promote yourself, learn how to negotiate contracts and navigate the business end of things, without that success is impossible.

If you could impart one piece of knowledge, what would it be?

There are no magic beans.

People come to me all of the time asking me to tell them how to succeed. I think a lot of people want an easy answer. Oh just do this and it will happen. Dreaming isn’t enough. One must get up off of the couch and get to the business of making that dream real. That requires hard work, flexibility and vision. It requires willingness to do research, to face rejection, to fight the good fight and to keep your day job while you build it. You must also be painfully honest with yourself…are you really good enough to do what you love for a living? Seriously. I think everyone who puts three beads on a string or slaps some Mod Podge on a collage thinks they’re a designer, it’s kind of like watching American Idol auditions, not everyone is going to be a rock star and not everyone is going to be a professional designer. We are all on a different pathway and making a creative life is really a creative act in and of itself. Maybe creativity isn’t your pathway to success, at least not financially. You should still create! We’re all going to make a different creation, that’s what’s beautiful! There are no one size fits all answers.

This is what I wrote yesterday on my Facebook page: The key to your joy, success and freedom lies within you. No one else can give it to you. There are no magic beans. Dream the dream and then be willing to do the hard work it takes to make it real.

Anything else you would like to share? Upcoming news, product releases, or anything else?

I’m hard at work on a lot of what I’m calling TSPs (Top Secret Projects.) That’s code for things I’m working on that aren’t ready for prime time. I wish I could share, but until contracts are signed and the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed, it’s all hush hush! Trust me when I say, I’ve got some very exciting things on the horizon. Stay tuned at my website, blog and our YouTube Channel!

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I’d like to take a moment to thank Margot for being so gracious and taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer a few simple questions. It was a joy to talk with her and connect with her finally.