Meet the Makers, April 2019
Here's an email newsletter to the customers (anyone who has taken a class) of All Hands Workshops, where I have been teaching since it opened in the fall of 2018. Kendra kicked off a monthly edition of 'Meet the Maker' by having Kaitlin and I interview each other about topics surrounding creation, motherhood, and how it all started. Kaitlin, Kendra and I all met on the same day when we attended a LUBO Collective meet-up in Santa Cruz. Female entrepreneurs in the creative space making connections- why not?! Kaitlin and I both brought our youngest daughters to our interview and were bugged for snacks and tickled with sticky fingers while we tried to have a natural, calm conversation.
Hi everyone!
Today I'm introducing a monthly Meet the Makers edition of my weekly letter to you. Below are the highlights of a great conversation between two highly admired All Hands teachers - Joan P Bogart and Kaitlin Bonifacio. They both happen to be mothers, entrepreneurs and textile and pattern lovers. They've each already taught dozens of happy students their crafts here at the studio, so it was delightful to hear them reflect together in person on their creative journeys so far.
Enjoy!
Kendra
~~~~~~~ Joan: Kaitlin, do you remember when we first met?
K: I do! I remember coming alone to the LUBO event where there were lots of people and then seeing your face...
J: And we both had glasses!
[Both laugh.]
J: We also discovered a connection through fabric - your shibori dyeing practice and my love of Indonesian batik print.
K: What is one of your earliest memories of making something with your hands?
J: Throwing back to the 80s, I remember loving those latch hook rug kits.
K: Yes!
J: Using a wooden pen-like tool, I'd work on the process of weaving and hooking yarn into a sort of color-by-numbers rug. How about you?
K: I remember my mom teaching me embroidery. I had these little embroidery hoops that I'd draw patterns on and try so hard to stitch until they were finished. I saved up my money to buy embroidery floss in all the cool colors.
J: How did you begin your current creative practice?
K: I've always been interested in textile arts. My mom is a quilter, a dressmaker and a sewer, so I have those skills, but I've always been more freeform. Making textiles is way more fun than following patterns to make a garment. When I first learned shibori, it was addicting. I was living in Hawai'i at the time, so it wasn't just indigo. I was able to use anything around me, and I was surrounded by beautiful flowers of all different colors. So I figured out how teach myself and also found classes to take. How about for you? I know you were an art student. Is that how you got started?
J: In the late 90s at Berkeley, I fine tuned my practice of drawing and fine art. Only about a year ago did I start teaching myself printmaking from online videos of people sharing their process and their mistakes and what's possible. Being here in Santa Cruz, I wish I could go back to college and join the print department at UCSC because I have heard and seen so much of the amazing instruction and quality work that comes out of that program.
J: What do you enjoy the most about your craft?
K: When I started my business, I found a lot of joy in the making process. I was thrilled to make 30 dinner napkins and see how each turned out differently. But I have two small kids, so when I work on a big retail order, I do it at night in my garage by myself when I'm tired. Or I'm rushing through it because I have two people pulling at my legs asking for snacks. [Giggles.] So it started being less fulfilling until I started teaching workshops last summer. Teaching others is what is the most inspiring thing for me now, because seeing people learn shibori for the first time and get so excited brings me so much joy. It inspires and energizes me to do more of my own work.
J: For me art is like yoga. It's a practice. And what I enjoy the most about printmaking is actually the carving. Subtracting and carving out the linoleum or rubber block after I've drawn is so meditative and focused. It feels like you're really being productive.K: It's so satisfying! I remember from when I took your workshop. J: Using my hands as an artist is so visceral. Carving is a way to be delicate with line while also being committed with conviction.
K: What have been some challenges you faced in your practice and how did/do you face them?
J: Because I'm a self-taught printmaker, there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning. I used to waste a lot of ink and paper because I didn't know things like how to work with lack of moisture or how often to clean the plate or change the ink or using mediums to reduce tack. Those kinds of things led to frustration. So I give myself more time to work with materials and often stick to my favorite water soluble inks.
K: My biggest challenges are replicating things. I work towards consistent results when making things to sell, but of course the mark of the hand is always there. When I'm making dye out of avocado pits in my kitchen, I wonder is the tap water different that week or were the avocados from a different place. Is the temperature different? There are so many variables that go into it, and sometimes that's the most exciting part. And sometimes it can be a challenge when, for example, I'm trying to send out six of the same thing. Or when I think I know what I'm doing and then it turns out different. Like why did a dye this time turn out brown when last time it turned out yellow? In my business, the biggest challenge I face is doing everything by myself and not getting so overwhelmed with things to do that I get paralyzed.
J: On the business side, the challenges that I found were the result of not having enough time. I don't have someone to update my website or post something on my Etsy shop. And it's because I prefer spending my time on the making and experimenting.
J: How has your cultural heritage informed your practice?
K: My family are all artsy people. My dad is a trained fine art teacher and painter. My mom is a textile artist. Her mother, same thing. They've always done a lot of handicrafts - embroidery, cross-stitching, crochet... When my grandmother passed away a couple years ago, we unpacked her house and she had things that were made generations ago that she was hanging onto. Yeah, handicrafts have been a part of my family's history, and that gave me the tools and the mindset that if I want to make something, I can. I just have to figure out how to do it. What about you?
J: I'm Indonesian. That's my ethnicity. But I was born in the United States, so I wasn't practicing Indonesian culture. If anything, I'm more beach-California culture. [Giggles.] But an appreciation for Indonesian batik is coming through in my line work and my designs and now I have a more heightened awareness of its cultural history. I'm trying to impart some of that cultural knowledge to my viewers, so that it's not just an object but something with my heritage behind it as well. It's a tribute to and an appreciation for the culture of my parents. When I was at Berkeley, I took a class on Southeast Asian art, and I did a report on the Wayang puppet. I was just so amazed by this form of puppetry's shapes and shadows. So that might be a future subject for me. The shapes, the stories and the symbolism of the Wayang.
K: How has motherhood influ