While She Naps with Abby Glassenberg

Today we're talking about running an online fabric shop with my guest, Lindsay Prezzano. Lindsay and her husband, Charlie, are the founders and co-owners of Hawthorne Threads.Hawthorne Threads is an online fabric shop offering a vast selection of curated contemporary fabric collections, patterns, and thread for the modern sewer. Lindsay and Charlie are also digitally printing their own fabric line, sold exclusively on the site. What began as an Etsy business is now a thriving company with 30 employees and a warehouse. Lindsay's story is truly inspirational. Visit Hawthorne Threads online and get the show notes for this episode on my blog. This episode is sponsored by Porter and Hazel leather accessories. Visit them on Etsy and get a custom-made leather wrap bracelet, wallet, pet collar, and more.

We're talking about crafting in community with my guests Kaari and Molly Meng. Kaari Meng is the founder and owner of French General, a shop and workshop space in Los Angeles that she's had for 18 years. Kaari and her husband, JZ, have written, photographed, and styled six books over the past ten years including French Inspired Home, Treasured Notions, Home-Sewn, Handmade Soirees, and their latest book due out this fall, A Year of Jewelry. Kaari also design fabric for Moda and Fabricut, steel-rule dies for Sizzix, and embroidery floss palettes and samplers for Cosmo Floss. Molly is an artist, teacher, and story teller. She is the designer and owner of the greeting card company, 8mm. Her cards can be found in shops around the world. Molly also has an art studio and workshop space in downtown L.A., together with Robert Mahar, called Meng & Mahar.Get the show notes for this episode on my blog and check out French General online.

We are talking about improvisational quilting with my guest, Sherri Lynn Wood. Sherri is an artist working in Oakland, California. She has been making and improvising quilts as a creative life practice for 25 years and is the author of the new book published by Abrams/ STC Craft, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters - A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously. Sherri teaches all over the country including at the Penland School of Craft, QuiltCon, and numerous modern and traditional guilds. Get the show notes for this episode on my blog, While She Naps. Thank you for listening!

In this episode we’re talking about running an independent publishing company with my guest, Amy Barickman.   Founder and owner of Indygo Junction, Amy Barickman is a creative leader in the fabric arts industry. In 1990, Amy founded Indygo Junction, a sewing pattern and book publishing company which has published over twelve hundred pattern titles and 80 books. We talk about the maker scene in Kansas City, the unique business model that Amy has developed for Indygo Junction, trade shows past, present, and future, self-publishing and more. And, of course, Amy and I recommend great stuff we're enjoying right now.Get the show notes for this episode on my blog, While She Naps. Thank you for listening!

Christine Haynes is a Los Angeles-based sewing author, teacher, and pattern designer with her own line of self-published vintage-inspired sewing patterns. She has written four books, How to Speak Fluent Sewing, Skirts & Dresses for First Time Sewers, The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction, and Chic & Simple Sewing, and has written extensively for sewing magazines and blogs. Christine teaches sewing both in-person in Los Angeles and at conferences, as well as online. I spoke with Christine from Paris where she is spending a summer holiday.Get the show notes for this episode on my blog, WhileSheNaps.com, and connect with Christine Haynes on her website. Thanks for listening!

We're talking about stitching and doll making with my guests, Salley Mavor and Mimi Kirchner.Salley Mavor uses sculptural needlework to illustrate stories. Her 3-dimensional works of art incorporate highly detailed stitching and found objects. She embroiders, wraps, embellishes, and paints to create tableaus in bas-relief. Mimi Kirchner is a fine art fabric toy maker. Inspired by classic children's tales and the Americana style embodied by sailors, lumberjacks, and circus performers, her work is meticulously crafted with hand-embroidery and applique details. She's  licensed designs to Land of Nod and West Elm as well.This episode is sponsored by Creativebug. Use the code NAPS at checkout to get a free month-long subscription and try out some wonderful online classes. Get the show notes for this episode on my blog, whileshenaps.com.

Today's episode is sponsored by Creativebug. Use the code NAPS at checkout and get a free 1-month subscription.This week we're talking about ceramics with my guest, Diana Fayt. Diana is a modern day scrimshander whose chosen medium is clay rather than whalebone. Drawing on her background as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and clayer, Diana's clay surfaces are alive with strange and exotic stories, part folklore and part personal narrative. Her work can be found in a myriad of public and private art collections. She teaches workshops online and in person. We talk extensively about how to self-produce an ecourse that includes video, weekly assignments, and chat rooms in this episode.Visit Diana online to see her work and get the show notes for this episode on my blog.

I'm visiting Durham, North Carolina and I stopped in at the headquarters of Spoonflower, the world's largest marketplace of independent surface designs, to talk with co-founder Stephen Fraser. Stephen traces the history of Spoonflower from it's early days with just two employees in an old sock factory building to today with over 100 employees, industrial printers working 24 hours a day 7 days a week to print custom fabrics, wrapping papers, and wall paper for customers all over the world. Get the show notes for this episode on my blog. Visit Spoonflower online to shop for fabric or upload your own design. Thank you to Cody from Lu and Ed who talks about her email newsletter at the start of the show. Grab my new ebook, How to Create a Powerful Email Newsletter: A Comprehensive Guide for Creatives, and get started with your own newsletter today.

I'm talking with Deborah Balmuth, the publisher at Storey. We recorded this podcast at Craftcation 2015 in Ventura, California. In this conversation we talk about what makes a great how-to book and how Storey selects authors, including what Deborah is looking for in a book proposal. We also talk about how craft publishing can create something that sets it apart from all of the free content available online now and we discuss the future of publishing, including an in-depth discussion on ebooks and digital marketing. And, of course, I ask Deborah to recommend great stuff she's enjoying right now. You can find the show notes for this episode, and all While She Naps episodes, on my blog. Thank you!

We're talking about embroidery as an art form with my guest, Rebecca Ringquist. Rebecca is a Brooklyn-based visual artist and designer. Approaching the technique of embroidery as a way of drawing, Rebecca has taught hundreds of people new ways of making marks on fabric with thread. Her popular Dropcloth samplers have designs pre-printed on them ready for you to hoop and stitch.Rebecca has nine workshops on CreativeBug and her new book, Rebecca Ringquist's Embroidery Workshop: A Bend the Rules Primer, will be published by STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books in April 2015.Get the show notes for this episode, and all episodes of the While She Naps podcast, on my blog.

We're talking about how an indie designer can create a worldwide wholesale textile business while keeping production small scale and local with my guest, Heather Moore of Skinny LaMinx. When Heather started experimenting with screenprinting in her spare time in 2007 she had no idea that just a few years later she'd have a shop in Cape Town, nine employees, and a wholesale business sending her fabrics, cushions, housewares, and more all around the world.Heather also recommends some great stuff she's enjoying right now. Check out Skinny LaMinx online and get the show notes for this episode at While She Naps. Thank you!

We're talking about organic fabric today with my guests Michelle Engel Bencsko, the co-founder and creative director of Cloud9 Fabrics, and Gina Pantastico, the co-founder and director of operations of Cloud9. Michelle and Gina each bring over a decade of experience in the fabric manufacturing business to Cloud9 where their vision of producing organic fabric in socially compliant mills with great design has come to life. To read the show notes for this episode visit the While She Naps blog. Thank you!

We're talking about art retreats with my guest, Elizabeth Duvivier. Elizabeth is the founder and director of Squam Art Workshops. Elizabeth founded Squam in 2008 as a way to bring a similar experience to the one she had at Artfest to the East Coast. Attendees of Squam Art Workshop describe it as a magical experience in which they can let go, connect, learn, and rejuvenate. Elizabeth explains how she works to create that feeling at Squam. We also talk about the business side of running an art workshop including choosing instructors and hiring staff. Get the show notes for this episode, and for all of the While She Naps podcast episodes, at http://www.whileshenaps.com.

We're talking about what it takes to run a successful brick-and-mortar crafts shop with my guests Jaime Jennings and Amber Corcoran of Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver, Colorado, and Virginia Johnson of Gather Here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Find the show notes for this episode on my blog: http://www.whileshenaps.com

We're talking about building a handmade doll business with Christina Platt, the owner of Bamboletta Dolls. Christina is a wife and mother of two little boys. Her company makes one-of-a-kind handcrafted dolls using all natural materials. With a team of 48 women and her husband, who makes the heads, they create over 80 dolls per week that find homes all over the world. Dedicated to working within her community and employing stay-at-home moms to work for her, she believes she's found the 'secret sauce' to keeping the magic in her product - and that's love. Her dolls put a modern spin on a traditional doll making them fun, colorful, and childlike. Christina has been making dolls for over 12 years and still is an integral part of how they are brought to life. She lives in Vancouver Island on the west coast of British Columbia in Canada.Visit Bamboletta online: http://www.bamboletta.comGet the show notes for this episode: http://www.whileshenaps.com