As inflation bears down, artists hope for holiday surge
Dec. 1, 2022
While the pandemic made Bobbi Clayton give up owning one business, it led her into starting another one.
Clayton had her own salon until 2020, when she decided it wasn’t sustainable.
“I just couldn’t maintain it,” she said. “When you’re 18 inches from someone’s face, even though you’re masked, and you’ve got four kids at home, you didn’t know,” she said of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For her family’s safety, she decided to step away.
In between helping her three older children with distance learning and keeping an eye on her 2-year-old, she started crafting. Wild Peach Creative was formed in 2020. Clayton had helped her friend Jennifer Petersen, owner of Luna B Jewelry, sell at art markets and fairs, and found she missed it after Petersen moved to Portland, Oregon, a few years ago.
“And she’s like: ‘You realize you’re talented, right? You should just make jewelry.’ So I got a couple packages of clay and started free-handing, and it just exploded.”
She posted her jewelry online, and it began selling. So did a line of plant-themed pieces she did for a plant sale.
“I hit the ground running hard this year,” she said. “I had everything on my website, and I had to pull it off because I’ve been so busy with markets.”
She’s one of more than 50 makers at Saturday’s 605 Made Holiday Market co-organized by SiouxFalls.Business and Knotty Gnome Variety & Salvage. It runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the underground parking garage at Cherapa Place downtown.
“This is probably the biggest year for comings and goings,” Knotty Gnome co-owner Stacy Wengler said. “We’ve had several makers step away, whether they were doing it as full-time income or part time, but then we’ve seen just as many new people stepping up.”
Clayton balances her business with a love of substitute teaching and work at a spa. In between, “I just spend hours and hours in the basement making jewelry,” she said. Next year, she plans to add a bridal collection.
While Clayton’s work is all handmade and one-of-a-kind — no mass quantities available — other newer makers are leveraging technology, Wengler said.
That includes digital design work “and then having stickers made or prints made to eerie digital art or having it put on mugs or towels,” she said. “They might not be crafting the actual item, but they’re doing digital work and having that produced. And some still do hand-painting, but they’re having magnets and cups and towels made with their art.”
That’s the case for Emily Kinsella, owner of Dream Folk Studio. She began as an Etsy shop in 2011 but ramped up her business about five years later. In 2019, her family gave her an iPad Pro for Christmas, and her business took a different twist.
“I was a stay-at-home mom, and I’d try to get paints or colored pencils out, and it would be so hard to get anything done,” she said.
Now, drawing almost entirely digitally, “it’s awesome,” she said. “I can take one thing and turn it into a bunch of different fabric products and art prints.”
Her nature-inspired work includes elements from vintage children’s books and textiles.
Kinsella sells mostly online but will have her work at the 605 Made Holiday Market, including hand-painted ornaments, art prints, tea towels and postcard packs.
Other makers are using tools such as lasers to make jewelry, signs and home decor.
“So there is room for people to use this technology for totally different applications,” Wengler said. “I’m quite optimistic about holiday shopping. We are receiving a lot of support specifically because we are handmade, and people are shopping with that intention.”
The good news is that customers seem to be inclined to buy local, said Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association.
“If you get made-in-South-Dakota products or something no one else has, I think that’s where people have been trending,” he said. “If I can find a unique thing, then that’s what I’m looking for, more one-offs than going to a department store where there’s 50 of the same shirt.”
Customers also are willing to pay artists for quality work, he added.
“Whether it’s a handmade leather item or handmade peanut butter, people are willing to pay for quality and uniqueness,” Sanderson said. “I think people are cautious right now … but buying local is something people are still interested in and really try to do.”
There are still challenges for handmade retailers to compete on price, Wengler noted.
“People are really trying to be conservative about their purchase, so that does put some strain on handmade items,” she said. “It has been harder this year, for sure, but I do feel like there are people who are committed to supporting us, and obviously we appreciate that.”
To see the full lineup of makers at the 605 Made Holiday Market, click below.
