goTriad.com

KERNERSVILLE — Maggie Weldon is the epitome of a cottage industry.

From the simple motion of a chain stitch slipped from a crochet hook to a multi-craft, multiplatform business, Weldon’s newest venture into pottery walks the line between lace and delicacy. But she sees her most creative challenge as creating a successful business for women and by women.

Weldon did not have a happy childhood. After nuns taught her the simple crochet chain stitch as a child, crochet became her escape. She spent many hours in her room immersed in the craft. But one day, years after her first stitch and after many afghans, something clicked. The crochet had become so much a part of her that she could maneuver designs, and the more she created, the more she could create.

Last year, her business Maggie’s Crochet produced one pattern a week.

Maggie’s Crochet is an internationally known crochet pattern company. Weldon has been crocheting, designing and running Maggie’s Crochet for more than 25 years. The company has produced more than 5,000 patterns, books and specialized crochet supplies.

“I design it in my head, then I have this major shorthand way of putting it all down,” she says. “The pattern editor then translates it. She knows my shorthand language. The pattern editor has the hardest job here.”

“Here” is the center of Weldon’s world, her studio in Kernersville, into which she moved from her bursting-at-the-seams home base in 2004. There she employs four people full time and two others part time, not counting the hours she and her family log. In fact, it was her daughter who opened a new world to Weldon when she asked to take a pottery class.

Launching Lace Pottery

“We took this pottery class together, and I wasn’t that good at the wheel,” Weldon says.

So she turned to slab-built pottery, which involves rolling clay (similar to cookie dough) and cutting and shaping it to the desired form. It was then that inspiration struck, and Weldon started meshing crochet ideas with pottery ideas.

“I take my design experience in crochet, and there is an endless vault of ideas,” she says. “That transfers over to the pottery. I like figuring it out skillwise.”

What she started to figure out is that she could put her own stamp on the pottery world, using crochet in the porcelain-making process. She accomplishes this by using doilies, original designs and antique linens as a kind of stamp to create impressions in the still-wet pottery. Then the pottery is fired once, glazed and fired again. And what any potter will tell you is that you never quite know what will emerge from the kiln, if anything.

“I push the envelope and try to make the biggest pieces I can,” Weldon says.

Porcelain becomes more fragile as the piece becomes larger, and often the firing process or even the drying process can cause fundamental cracks in the work. One example of this fragile nature is a particular rectangular platter that Weldon was determined to produce.

“For every one that you see, there are at least five that don’t make it,” she says.

But Weldon just cannot stop designing. In fact, she is driven to design, she is driven to sell, and her pottery is now carried in 45 retail outlets across the country, including Fat Cat Ltd. in Oak Ridge, Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro and Southern Spirit Gallery in Denton.

It appeals to a wide demographic. She produces designs ranging from petite angel ornaments to 28-inch wedding cake plates.

Gail Boyle, owner of the 22,000-square-foot General Store of Minnetonka in Minnesota, features Weldon’s pottery in the American art gallery within her expansive store.

“We found Maggie at the Atlanta Gift Market, and I thought it was a unique form of pottery,” Boyle says.

Boyle herself collects old pieces of lace and antique linens, so she was especially drawn to the work.

Lace Pottery is a way to preserve the delicacy of lace and crochet through a more durable form. Weldon’s designs for the table are food safe, and they come in a variety of colors.

When the artist began creating pieces on a steady basis three years ago, she always glazed in white. However, after attending a number of juried craft shows, she knew there was a demand for colored glazes because that was customers’ most common request. Even now, most of her glazes are still pastel, but she would like to expand into more traditional, as well as more detailed, glazes in the future.

“When I’m trying to figure something out, sometimes I go to YouTube and watch a video, and then I see that’s how you do that,” Weldon says.

She still feels like a novice in her new craft form, but she is thirsty for more knowledge. Thus, resources such as YouTube, other potters and even customers can be her teachers.

The business side of things

Weldon has also discovered resources to help grow her business.

About two years ago, she discovered the Make Mine a Million $ Business Initiative, which is powered by an organization called Count Me In. Its mission is to promote economic independence and the growth of women-owned businesses. Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence is the leading national not-for-profit provider of resources, business education and community support for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow micro businesses into million-dollar enterprises.

“I had always looked at business as the most boring thing because all I want to do is create my art,” Weldon says. “Then I realized that creating a one million-dollar business would be the most creative thing I could do. It changed how I looked at business.”

Although she says that some people might see this outlook as strange, especially artists who think that art and business don’t mix, she sees it as natural, and that perspective shows. Through a meetup group in the Triad area, she has learned to push herself in many ways.

“Crochet is very isolating, but with the pottery, I have gone out there, focused on finding business,” she says. “I have met all these people, and I am having the time of my life.”

She is actively focusing on the wholesale trade. Attending gift shows such as the Atlanta and Chicago gift markets has opened her horizons. She has even visited some wineries in Napa Valley that have been interested in carrying her work.

“My daughter’s friends come to me now for business advice,” she says.

And this is from a woman who spent a lot of time alone, imagining how crochet stitches fit together.

“I used to have panic attacks and everything,” she says. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go out there, but I am better and not afraid of flying even, like I used to be. I am so proud of myself.”

Contact Stephanie Burt at charlotteghost@gmail.com

topCars

featured ads