July 2, 2024 • 63 mins
Sugar Gay Isber talks to Jill Wolcott, owner of Jill Wolcott Knits, a fellow Craft Industry Alliance member and queen bee of pattern-making and knit books.
Sugar watched her studio tour video on her website and loved the behind-the-scenes peek at her processes and inspiration.
Jill shares the joy of running a successful business enterprise, her plans, and color trends. It is so interesting! Contact Jill Wolcott: info@jillwolcottknits.com
Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/jillwolcottknits/
Read more and visit her website: https://www.jillwolcottknits.com/
t and Sugar Gay Isber McMillan
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So this is jewelry as your side hustle.
(00:04):
And this is Sugar Gay Isber, and that's me.
And today we're gonna talk to my friend
who I actually met through the Craft Industry Alliance,
which is what I'm gonna do today.
So I'm good for another year, yeah.
It was a really great group.
And in this group, there is a lot of people
that have side hustles or full-time careers within their art.
(00:28):
So the scope of this might not be jewelry,
although it's jewelry adjacent,
because I made things that Jill would like to go on her.
And we're gonna talk about that.
And we really want to introduce Jill Wolcott,
who is from, where are you from?
I live in Seattle.
Yeah, I figured it was somewhere really fabulous,
(00:50):
because we'll talk about that too,
because she's got a great life.
And she is an extremely creative book author,
inventor of new knitting things, I would say.
Like I think that's in your scope, like you're creative.
(01:10):
So you're coming up with new ways to knit,
which is amazing.
And you need to buy her classes and her books
and her kits, patterns, I think it's patterns.
And she'll tell us all about it,
but we're so happy to have her today,
because she has a lot of great experience
and a lot of great ideas, and she's very professional,
(01:31):
and we're so glad to have you on.
So Jill, welcome to my podcast.
Thank you.
What a great introduction.
So I am Jill Wolcott of Jill Wolcott Knits.
And I started out in fashion design.
So that's really kind of a special thing
that I bring to the knitting world.
(01:52):
And I started out as a sewer.
So I actually went through a technical program here,
which is just down the street from where I live now,
where I learned pattern making and garment construction.
(02:13):
And then I went on to, then I was like,
yeah, I don't want to do that my whole life.
So I went on and got a degree in fashion design.
And in order to get all of my credits transferred,
they said I needed to take a second degree.
So I got a degree in product development,
(02:34):
which was adjacent to-
Oh, yes.
I really appreciate the degree.
I think I had that degree.
Yeah, so I ended up teaching product development
in San Francisco for over 15 years.
And I would have loved to have taught design more,
because that's really where my brain lives.
(02:56):
But the department was so disorganized.
And after like two years,
I realized we were having the same meeting
every time we met.
And I'm kind of action oriented.
And so I went over to the product development team,
which was a little more organized.
(03:18):
And I'm sure they're still having the same meeting.
But that's where your love of using a rock comes from,
I'm sure, because well, I don't know what years those were,
but he was at his height in the 80s, like early 80s,
with the Reeve Gauchan, all of his really high end,
but just,
(03:38):
yeah.
You asked me, who was my favorite designer?
It would still be him.
And I actually went to Morocco and to his gardens there,
and I painted pots with his blue color.
And I just lived it for a little while,
like, you know, he was long dead at that point,
but it was just like, you know, did my heart good,
because I get it.
(03:59):
I used to be in retail during those times.
And I sold those beautiful, amazing expensive pieces
that were like, it was so great just to be able to touch them.
I never even tried one on, didn't it?
Yeah.
I'm gonna try one more time in a picture.
What was I thinking?
The closest I could ever get,
and I didn't even go for that.
Why?
Thank you, but,
but I also, I watched your video on your website,
(04:24):
on the tour of your studio.
And I have to say, you really inspired me.
It was such a great tour.
I saw your degree there from the technical school.
I saw how you were organizing, how things meant to you,
and how things do mean to you.
And the, and the piece that you were meeting,
I saw right at the beginning, I'm like, oh my God.
And then I found out it was from a Japanese pattern
(04:46):
and it had all those little balls on it.
And that's probably what I liked it to do.
But you're an amazing craftsperson.
So I'm,
you know, there are people who are much better knitters than me.
And I will admit that I mostly pay other people
to knit my things because I can't focus that long on anything.
(05:11):
I could never knit, so I got you.
And I, you know, tend to change things as I go
and then forget.
And so most of my samples are knit by other people,
but I knit every night for like two and a half hours.
So I'm always making stuff,
just not necessarily pattern related.
(05:34):
And some of my, I think my best projects have come from
those things that I make for myself.
And then I'll be like, oh, I bet other people would like this.
Ha ha ha.
And I think it's cause it really taps into my passions
and what interests me.
(05:55):
So I'm just kind of naturally a problem solver.
So I'm always looking for something that needs
to be done better or done differently.
Or like I come from a sewing background.
So sewing something together doesn't bother me,
but most knitters don't want to do that.
Right.
(06:15):
So I spent a lot of years just learning how to do things
on the needles that, so to avoid sewing.
Because that's what knitters hate.
And so, yeah, I'm always thinking,
I gotta tell you, like I am never bored.
(06:35):
I'm sure you're never bored.
I know, we're the same, of course.
In every project that I do,
and I do multiple projects for product design,
I'm creating, you know, collections for this,
you know, this company,
it's like all different kinds all week long.
So I've got to be organized,
but we're the same on that product design.
(06:57):
Like it is about creative thinking and problem solving.
Like how can I, I'm doing a project right now
for Niagara Falls and it's all selenite.
And it's like, how can I represent the 1800s?
Cause that was kind of the,
wasn't the first thing that we came up with,
but the 1800s in selenite jewelry.
And what do I have?
(07:18):
And what do I need to get?
And how can I put this all together
and have it priced right and all that?
Cause it's all part of this.
Like we have to be such business people as entrepreneurs.
Like we really have to be able to take the photos.
Do you take photos for this?
I know you're literate and computer,
which is such an important part, but.
Yeah. So I literally did not know how to take photos
(07:42):
until I got my first iPhone, which was an iPhone 7.
So that was not, when I was teaching,
I had a flip phone and my students used to say,
your husband needs to get you a better phone.
I was like, no, I'm good with the flip phone
because I hate my phone.
(08:02):
And so when I finally got an iPhone,
I realized I had never taken pictures.
I had no idea how to do it.
So my husband had taken some photography classes
when he was in college.
And so he kind of explained things to me
in a very lawyerly way.
(08:24):
And then I signed up for a program online
and just like went through their program
to teach myself how to see through the camera.
Cause before that I was like, you know,
the thumb was in there, the foot was in there.
I didn't, cause I can like block out all that stuff
that's behind me.
Yeah.
(08:45):
And the camera doesn't.
So I had to learn.
Now it does though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I had to learn and I had to learn how to take videos.
And,
You agree with that?
Like all on your own, you're taking yourself videos,
you're taking yourself, you know, like that's something I,
(09:07):
I don't even want to be in front of the camera.
Like I'm like, I don't know.
Yeah, no, it's so different.
And I am approaching my 70th birthday.
Yay.
So,
When's your birthday?
When's your birthday?
October 5th, I'm at total labor.
So I had to learn all these things as, you know, 50 plus.
(09:31):
Aren't you glad that you do though?
Because it's really important.
I tell everybody the best thing that you can do
is buy a good phone.
Because my phone is able,
like it's a professional grade cell phone.
And it does so much for me.
Like I, I'm very, I tell everybody, key to your business,
(09:53):
have good equipment.
It can't be more than two years old
because it was too much things that have happened
in two years.
You've got to be able to have the latest and the greatest
and the upgrades are really important.
Yeah. And so when I was teaching,
I had to learn all this like layout software
and illustrator and Photoshop.
(10:15):
Yeah, that's hard.
And so I actually at one point paid a student
to teach me illustrator.
Oh, I wish I could.
I just had a list of every question,
of questions every week and say,
it would say like, I want to do this, just teach me that.
(10:36):
And we would, she would teach me and,
cause I kind of like need to be able to do something
right away. And then pretty soon I became an expert.
I did classes on illustrator.
I'm not so good at Photoshop.
And then I do the layout for all of my patterns and stuff.
(10:58):
So I recently switched to another, away from Adobe.
Yeah, me too.
Me too. I did too.
I canceled my Photoshop since I had it since 2005.
Yeah, so I started in 2000 and I stopped at CS6,
(11:21):
which was the last time you could actually buy the program.
And so I have this ancient computer over there.
I heard you talking about it that you have to fire it up.
Yeah.
I getcha.
And so anybody who's looking,
Affinity software is really good.
It's like $200 ish and for all three programs and you own it.
(11:47):
So then when they come up with like a complete new upgrade,
you pay $100 to upgrade.
I heard you talk about that.
It's brilliant.
And I would say it's actually a little better than Adobe,
just because they haven't, you know,
they built it from scratch with all the knowledge
that Adobe had discovered,
(12:10):
where Adobe's been like, you know, patching things on.
So it's really good software.
And it certainly makes my life easier.
But when you make a transition like that,
it's huge.
I know.
I would say you have to.
You have to.
I was trying to do something yesterday
(12:31):
and I told my husband, I'm like,
in like the beginning of computer time, like,
19, eight, let's just say 1990,
because that's why I was using it.
I was using computers before, way before that,
but there was a piece of software called Print Artist.
And it was such a,
it was the precursor to Photoshop.
(12:51):
And I told my husband, I'm like,
with that piece of software,
I could do something that they don't have anymore.
You cannot do it.
It was called tiling.
And you could just click a button
and your image would like tile,
whatever it is size that you needed.
And I needed something that could be printed on the front
and then run it back through
and it's printed on the back.
So that was one piece of paper.
But I need to sign
(13:14):
the frustration, the waste of time.
But I'm like Googling it.
I'm like, looking on YouTube.
I'm like, I know I should be able to do this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's probably available in something like Photoshop,
which I just ditched.
So for Canva,
because you know, it's all AI now.
And I don't know, I think it's that much better,
(13:35):
but it's hard.
Like it's tricky.
I'm gonna like really like figure it all out again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So my big interest
for the last several years has been fit.
And because of my pattern making background,
I understand why things don't fit
(13:59):
and how to make them fit.
I like the darts.
You were talking about the darts.
The darts are huge.
And you know, getting this to fit
if you've got a big bust is crucial.
But no one really knows how to do it
because they don't understand the pattern making,
(14:19):
but also we tend to not understand bodies.
And you know, like the way I put on padding
is not gonna be the same as the way you put on padding.
And so there is no universal solution.
And so I got really interested in this.
(14:41):
And I started thinking about trans people
because they have a skeleton that was set
by whatever gender they were at birth.
Right, at birth. So, you know, if they've gone through puberty,
they've got that skeleton and they can take hormones,
(15:06):
they can pad out or remove fat,
but they still are gonna have that skeleton.
Yeah, you had a skeleton in your back right over there.
And you said it's a male skeleton.
And I'm like, how many differences are there in a skeleton?
(15:26):
Like I don't want to see SI.
So I'm sure somebody's seen it.
There's really not a lot of difference
in the component pieces,
but we all know that when women give birth or get pregnant,
that their hips expand to facilitate
the expelling of a human being.
(15:50):
Yes.
Which I've done. So I get you. I'm there with you.
I'm seeing it. I'm feeling it.
Yeah, so it's mostly structural,
which is often related not to the bones,
but to connective tissue.
So it's that connector thing in here.
Yeah, and so it allows the hip to spread.
(16:13):
So I'm in, is it like, is it all, is it fused?
Is it all like one piece and not flexible?
Is that the only difference?
Is that where we're looking for the difference?
It's just narrower with, you know,
so then the differences come in in connective tissue.
So we have different types of connections
(16:34):
between the genders,
but of course we don't know that much about women
because why would you ever study women?
Don't get me started. I live in Texas.
Yeah, I was going to say that.
This is a whole other thing.
So it really becomes how additional layers
(16:56):
are put on the skeleton.
And then we know that as you age, things change.
As you put on weight, things change.
And one of the things I've become really convinced
is that the type of food that you eat
changes the kind of fat that you put on.
(17:16):
And it's so complicated.
But it's a problem that needs solving.
So I've been working on it.
And I've been working on it for, I think, three years
to make something that would allow people
(17:37):
to individualize a particular design.
And so like take one of my designs
and you put in your measurements
and it rewrites it for your measurements.
It's not quite that simple.
But so when we got to the point of wanting to actually make
(18:02):
that happen, I was doing it in Excel.
And when I say I actually mean someone else was doing most
of it in Excel, I'm like the mastermind.
And it turns out Excel is really porous and really easy
to break into.
So I was mostly concerned about protecting my IP.
(18:24):
And so we built a PHP, whatever.
And again, I say we.
And just this lovely gentleman named
Owen, who I found through his partner
on Craft Industry Alliance.
Yeah, so and there in England, he built me this PHP thing,
(18:46):
which is basically like how your bank does stuff.
It's working on a server.
And so you see like a JavaScript thing on the front.
And there's all this other stuff going on.
So he built that for me.
And he was so brilliant.
He kept saying, let's just keep it really simple.
(19:08):
Let's keep it really simple.
Because I had a limited budget.
You don't want that.
I do not need to be an IT manager.
So we really needed it to be simple.
So we are going to release it in August.
And but what I kind of shifted from doing design,
(19:35):
not that many people are going to want to make my design.
So what I really need to do is provide them tools.
Like here's how you can put in a bust dart.
Here's how you can put in a vertical dart.
Here's how you can reshape your sleeve
to accommodate your big upper arm.
So that's what we're working on right now.
(19:57):
How do you accommodate your chest if you were a 48D
and you're now wearing a binder?
And so you're diffusing, but you still have a 48 inch chest.
How do you accommodate a large belly or a big bum?
(20:23):
So I can do all these things.
So it's a mathematical formula.
I kind of heard you.
I watched your strings on your bust.
And you were explaining how, see,
you have this measurement on the sides this way.
And then at the top of the breast,
and it's expanded and it's a gradual expansion.
So you were trying to figure out that formula of what
(20:44):
that differentiating growth was there.
Right.
And I don't know about you, but I did not do well
in high school math.
I know.
No, you're math for me.
No, no.
You're not.
Yeah, barely.
My husband got me through the college algebra class
(21:07):
that I had to take to get my degree.
And so I don't understand any of the theory and all of that,
but I can see things.
And I've got kind of a visual brain,
so I kind of see things in 3D.
But I don't have the math.
(21:29):
So Jamie has provided that.
And every once in a while, we have
to call in one of her friends who is a physicist.
And he solves things for us.
Well, there are physicists working on this.
Yeah.
And he came up with it.
I can't say that about my jewelry for sure.
Yeah, he says, you should not be calling yourself
(21:52):
like a designer.
You should be calling yourself a yarn programmer,
because what you're doing is like writing programs.
And I plus that, I would get paid a lot more.
Yeah.
It's brilliant.
Like seriously, like seriously, if it
is a tool that's not out there to be able to resize your patterns,
(22:15):
you put in your measurements.
This is what the pattern is standard.
And now it's going to convert it.
And this is going to be the new sizes
that how the pattern should be done.
Like I get it.
I have friends, my dearest little friend.
And I say she's a little kid.
She's like a little doll.
But she has the whole laser printing for patterns and all
(22:37):
that.
She's like high up in that.
And I get it.
She can't make anything without a pattern.
I can't make anything with a pattern.
Yeah.
I get it.
Like it's just not my game.
I'm like, I look at it and I go, yeah, I can just.
No, so we laugh.
My husband and I, because I don't actually follow directions.
(22:58):
Uh-huh.
That's because you're a real artist.
But that's what I do for a living.
I mean, when I'm cooking, I'm just like throwing things in.
And I just get ideas and make something.
So one time, I had breast cancer surgery a few years ago.
(23:21):
And it was very, they found it really early.
But I couldn't use my arms for a few weeks.
So he was making meatballs for me.
And he doesn't cook at all.
And because I needed him to get in there and mix everything.
And he said in kind of a panicky voice,
he's like, you're just throwing things in.
(23:44):
You're not measuring anything.
Yeah, we don't measure.
Yeah.
That's what's going on.
So he makes bread and it's all very.
Oh, measure, measure, measure.
Way, way, way.
Yeah, I get it.
That's the one reason why even, like,
I may make a box cake.
I still somehow another, I mean, I make a cake.
(24:06):
And I'm like, it is dry all the way around the edges.
It was like, oh, I ever cooked it.
And I was shortening.
So then I threw in a bit of yogurt and a bunch of,
I don't know how this will work.
Oh, this will.
I don't know.
Wow, some more butter.
It can hurt.
Yeah.
I'm not a cooker.
I'm not a baker.
I'm a good cooker.
But we're the same.
I love the taste you're cooking because it's that love,
(24:29):
that passion that just kind of.
And I find it really is great when I've
got a problem that I'm trying to solve to go down to the kitchen
and just womp up something because it uses that creative
brain, but it takes me totally out of the problem
(24:49):
that I'm trying to solve.
And then it figures it out for you.
And then it's like, it's the answer to your problem.
Yeah, all I needed was two dozen oatmeal cookies.
That happens when I sleep.
Or I'm driving.
I think when I'm driving, I definitely
just turn off the radio and I just let my brain just
be grateful for a while.
(25:11):
And then things start bopping.
It calls it the lizard brain working.
Yeah.
And I just got back from three months in a row.
I knew.
So tell me about that.
That was.
I was going to tell you.
I was going to ask you about that.
That was on my list.
Three whole months.
Yeah.
You said, yeah, it's really big.
It's also very expensive.
(25:32):
I know that.
My son just got back from New Zealand and Australia.
And he's traveled the world in his most expensive place ever.
Like, oh my god.
Yeah, no.
So this was like a trip that Mitch particularly really
wanted to do and he's retired.
And so he did all of the scheduling.
(25:53):
And I mean, I booked hotels and stuff.
But he figured out our itinerary and all the flights
and blah, blah, blah.
So I would like basically get up and say,
what are we doing today?
Oh, that's nice.
He knew everything.
It was his trip.
Yeah.
You didn't come back with an accident.
After three months, I think you'd say something.
(26:15):
Like, no.
I have no ear for accidents.
And I also can't read poetry.
And I don't have a lot of rhythm.
And I've decided that those three things are somehow connected.
But so we went.
We left on the 28th of February and got there on March 1.
(26:40):
And we came back on May 24.
So you've just been back a couple of weeks.
Yeah, a month.
And it was spectacular.
And I now know why people are given sabbaticals.
It's good for your soul.
Yeah.
And I mean, I'm doing something I love.
(27:01):
But there is a certain level of frustration
to various aspects of it.
And I drug my laptop around, hardly did any work.
Believe me, I was cursing myself at the end
that I was dragging this rock around.
(27:22):
But like the last week, we were in Sydney
and doing a lot of just walking by the ocean
and kind of tooling around, not doing anything.
We'd pretty much done everything.
And one day, I just was like, OK, I
(27:43):
know what I'm going to do for the next 10 years.
I have never had that feeling.
Yeah.
And it's because I'm, as I said, I'm almost 70.
And I realize that I typically juggle about 50 projects
at a time.
But I can't do that anymore.
(28:05):
And so I need to find a way to harness my energy
so that it's just focusing on the things that I need to do
before I die.
And yeah, it was great.
I mean, I got on the plane and I was like, I know exactly what
(28:26):
to do.
Of course, my plan in my head was
that I was going to write all this down.
No, it's still in my head.
And I would say that's my biggest failing
is I cannot make myself kind of create a big plan.
And so I'm always flying a little bit by the seat of my pants.
(28:50):
But I like that.
On the cusp.
You like being living on that edge?
Or we were at a lecture, I think it was with Jonathan
Franson.
And the interviewer said, are you a seat of your pants guy?
Or do you plan everything out?
(29:10):
And he said, oh, I'm a total pancer.
So that's how I refer to myself now.
I'm just pantsing it.
Yeah.
Well, so it's just about writing it all down.
So what does that entail?
Because you can just now on your phone,
you can record everything.
It transcribes it perfectly.
Yeah.
So I just have all these little notes.
(29:35):
So this is the one from the CIA meeting where I wrote down
your name to cut down.
Oh, that's so nice.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, so I've got.
Give him a little bit of love.
Paulus, a big pile of notes.
And so it's all there.
It's just I'm not organized.
And I get kind of freaked out when
(29:56):
I try to spend a lot of time on that.
So bits and bobs of it.
So the craft industry alliance is incredible.
How long have you been a member?
I've been a member since day one.
Wow.
And partly because I really believe
(30:18):
in being part of your industry.
And it was like the only thing.
But also, I love the monthly meetings because it gives me.
I work by myself.
And I'm in a second bedroom with my crazy thoughts all the time.
(30:39):
And so it's really fun to see what other people are doing,
to see friendly faces, people who just kind of automatically
get what you're doing, not necessarily in terms of what
you're actually doing, but the struggles.
They have great resources.
(31:00):
If you go on looking for something,
there's tons of articles and webinars and things
that you can watch.
I've gotten so much out of many of the webinars.
And I'm sure the notes are in a pile someplace.
I know you have your book of notes.
When you said that, I'm like, oh, yeah.
(31:22):
I have tons of notes I never go back and refer to.
I don't know.
How do we keep them?
I'm not sure.
But I don't know.
But this is my second year with Craft Alliance.
And I love Abby.
And their newsletter is just the best newsletter I get.
Because I don't know how she is so well connected.
(31:43):
I hate it that I miss there was a round table in the evening
last week.
And I missed it, or it was this week, I'm not sure.
But I was like, oh, I hate missing those meetings.
I just need it.
So I have you done one of their mastermind groups?
No.
Do you pay to be in that mastermind group?
(32:04):
Yeah, it's like $40 or something.
Like nothing.
Yeah.
So that's something you think I would benefit from?
I love those.
And I've had both good and bad experiences.
But they're always worth it.
The last one was like the women wouldn't give any flexibility
on time.
And I was the only one on the Pacific Coast.
(32:26):
I don't talk to people before 10 AM.
And so I was just like, bye.
If you're that rigid, you're not my people anyhow.
But the first one I was in, we still meet twice a month.
And so we just support each other.
It's so helpful.
(32:47):
It is.
And I've seen people's businesses evolve and change
and personal growth and other people who kind of aren't
at that pace, place in their lives,
and they don't have the space for that,
but want to hold the candle.
(33:08):
Yeah, they're amazing when they're really good.
But that first one was the special one for me.
So.
It's a good catalyst.
I'll have to look into this again because I think.
They open in August or September.
I really like the meetings.
(33:29):
I try really hard to be on there.
I love their programs.
I've written them.
I made it into the newsletter a few times.
And I've got another article coming out soon.
I'm waiting.
Something that I did is going to be on TV.
And so it's a big thing.
I wrote the article, but we're waiting for it to get closer.
So yeah, Abby is a force to be reckoned with.
(33:51):
And it is about connecting with other people.
Like, even though I'm kind of an outcast
because I don't know how many jewelry makers are in the group,
but it's still the same tribe.
We are creators.
We are creators.
And that's the thing that's key is
that we all have kind of the same voices active in our heads
(34:12):
and the same desire to accomplish things
and to enjoy the beauty and sometimes
solace of what we do.
You know, that the hands-on is that's why I knit every day
is because I can't let that go even if I'm not doing it
(34:34):
productively for my business.
I have to be hands-on and kind of experiencing
and recognizing in my own behavior things
that I could help other people with.
And also new materials, maybe, too.
Did you go to wool shops or yarn shops while you were?
They have hardly any wool shops.
(34:57):
And yeah.
What's that about?
They have wool.
I know.
So of course, as soon as I got back,
I discovered a small mill that's outside of Melbourne.
So I'm going to see if I can do something with them
just because I love small mills.
(35:18):
And so they have terrible colors.
There you go.
Got to help them with that because I saw your pantom
pictures on your Instagram.
And yeah, I mean, colors change all the time.
Like it's an ever-moving thing.
Yeah.
And I couldn't find, bless you, very many hand-dyers,
(35:40):
which are huge in the US.
Huge in the US.
Huge.
Using all kinds of natural ingredients.
And yeah.
So it was disappointing in terms of that,
but I have 1,200 pictures of beautiful colors.
Well, I wonder if it's because it's not very cold there
very often.
(36:01):
I used to live in Canada.
And there was a really big group of spinners and weavers.
Right.
And they would have these amazing combination threads
of three different colors that they had spun.
And I'm like, ah, it's so gorgeous.
And then they would make it into shawls.
And I would make the pin using all the colors
within that yarn scope so that they could have something.
(36:23):
I noticed that you had our little shawlet thing.
You had a little closure thing.
And it's like, oh, you need to tell Jill,
I can match any wool.
I can match any color.
Like I got five million bees.
There's nothing I can buy more.
Yay, that's all better for me.
But yeah, there's pretty much not a color
because I have beads that go back from whatever.
(36:44):
Just go back in time.
Like however far you can go back, I got those beads.
And then come forward.
Because I buy from old warehouses mostly in Rhode Island,
in New York, and all that old horse.
So I have access to all that.
But the colors, you can see.
You can go, oh, yeah, that's from this.
Oh, yeah, look at this one.
(37:05):
You can just see it.
You can tell it by looking at it.
What age it is.
Yeah, so I visit vintage button stores every place.
Tell us something about your buttons.
And since Francisco used to be a really great button place,
it's all gone now.
It's all gone.
So 10 buttons in New York and Chicago is gone.
(37:30):
Yeah, so there's this gal.
Her name is not Dusty.
But her company is called Dusty's Vintage Buttons.
And yeah, she does the same thing.
She buys up from warehouses and personal collections
and stuff like that.
So at the end of COVID, she got access
(37:56):
to a bunch of Italian stuff.
Yeah, well, that was expensive for me.
I think I saw one of your Antelago buttons.
Yeah, so I buy from her.
I love those old buttons.
I have tons from England.
And I found some beads in Oregon.
(38:19):
I don't buy a lot of stuff anymore when we travel,
but I look for little things like that
where I can tuck into a shoe.
It's carrying stuff is real.
We don't need more stuff.
That's kind of the issue of all this.
So I mean, the first step I take when
I'm getting towards the end of a project
(38:40):
is to go see if I have buttons that go with it.
And I wear these pins every day.
Yeah, I saw them.
And so that's how I started making what I call my art
buttons, which are just basically small collages using
antique buttons and yarn and threads and beads
(39:03):
and whatever I have around.
So if it's not something that needs a button,
I make an art button for it.
And for me, it's kind of like the closure of the project.
It's like, OK, I've done everything.
I don't really wear them.
Somebody said I should sell them.
But they just are fun to make.
(39:25):
And yeah.
And what are you making your collages with?
Like I'm trying to visualize this.
I didn't see a sample of that on your.
Oh, I don't have a lot of it.
I can get my box.
Your button box, your old jewelry box, the jewelry,
the broken jewelry box.
Because I saw that box, that thing too.
(39:47):
So this was a project.
Now is that a ring?
Oh, I see the thread in there.
Yeah, so there's thread.
There's like a kabony.
No, this is like a cover your own button form.
And then these are buttons that I got in Santa Fe.
(40:10):
Like probably.
I mean, they're vintage now, but I bought them.
And then what's on the back?
Like what are you making?
Oh, so this, it goes with a cowl.
And I just put a button on so I can button it into the loose
yarn and the stitch pattern.
So it just hangs like that.
Oh, wow.
(40:30):
So it didn't need to have to have a stiffer thing.
It just has to have a button.
The weave is going to have to put it in there.
Oh, it's got a needle in it.
These are mother of pearl sequins.
I see that.
And then I like making these big stitches.
And this is from my martini.
(40:55):
All of this.
At a restaurant, my husband was horrified that I took it.
Now, when you go on an airplane, can you take needles on there?
You can.
Really?
It's OK to take a needle when she could kill someone with.
But look at this one.
(41:15):
Those are kind of, you know, those buttons
are a little tweezy for me.
But I love the color.
And then this is just like an old button.
Right?
Yeah.
This one is fun.
So I just bought this square button.
And I didn't doodle to that.
(41:35):
And then just made it fun.
Well, obviously, you live in a very creative city,
like Austin, where I am.
Those are beautiful.
Oh, those shells.
Yeah.
So this I got from Dusty.
These I got from Miguel, who's no longer in business.
But they're Italian balls.
(41:56):
And they're covered in cord.
And then the rest is just knitting stuff.
You had some little tiny balls on that shawl
that you were wearing.
It might not be the right name for it.
Well, what do you call that thing?
They're called boggles.
Or boggles, when you.
They're fabulous.
They're fabulous.
And you said you like to make them.
And now I believe you.
Look at that.
(42:17):
Yeah.
Is that a fan?
A fan of their?
Yeah.
So that's a shell button.
A mother of pearl.
Yeah.
And so this one, I call this one my Ukraine button.
Oh, the yellow and blue.
I love that.
Oh, I love that.
These are really.
So you have to be wearing a sweater or a shawl
(42:39):
to be able to wear those because you can't pin them on anything.
Yeah.
You have a great.
I love the greens.
Is that green?
Yes.
The green is my favorite color.
So some of them have pins on the back.
Like this one has just a jewelry, cheapo jewelry pin.
Yeah.
So I can wear that on something else.
This one has a pin.
(43:00):
I just had a great collector that had a bunch of just those kind
of jewelry pins for bags.
And they're all from France.
I'm like, yeah, I think I got one in my hair.
I got a beret.
I'm like, yeah, I'll buy all that.
Like whatever.
I see your window is open.
We have a love of birds together.
Yeah.
We are.
(43:21):
My hair was all done this morning.
I look good this morning.
And then I went outside.
I started digging around, cleaning out the water bowls.
And yeah, blah, blah, blah.
And it's like I came back in.
We had a big rain.
So it's like super humid out there right now in my hair.
But yeah, you're a big.
It does not get humid here, but we're going to be hot today.
(43:42):
So this is a.
I did not make this.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a.
So this was.
It's mother of Pearl tiles that was in a bracelet and they chipped.
And so I got worried that they wouldn't last in the bracelet.
And the bars are a pair of earrings that I no longer wore.
(44:05):
And then Pearl earrings, which I no longer wore.
So a jeweler put them together for me.
And then it felt like a little too fussy for me.
So I put I took some brass jewelry pins and put little wraps of wire.
So it looks a little bit more funky.
(44:26):
Yeah, it is.
You've got a good eye and you always wear your pearls.
Yeah.
So this, I mean, nothing is new except the pin that she put on the back and those brass.
Pins.
Yeah.
We're the same.
Yeah.
We're the same.
I've even got buttons off of things.
(44:48):
Well, Bums are Bums are such a historical part of our life when we figured out how to
do buttons.
It's way old.
Like that's ancient, like ancient technology.
Like let's make a some kind of a fastener.
Sure the ancient people were, you know, trying to figure out how to do that.
They knew how to make holes in rocks, which was that was pretty good.
(45:10):
But a rock button wasn't really them.
And then they found oyster shells and shells and an ostrich eggs and eggs.
And, you know, they had all different kinds of organic things that they were able to chip
into little tiny pieces and then use them for something.
What's that?
You know, you've seen old buttons in museums too.
(45:31):
Yeah.
If I could go back in time, that there, it was a lady that owned the business who did
all the mother of pearl buttons for like, you know, like she had the big industry over
in Japan or China, wherever it must have been Japan because it was before China was in the
thing.
But I've seen some stuff on her and it was amazing all the buttons because everything
(45:55):
needed buttons.
And it's not just like one button, one shirt would have 20 buttons and then the hair and
here and here and then the shoes had buttons and a button industry was a gigantic thing
for hundreds of years, you know, to our local Native Americans use buttons to decorate their
(46:16):
tribal costumes.
So they clearly had traded those.
Yes.
So they are covered with mother of pearl buttons in their traditional patterns and stuff, which
is very cool.
They've got a lot of them in our local museum.
Yeah.
You can trace a lot by buttons.
(46:37):
Yeah, sure.
The age of anything can be traced.
Yeah.
Kind of by a button and buttons are just, I see them, I buy them.
I can't help myself because a lot of the things I can, I can, you know, make a mold of it,
for example, it's not in copyright because I have things hundreds of years old.
Yeah.
I have several of those kind of things.
(46:58):
I'm like, you know, I'm just going to chop the back of this off and I'm going to stick
it on something else because now it's kind of new life.
It's okay.
Yeah.
So I take a list first.
Yeah.
And London, who's got an antique button shop, which like no order at all.
So she, if you say I'm looking for this, she can like pull out the box, but I don't do
(47:23):
that.
I like to like go through all of her shelves to find buttons, but she said Zara has been
a huge boom to her business because people buy like basic things.
They don't want it to look like everybody else.
And so they come in and they buy these buttons and she said, in fact, I am wearing a sweater
(47:50):
that I changed the buttons on, but I thought that was such a really interesting mashup of
you know, kind of fast fashion with antiquity.
I love that.
Like, I don't wear things with very many buttons because I got a big boobs and that's just for
(48:10):
me.
But definitely I get that love.
I mean, it's a whole thing.
You remember they used to have bead and button magazine.
I don't think they have that anymore.
But that was a great magazine.
I was in it several times and I even went to go meet with them at the bead and button
show in Minneapolis.
Yeah.
(48:31):
And there's a button group on Facebook.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
Which means everything is there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are you going to do the rest of the day?
Because it's an early day and we're almost out of time, but it's like being a new friend.
Like we seriously have a lot of fun forever.
Yeah.
(48:52):
You ever come to Texas?
You have to come find me.
So today I am, oh, I need to do just some internet stuff like update some links and that
sort of thing.
And we're going to a music performance tonight.
Hence the fancy pin.
(49:13):
And your dress for the day.
One of the way.
Yeah.
I'm going to be doing my dance and I might change my jewelry, but otherwise I don't have
time to be changing my clothes.
I have so much chaos on my desk right now.
I've just finished four projects, which have gone off to the tech editor.
(49:37):
And so one of the things that we had in knitting patterns and writers have the same thing is
like a style guide.
So I have a style guide, but I've been revamping all of my patterns.
And now I have the pattern tailor patterns, which are the ones that use my tool, online
(50:02):
tool.
So I think the balance of the day will be spent updating my style guide, which then goes
out to my tech editors and anybody who does work for me so that they can do things the
way I do it because I like the way I do things.
(50:23):
And I don't like it when people do things differently.
That's okay.
You're allowed to be like that.
You're paying them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, when I taught my students would, you know, ask me like, what do you want?
What do you want?
And I'm like, if I don't say something, I don't care.
(50:44):
If I say, do not use Times New Roman, do not use Times New Roman, because I seriously object
to that, which I objected to because it's, if you can't change, if you have access to
300 fonts and you can't change the font and you're in a creative industry, then you need
(51:07):
to rethink things.
I remember, my sons called me out on that a long time ago.
They're like, really?
Yeah.
Like, it was aerial.
Like, is everything have to be aerial?
Like, what else you got, mom?
I'm like, oh, only like 400 fonts.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's readability, you know, there's certain things that, you know, I'm
(51:27):
gravitating things that can quickly be seen.
Yeah.
And I did, I just made something and it was super little and, you know, the type font
had to be like a six point at some point.
And I'm like, you know, aerial, say, is there, and it's six points, you still can kind of
read it.
But, yeah.
Yeah.
And we have, that's like another thing that we have to take into account now is how, you
(51:51):
know, you can't just post a picture.
You have to put in the alternate text of somebody who can't see.
Yes.
Yes.
And, you know, the thousands of steps, every single thing requires can just be mind boggling
for a solo printer.
So we're doing everything.
(52:12):
Yeah, very good.
And, you know, you have to do the SEO to make sure that it comes up.
And, yeah.
I had two pervers.
So I get it.
I have two guys that, one will work on this video and the other one is doing some other
projects for me because I have to be able to multiply ourselves.
It's just like AI, do my dishes, don't solve problems that don't need to be solved.
(52:38):
I can handle all that.
I just need somebody to do all that other stuff or fix my SEO or add tags or whatever.
I had a great gal who used to do that for me and I think I'm going to have to hire her
back because what happens is that I just don't do it because it's too innervating.
(53:00):
Well, it kind of sucks our energy out because we're creative.
Yeah.
And so some of those, you know, kind of admin kind of BS work is hard sometimes.
I just go, oh my God, I need to list things.
And it can take.
So how do you handle your filing?
Filing?
I don't have filing.
Yeah.
So I have.
(53:21):
I handed you my husband if it's for taxes.
Here, keep this.
No, I do the same.
I mean, I can't be responsible for anything like that because I put everything in the
shopping cart.
I have space.
I have everything in my world is all about me.
Don't even make a file because my whole house, my whole house, the room next door is finished
(53:42):
jewelry and I have a thousand pieces of finished jewelry.
And then this is the bead room and also my studio.
Then I have my work room and then I have the middle of the house is my work station.
I also have a full time job with a big company.
And so I have to have that my computers and I just kind of all new set up for my work
station.
(54:03):
It's been four years.
I've been working at home and it was just kind of like that.
Now it's all like it's like NASA.
And then I have a table or dining room table is all the stuff that we go around mailing
and organizing, you know, all that kind of stuff is on that table.
So besides our bedroom and the kitchen, it, the whole house is joy.
The whole house.
So it's a sickness.
(54:23):
Like seriously.
So I get you.
I got you.
That's why I was, I was mesmerized at looking at your studio because it's very organized
and and I was thinking, I don't know if I want to show everybody all my home.
I was like, don't look over there.
There's like lots of random stuff.
But you know, if you ask me where the one bead is, I could find that bead.
(54:48):
I'd be like, yeah, I know where that bead is.
Yeah, I have piles on the floor and projects, and baskets and none of it is pretty.
You can see over there that, you know, I had like some clear space.
So I've just been piling things up there.
And I sometimes will take photos and like post them to my story on Instagram to shame
(55:14):
myself into cleaning up.
Yeah, you do a good job.
I like your Instagram and we're friends now on Instagram.
So follow me to you.
I do it.
We'll keep up with each other.
And so where can people find you?
So let's talk through that because it's the end of our hour.
So I am Jill will cut it every place online.
(55:36):
So that's pretty easy.
Just usually all one word.
And Jill will cut nets.com is my website, you know, I'm on pay hip because they do
that for purchases overseas.
(55:56):
And as we said, I can't be trusted to do the tax collection for anything.
So they do that.
So I sell my things there.
And pay hip.
I haven't heard of it.
Yeah.
So it's actually pretty good.
It's mostly for downloads, but they've started doing physical things.
(56:21):
And you can use it to sell like instruction manuals, things like that, like if you were
teaching a class.
My education platform is Jill will cut nets dash education on New Zendler.
And so I love paperwork and I always have because I like to write.
(56:49):
And so when I teach a class, there's like tons of handouts and stuff.
So it allows me to put that up.
Like this would be a video that I would put up there so people can watch it again.
And a lot of my stuff is free there.
And so that's the other place is Jill will cut nets, hi, education.
(57:15):
News handler dot com.
And news handler dot com.
But also find you on Instagram.
Yeah, Instagram is great.
DM me, you know, I do everything.
So however you contact me, you are getting me.
I think there's too many places to be contacted.
(57:36):
I feel like they're well ever run with I look at messages and it's like really that happened
like weeks ago and I didn't get a hit on it.
And it's like, I missed that.
Well, it's just like there's like multiple sources of information coming at you.
And it's it's hard to check it.
(57:56):
And I even send my voicemail.
Don't leave me a voicemail.
I don't check it.
Text me.
Because that's where we are in this world.
Who has time for voicemail?
No, that I hate my phone.
And I always have the sound turned off, but I do check messages.
And like I check Instagram and Facebook several times a day.
(58:20):
And I set up things on Slack.
So if I've got to interact with somebody, I use Slack because you can have lots of conversations
over there.
You don't have to follow an email trail.
Yeah, any of the email channels.
Yeah.
So I use that a lot for communicating, but you know, something has to be set up.
(58:42):
Yeah.
So it has been a fast pleasure.
And we are friends.
So I hope you reach out to me.
Do you think because I'm a product designer too, my son's a product designer in LA.
He designs products for like the big things, big, big, big things for like the Oscars and
big traveling concerts for like Beyonce.
(59:05):
He's got that.
He came from my tree.
So you know, we're the same.
Him and I, you.
Him and I, we're the same.
We're always looking at everything and always thinking about that puzzle.
Like how can that be improved?
What is missing here?
I think I've designed products all day long.
Yeah.
At what point?
(59:25):
Yeah, I think we were in Melbourne and we were looking around.
I can't even remember what for at the farmers market, which is like a permanent market.
And I just turned to match and said, well, if we ever decide to come down here permanently,
we can do this thing because there's nothing.
It was like ready made lasagna or something like that, you know, and it was something you
(59:52):
would think like they've got pasta shops.
They have all these other things that you can buy, but there was like no meals, which
we were staying in a service department.
So I didn't want to be like making lasagna.
I just wanted to heat some up.
So yeah, I'm always like, what's what need is not being met?
(01:00:15):
So yesterday, I had a.
Yesterday on my podcast was a friend of mine in Indianapolis.
And she has a company called send a friend lasagna has Stephanie daily and she is wonderful.
And she started this little business right before the pandemic.
(01:00:37):
So she was like in the gravy during the pandemic, sending like out, you know, 500 lasagna as
a week and they're all from scratch and they were all wonderful.
And you just order it up the day before it shows up the next day.
And if you were in a hotel, you can probably heat that up somehow, but that's there is
a really good thing for travelers.
I don't think that's something she's thought of.
(01:00:58):
So I'll pass that along and I'll tell them that we talked about her on this podcast.
We always try and rent something that has at least a microwave.
Yeah.
But like in Australia, we would be sometimes 10 days someplace.
So you know, we would get a place with a full line kitchen.
But you don't have like olive oil.
(01:01:20):
You don't have salt.
You don't have pepper.
So you can really only do very basic salads.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But that's how you pass that on to her because that is, you know, people who are traveling
or like people who are going through cancer treatments and staying at one of those hotels,
(01:01:43):
you know, nothing is more comforting than a lovely home cooked food that you love.
Yeah.
I agree with you.
Yeah.
And I ended up talking about somebody else, but we should end on you.
I would say I'm so glad that you reached out to me because thanks to the Kraft Alliance
(01:02:03):
and we're so happy that we're both members.
I'm very much a proud member.
So I hope that we see each other again.
I'll see each other.
I'll zoom in.
Yeah.
But if you ever have any needs for jewelry, I got your back, girl.
Okay.
Jill has been really a great hour.
It's gone by super fast and I've learned a lot and I hope other people that are listening
(01:02:27):
have really enjoyed listening to Jill's journey because it overlaps with everything, all kinds
of entrepreneurs.
We're creators.
We're makers.
We have that gift that we're creating things for other people.
Yeah.
People happy to and make our souls happy because I think that that's not good.
So I appreciate you and I'm going to stop the recording now and we will end this for
(01:02:51):
now, but thank you.
Thank you so much.
And you can watch for Jill's all just information will be in the description so you can contact
her there.
But one more time it's on Instagram.
It's Jill Wolcott.
Will cut.
Will cut.
Will cut.
W-O-L-C-O-T-T.
Yes.
And yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
(01:03:11):
You can find her.
You can find me and I'm connected to her.
And just let me know if you need any of those things for the information.
I will.
I thank you very much and have a great rest of your day and a great weekend.
It's the summer solstice.
Yes.
Yes.
Go dance around the fire naked tonight.
(01:03:34):
And the strawberry mints.
We're going to go look for that tonight.
Okay dear.
Have a great rest of your day.
So this is jewelry as your side hustle.
(00:04):
And this is Sugar Gay Isber, and that's me.
And today we're gonna talk to my friend
who I actually met through the Craft Industry Alliance,
which is what I'm gonna do today.
So I'm good for another year, yeah.
It was a really great group.
And in this group, there is a lot of people
that have side hustles or full-time careers within their art.
(00:28):
So the scope of this might not be jewelry,
although it's jewelry adjacent,
because I made things that Jill would like to go on her.
And we're gonna talk about that.
And we really want to introduce Jill Wolcott,
who is from, where are you from?
I live in Seattle.
Yeah, I figured it was somewhere really fabulous,
(00:50):
because we'll talk about that too,
because she's got a great life.
And she is an extremely creative book author,
inventor of new knitting things, I would say.
Like I think that's in your scope, like you're creative.
(01:10):
So you're coming up with new ways to knit,
which is amazing.
And you need to buy her classes and her books
and her kits, patterns, I think it's patterns.
And she'll tell us all about it,
but we're so happy to have her today,
because she has a lot of great experience
and a lot of great ideas, and she's very professional,
(01:31):
and we're so glad to have you on.
So Jill, welcome to my podcast.
Thank you.
What a great introduction.
So I am Jill Wolcott of Jill Wolcott Knits.
And I started out in fashion design.
So that's really kind of a special thing
that I bring to the knitting world.
(01:52):
And I started out as a sewer.
So I actually went through a technical program here,
which is just down the street from where I live now,
where I learned pattern making and garment construction.
(02:13):
And then I went on to, then I was like,
yeah, I don't want to do that my whole life.
So I went on and got a degree in fashion design.
And in order to get all of my credits transferred,
they said I needed to take a second degree.
So I got a degree in product development,
(02:34):
which was adjacent to-
Oh, yes.
I really appreciate the degree.
I think I had that degree.
Yeah, so I ended up teaching product development
in San Francisco for over 15 years.
And I would have loved to have taught design more,
because that's really where my brain lives.
(02:56):
But the department was so disorganized.
And after like two years,
I realized we were having the same meeting
every time we met.
And I'm kind of action oriented.
And so I went over to the product development team,
which was a little more organized.
(03:18):
And I'm sure they're still having the same meeting.
But that's where your love of using a rock comes from,
I'm sure, because well, I don't know what years those were,
but he was at his height in the 80s, like early 80s,
with the Reeve Gauchan, all of his really high end,
but just,
(03:38):
yeah.
You asked me, who was my favorite designer?
It would still be him.
And I actually went to Morocco and to his gardens there,
and I painted pots with his blue color.
And I just lived it for a little while,
like, you know, he was long dead at that point,
but it was just like, you know, did my heart good,
because I get it.
(03:59):
I used to be in retail during those times.
And I sold those beautiful, amazing expensive pieces
that were like, it was so great just to be able to touch them.
I never even tried one on, didn't it?
Yeah.
I'm gonna try one more time in a picture.
What was I thinking?
The closest I could ever get,
and I didn't even go for that.
Why?
Thank you, but,
but I also, I watched your video on your website,
(04:24):
on the tour of your studio.
And I have to say, you really inspired me.
It was such a great tour.
I saw your degree there from the technical school.
I saw how you were organizing, how things meant to you,
and how things do mean to you.
And the, and the piece that you were meeting,
I saw right at the beginning, I'm like, oh my God.
And then I found out it was from a Japanese pattern
(04:46):
and it had all those little balls on it.
And that's probably what I liked it to do.
But you're an amazing craftsperson.
So I'm,
you know, there are people who are much better knitters than me.
And I will admit that I mostly pay other people
to knit my things because I can't focus that long on anything.
(05:11):
I could never knit, so I got you.
And I, you know, tend to change things as I go
and then forget.
And so most of my samples are knit by other people,
but I knit every night for like two and a half hours.
So I'm always making stuff,
just not necessarily pattern related.
(05:34):
And some of my, I think my best projects have come from
those things that I make for myself.
And then I'll be like, oh, I bet other people would like this.
Ha ha ha.
And I think it's cause it really taps into my passions
and what interests me.
(05:55):
So I'm just kind of naturally a problem solver.
So I'm always looking for something that needs
to be done better or done differently.
Or like I come from a sewing background.
So sewing something together doesn't bother me,
but most knitters don't want to do that.
Right.
(06:15):
So I spent a lot of years just learning how to do things
on the needles that, so to avoid sewing.
Because that's what knitters hate.
And so, yeah, I'm always thinking,
I gotta tell you, like I am never bored.
(06:35):
I'm sure you're never bored.
I know, we're the same, of course.
In every project that I do,
and I do multiple projects for product design,
I'm creating, you know, collections for this,
you know, this company,
it's like all different kinds all week long.
So I've got to be organized,
but we're the same on that product design.
(06:57):
Like it is about creative thinking and problem solving.
Like how can I, I'm doing a project right now
for Niagara Falls and it's all selenite.
And it's like, how can I represent the 1800s?
Cause that was kind of the,
wasn't the first thing that we came up with,
but the 1800s in selenite jewelry.
And what do I have?
(07:18):
And what do I need to get?
And how can I put this all together
and have it priced right and all that?
Cause it's all part of this.
Like we have to be such business people as entrepreneurs.
Like we really have to be able to take the photos.
Do you take photos for this?
I know you're literate and computer,
which is such an important part, but.
Yeah. So I literally did not know how to take photos
(07:42):
until I got my first iPhone, which was an iPhone 7.
So that was not, when I was teaching,
I had a flip phone and my students used to say,
your husband needs to get you a better phone.
I was like, no, I'm good with the flip phone
because I hate my phone.
(08:02):
And so when I finally got an iPhone,
I realized I had never taken pictures.
I had no idea how to do it.
So my husband had taken some photography classes
when he was in college.
And so he kind of explained things to me
in a very lawyerly way.
(08:24):
And then I signed up for a program online
and just like went through their program
to teach myself how to see through the camera.
Cause before that I was like, you know,
the thumb was in there, the foot was in there.
I didn't, cause I can like block out all that stuff
that's behind me.
Yeah.
(08:45):
And the camera doesn't.
So I had to learn.
Now it does though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I had to learn and I had to learn how to take videos.
And,
You agree with that?
Like all on your own, you're taking yourself videos,
you're taking yourself, you know, like that's something I,
(09:07):
I don't even want to be in front of the camera.
Like I'm like, I don't know.
Yeah, no, it's so different.
And I am approaching my 70th birthday.
Yay.
So,
When's your birthday?
When's your birthday?
October 5th, I'm at total labor.
So I had to learn all these things as, you know, 50 plus.
(09:31):
Aren't you glad that you do though?
Because it's really important.
I tell everybody the best thing that you can do
is buy a good phone.
Because my phone is able,
like it's a professional grade cell phone.
And it does so much for me.
Like I, I'm very, I tell everybody, key to your business,
(09:53):
have good equipment.
It can't be more than two years old
because it was too much things that have happened
in two years.
You've got to be able to have the latest and the greatest
and the upgrades are really important.
Yeah. And so when I was teaching,
I had to learn all this like layout software
and illustrator and Photoshop.
(10:15):
Yeah, that's hard.
And so I actually at one point paid a student
to teach me illustrator.
Oh, I wish I could.
I just had a list of every question,
of questions every week and say,
it would say like, I want to do this, just teach me that.
(10:36):
And we would, she would teach me and,
cause I kind of like need to be able to do something
right away. And then pretty soon I became an expert.
I did classes on illustrator.
I'm not so good at Photoshop.
And then I do the layout for all of my patterns and stuff.
(10:58):
So I recently switched to another, away from Adobe.
Yeah, me too.
Me too. I did too.
I canceled my Photoshop since I had it since 2005.
Yeah, so I started in 2000 and I stopped at CS6,
(11:21):
which was the last time you could actually buy the program.
And so I have this ancient computer over there.
I heard you talking about it that you have to fire it up.
Yeah.
I getcha.
And so anybody who's looking,
Affinity software is really good.
It's like $200 ish and for all three programs and you own it.
(11:47):
So then when they come up with like a complete new upgrade,
you pay $100 to upgrade.
I heard you talk about that.
It's brilliant.
And I would say it's actually a little better than Adobe,
just because they haven't, you know,
they built it from scratch with all the knowledge
that Adobe had discovered,
(12:10):
where Adobe's been like, you know, patching things on.
So it's really good software.
And it certainly makes my life easier.
But when you make a transition like that,
it's huge.
I know.
I would say you have to.
You have to.
I was trying to do something yesterday
(12:31):
and I told my husband, I'm like,
in like the beginning of computer time, like,
19, eight, let's just say 1990,
because that's why I was using it.
I was using computers before, way before that,
but there was a piece of software called Print Artist.
And it was such a,
it was the precursor to Photoshop.
(12:51):
And I told my husband, I'm like,
with that piece of software,
I could do something that they don't have anymore.
You cannot do it.
It was called tiling.
And you could just click a button
and your image would like tile,
whatever it is size that you needed.
And I needed something that could be printed on the front
and then run it back through
and it's printed on the back.
So that was one piece of paper.
But I need to sign
(13:14):
the frustration, the waste of time.
But I'm like Googling it.
I'm like, looking on YouTube.
I'm like, I know I should be able to do this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's probably available in something like Photoshop,
which I just ditched.
So for Canva,
because you know, it's all AI now.
And I don't know, I think it's that much better,
(13:35):
but it's hard.
Like it's tricky.
I'm gonna like really like figure it all out again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So my big interest
for the last several years has been fit.
And because of my pattern making background,
I understand why things don't fit
(13:59):
and how to make them fit.
I like the darts.
You were talking about the darts.
The darts are huge.
And you know, getting this to fit
if you've got a big bust is crucial.
But no one really knows how to do it
because they don't understand the pattern making,
(14:19):
but also we tend to not understand bodies.
And you know, like the way I put on padding
is not gonna be the same as the way you put on padding.
And so there is no universal solution.
And so I got really interested in this.
(14:41):
And I started thinking about trans people
because they have a skeleton that was set
by whatever gender they were at birth.
Right, at birth. So, you know, if they've gone through puberty,
they've got that skeleton and they can take hormones,
(15:06):
they can pad out or remove fat,
but they still are gonna have that skeleton.
Yeah, you had a skeleton in your back right over there.
And you said it's a male skeleton.
And I'm like, how many differences are there in a skeleton?
(15:26):
Like I don't want to see SI.
So I'm sure somebody's seen it.
There's really not a lot of difference
in the component pieces,
but we all know that when women give birth or get pregnant,
that their hips expand to facilitate
the expelling of a human being.
(15:50):
Yes.
Which I've done. So I get you. I'm there with you.
I'm seeing it. I'm feeling it.
Yeah, so it's mostly structural,
which is often related not to the bones,
but to connective tissue.
So it's that connector thing in here.
Yeah, and so it allows the hip to spread.
(16:13):
So I'm in, is it like, is it all, is it fused?
Is it all like one piece and not flexible?
Is that the only difference?
Is that where we're looking for the difference?
It's just narrower with, you know,
so then the differences come in in connective tissue.
So we have different types of connections
(16:34):
between the genders,
but of course we don't know that much about women
because why would you ever study women?
Don't get me started. I live in Texas.
Yeah, I was going to say that.
This is a whole other thing.
So it really becomes how additional layers
(16:56):
are put on the skeleton.
And then we know that as you age, things change.
As you put on weight, things change.
And one of the things I've become really convinced
is that the type of food that you eat
changes the kind of fat that you put on.
(17:16):
And it's so complicated.
But it's a problem that needs solving.
So I've been working on it.
And I've been working on it for, I think, three years
to make something that would allow people
(17:37):
to individualize a particular design.
And so like take one of my designs
and you put in your measurements
and it rewrites it for your measurements.
It's not quite that simple.
But so when we got to the point of wanting to actually make
(18:02):
that happen, I was doing it in Excel.
And when I say I actually mean someone else was doing most
of it in Excel, I'm like the mastermind.
And it turns out Excel is really porous and really easy
to break into.
So I was mostly concerned about protecting my IP.
(18:24):
And so we built a PHP, whatever.
And again, I say we.
And just this lovely gentleman named
Owen, who I found through his partner
on Craft Industry Alliance.
Yeah, so and there in England, he built me this PHP thing,
(18:46):
which is basically like how your bank does stuff.
It's working on a server.
And so you see like a JavaScript thing on the front.
And there's all this other stuff going on.
So he built that for me.
And he was so brilliant.
He kept saying, let's just keep it really simple.
(19:08):
Let's keep it really simple.
Because I had a limited budget.
You don't want that.
I do not need to be an IT manager.
So we really needed it to be simple.
So we are going to release it in August.
And but what I kind of shifted from doing design,
(19:35):
not that many people are going to want to make my design.
So what I really need to do is provide them tools.
Like here's how you can put in a bust dart.
Here's how you can put in a vertical dart.
Here's how you can reshape your sleeve
to accommodate your big upper arm.
So that's what we're working on right now.
(19:57):
How do you accommodate your chest if you were a 48D
and you're now wearing a binder?
And so you're diffusing, but you still have a 48 inch chest.
How do you accommodate a large belly or a big bum?
(20:23):
So I can do all these things.
So it's a mathematical formula.
I kind of heard you.
I watched your strings on your bust.
And you were explaining how, see,
you have this measurement on the sides this way.
And then at the top of the breast,
and it's expanded and it's a gradual expansion.
So you were trying to figure out that formula of what
(20:44):
that differentiating growth was there.
Right.
And I don't know about you, but I did not do well
in high school math.
I know.
No, you're math for me.
No, no.
You're not.
Yeah, barely.
My husband got me through the college algebra class
(21:07):
that I had to take to get my degree.
And so I don't understand any of the theory and all of that,
but I can see things.
And I've got kind of a visual brain,
so I kind of see things in 3D.
But I don't have the math.
(21:29):
So Jamie has provided that.
And every once in a while, we have
to call in one of her friends who is a physicist.
And he solves things for us.
Well, there are physicists working on this.
Yeah.
And he came up with it.
I can't say that about my jewelry for sure.
Yeah, he says, you should not be calling yourself
(21:52):
like a designer.
You should be calling yourself a yarn programmer,
because what you're doing is like writing programs.
And I plus that, I would get paid a lot more.
Yeah.
It's brilliant.
Like seriously, like seriously, if it
is a tool that's not out there to be able to resize your patterns,
(22:15):
you put in your measurements.
This is what the pattern is standard.
And now it's going to convert it.
And this is going to be the new sizes
that how the pattern should be done.
Like I get it.
I have friends, my dearest little friend.
And I say she's a little kid.
She's like a little doll.
But she has the whole laser printing for patterns and all
(22:37):
that.
She's like high up in that.
And I get it.
She can't make anything without a pattern.
I can't make anything with a pattern.
Yeah.
I get it.
Like it's just not my game.
I'm like, I look at it and I go, yeah, I can just.
No, so we laugh.
My husband and I, because I don't actually follow directions.
(22:58):
Uh-huh.
That's because you're a real artist.
But that's what I do for a living.
I mean, when I'm cooking, I'm just like throwing things in.
And I just get ideas and make something.
So one time, I had breast cancer surgery a few years ago.
(23:21):
And it was very, they found it really early.
But I couldn't use my arms for a few weeks.
So he was making meatballs for me.
And he doesn't cook at all.
And because I needed him to get in there and mix everything.
And he said in kind of a panicky voice,
he's like, you're just throwing things in.
(23:44):
You're not measuring anything.
Yeah, we don't measure.
Yeah.
That's what's going on.
So he makes bread and it's all very.
Oh, measure, measure, measure.
Way, way, way.
Yeah, I get it.
That's the one reason why even, like,
I may make a box cake.
I still somehow another, I mean, I make a cake.
(24:06):
And I'm like, it is dry all the way around the edges.
It was like, oh, I ever cooked it.
And I was shortening.
So then I threw in a bit of yogurt and a bunch of,
I don't know how this will work.
Oh, this will.
I don't know.
Wow, some more butter.
It can hurt.
Yeah.
I'm not a cooker.
I'm not a baker.
I'm a good cooker.
But we're the same.
I love the taste you're cooking because it's that love,
(24:29):
that passion that just kind of.
And I find it really is great when I've
got a problem that I'm trying to solve to go down to the kitchen
and just womp up something because it uses that creative
brain, but it takes me totally out of the problem
(24:49):
that I'm trying to solve.
And then it figures it out for you.
And then it's like, it's the answer to your problem.
Yeah, all I needed was two dozen oatmeal cookies.
That happens when I sleep.
Or I'm driving.
I think when I'm driving, I definitely
just turn off the radio and I just let my brain just
be grateful for a while.
(25:11):
And then things start bopping.
It calls it the lizard brain working.
Yeah.
And I just got back from three months in a row.
I knew.
So tell me about that.
That was.
I was going to tell you.
I was going to ask you about that.
That was on my list.
Three whole months.
Yeah.
You said, yeah, it's really big.
It's also very expensive.
(25:32):
I know that.
My son just got back from New Zealand and Australia.
And he's traveled the world in his most expensive place ever.
Like, oh my god.
Yeah, no.
So this was like a trip that Mitch particularly really
wanted to do and he's retired.
And so he did all of the scheduling.
(25:53):
And I mean, I booked hotels and stuff.
But he figured out our itinerary and all the flights
and blah, blah, blah.
So I would like basically get up and say,
what are we doing today?
Oh, that's nice.
He knew everything.
It was his trip.
Yeah.
You didn't come back with an accident.
After three months, I think you'd say something.
(26:15):
Like, no.
I have no ear for accidents.
And I also can't read poetry.
And I don't have a lot of rhythm.
And I've decided that those three things are somehow connected.
But so we went.
We left on the 28th of February and got there on March 1.
(26:40):
And we came back on May 24.
So you've just been back a couple of weeks.
Yeah, a month.
And it was spectacular.
And I now know why people are given sabbaticals.
It's good for your soul.
Yeah.
And I mean, I'm doing something I love.
(27:01):
But there is a certain level of frustration
to various aspects of it.
And I drug my laptop around, hardly did any work.
Believe me, I was cursing myself at the end
that I was dragging this rock around.
(27:22):
But like the last week, we were in Sydney
and doing a lot of just walking by the ocean
and kind of tooling around, not doing anything.
We'd pretty much done everything.
And one day, I just was like, OK, I
(27:43):
know what I'm going to do for the next 10 years.
I have never had that feeling.
Yeah.
And it's because I'm, as I said, I'm almost 70.
And I realize that I typically juggle about 50 projects
at a time.
But I can't do that anymore.
(28:05):
And so I need to find a way to harness my energy
so that it's just focusing on the things that I need to do
before I die.
And yeah, it was great.
I mean, I got on the plane and I was like, I know exactly what
(28:26):
to do.
Of course, my plan in my head was
that I was going to write all this down.
No, it's still in my head.
And I would say that's my biggest failing
is I cannot make myself kind of create a big plan.
And so I'm always flying a little bit by the seat of my pants.
(28:50):
But I like that.
On the cusp.
You like being living on that edge?
Or we were at a lecture, I think it was with Jonathan
Franson.
And the interviewer said, are you a seat of your pants guy?
Or do you plan everything out?
(29:10):
And he said, oh, I'm a total pancer.
So that's how I refer to myself now.
I'm just pantsing it.
Yeah.
Well, so it's just about writing it all down.
So what does that entail?
Because you can just now on your phone,
you can record everything.
It transcribes it perfectly.
Yeah.
So I just have all these little notes.
(29:35):
So this is the one from the CIA meeting where I wrote down
your name to cut down.
Oh, that's so nice.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, so I've got.
Give him a little bit of love.
Paulus, a big pile of notes.
And so it's all there.
It's just I'm not organized.
And I get kind of freaked out when
(29:56):
I try to spend a lot of time on that.
So bits and bobs of it.
So the craft industry alliance is incredible.
How long have you been a member?
I've been a member since day one.
Wow.
And partly because I really believe
(30:18):
in being part of your industry.
And it was like the only thing.
But also, I love the monthly meetings because it gives me.
I work by myself.
And I'm in a second bedroom with my crazy thoughts all the time.
(30:39):
And so it's really fun to see what other people are doing,
to see friendly faces, people who just kind of automatically
get what you're doing, not necessarily in terms of what
you're actually doing, but the struggles.
They have great resources.
(31:00):
If you go on looking for something,
there's tons of articles and webinars and things
that you can watch.
I've gotten so much out of many of the webinars.
And I'm sure the notes are in a pile someplace.
I know you have your book of notes.
When you said that, I'm like, oh, yeah.
(31:22):
I have tons of notes I never go back and refer to.
I don't know.
How do we keep them?
I'm not sure.
But I don't know.
But this is my second year with Craft Alliance.
And I love Abby.
And their newsletter is just the best newsletter I get.
Because I don't know how she is so well connected.
(31:43):
I hate it that I miss there was a round table in the evening
last week.
And I missed it, or it was this week, I'm not sure.
But I was like, oh, I hate missing those meetings.
I just need it.
So I have you done one of their mastermind groups?
No.
Do you pay to be in that mastermind group?
(32:04):
Yeah, it's like $40 or something.
Like nothing.
Yeah.
So that's something you think I would benefit from?
I love those.
And I've had both good and bad experiences.
But they're always worth it.
The last one was like the women wouldn't give any flexibility
on time.
And I was the only one on the Pacific Coast.
(32:26):
I don't talk to people before 10 AM.
And so I was just like, bye.
If you're that rigid, you're not my people anyhow.
But the first one I was in, we still meet twice a month.
And so we just support each other.
It's so helpful.
(32:47):
It is.
And I've seen people's businesses evolve and change
and personal growth and other people who kind of aren't
at that pace, place in their lives,
and they don't have the space for that,
but want to hold the candle.
(33:08):
Yeah, they're amazing when they're really good.
But that first one was the special one for me.
So.
It's a good catalyst.
I'll have to look into this again because I think.
They open in August or September.
I really like the meetings.
(33:29):
I try really hard to be on there.
I love their programs.
I've written them.
I made it into the newsletter a few times.
And I've got another article coming out soon.
I'm waiting.
Something that I did is going to be on TV.
And so it's a big thing.
I wrote the article, but we're waiting for it to get closer.
So yeah, Abby is a force to be reckoned with.
(33:51):
And it is about connecting with other people.
Like, even though I'm kind of an outcast
because I don't know how many jewelry makers are in the group,
but it's still the same tribe.
We are creators.
We are creators.
And that's the thing that's key is
that we all have kind of the same voices active in our heads
(34:12):
and the same desire to accomplish things
and to enjoy the beauty and sometimes
solace of what we do.
You know, that the hands-on is that's why I knit every day
is because I can't let that go even if I'm not doing it
(34:34):
productively for my business.
I have to be hands-on and kind of experiencing
and recognizing in my own behavior things
that I could help other people with.
And also new materials, maybe, too.
Did you go to wool shops or yarn shops while you were?
They have hardly any wool shops.
(34:57):
And yeah.
What's that about?
They have wool.
I know.
So of course, as soon as I got back,
I discovered a small mill that's outside of Melbourne.
So I'm going to see if I can do something with them
just because I love small mills.
(35:18):
And so they have terrible colors.
There you go.
Got to help them with that because I saw your pantom
pictures on your Instagram.
And yeah, I mean, colors change all the time.
Like it's an ever-moving thing.
Yeah.
And I couldn't find, bless you, very many hand-dyers,
(35:40):
which are huge in the US.
Huge in the US.
Huge.
Using all kinds of natural ingredients.
And yeah.
So it was disappointing in terms of that,
but I have 1,200 pictures of beautiful colors.
Well, I wonder if it's because it's not very cold there
very often.
(36:01):
I used to live in Canada.
And there was a really big group of spinners and weavers.
Right.
And they would have these amazing combination threads
of three different colors that they had spun.
And I'm like, ah, it's so gorgeous.
And then they would make it into shawls.
And I would make the pin using all the colors
within that yarn scope so that they could have something.
(36:23):
I noticed that you had our little shawlet thing.
You had a little closure thing.
And it's like, oh, you need to tell Jill,
I can match any wool.
I can match any color.
Like I got five million bees.
There's nothing I can buy more.
Yay, that's all better for me.
But yeah, there's pretty much not a color
because I have beads that go back from whatever.
(36:44):
Just go back in time.
Like however far you can go back, I got those beads.
And then come forward.
Because I buy from old warehouses mostly in Rhode Island,
in New York, and all that old horse.
So I have access to all that.
But the colors, you can see.
You can go, oh, yeah, that's from this.
Oh, yeah, look at this one.
(37:05):
You can just see it.
You can tell it by looking at it.
What age it is.
Yeah, so I visit vintage button stores every place.
Tell us something about your buttons.
And since Francisco used to be a really great button place,
it's all gone now.
It's all gone.
So 10 buttons in New York and Chicago is gone.
(37:30):
Yeah, so there's this gal.
Her name is not Dusty.
But her company is called Dusty's Vintage Buttons.
And yeah, she does the same thing.
She buys up from warehouses and personal collections
and stuff like that.
So at the end of COVID, she got access
(37:56):
to a bunch of Italian stuff.
Yeah, well, that was expensive for me.
I think I saw one of your Antelago buttons.
Yeah, so I buy from her.
I love those old buttons.
I have tons from England.
And I found some beads in Oregon.
(38:19):
I don't buy a lot of stuff anymore when we travel,
but I look for little things like that
where I can tuck into a shoe.
It's carrying stuff is real.
We don't need more stuff.
That's kind of the issue of all this.
So I mean, the first step I take when
I'm getting towards the end of a project
(38:40):
is to go see if I have buttons that go with it.
And I wear these pins every day.
Yeah, I saw them.
And so that's how I started making what I call my art
buttons, which are just basically small collages using
antique buttons and yarn and threads and beads
(39:03):
and whatever I have around.
So if it's not something that needs a button,
I make an art button for it.
And for me, it's kind of like the closure of the project.
It's like, OK, I've done everything.
I don't really wear them.
Somebody said I should sell them.
But they just are fun to make.
(39:25):
And yeah.
And what are you making your collages with?
Like I'm trying to visualize this.
I didn't see a sample of that on your.
Oh, I don't have a lot of it.
I can get my box.
Your button box, your old jewelry box, the jewelry,
the broken jewelry box.
Because I saw that box, that thing too.
(39:47):
So this was a project.
Now is that a ring?
Oh, I see the thread in there.
Yeah, so there's thread.
There's like a kabony.
No, this is like a cover your own button form.
And then these are buttons that I got in Santa Fe.
(40:10):
Like probably.
I mean, they're vintage now, but I bought them.
And then what's on the back?
Like what are you making?
Oh, so this, it goes with a cowl.
And I just put a button on so I can button it into the loose
yarn and the stitch pattern.
So it just hangs like that.
Oh, wow.
(40:30):
So it didn't need to have to have a stiffer thing.
It just has to have a button.
The weave is going to have to put it in there.
Oh, it's got a needle in it.
These are mother of pearl sequins.
I see that.
And then I like making these big stitches.
And this is from my martini.
(40:55):
All of this.
At a restaurant, my husband was horrified that I took it.
Now, when you go on an airplane, can you take needles on there?
You can.
Really?
It's OK to take a needle when she could kill someone with.
But look at this one.
(41:15):
Those are kind of, you know, those buttons
are a little tweezy for me.
But I love the color.
And then this is just like an old button.
Right?
Yeah.
This one is fun.
So I just bought this square button.
And I didn't doodle to that.
(41:35):
And then just made it fun.
Well, obviously, you live in a very creative city,
like Austin, where I am.
Those are beautiful.
Oh, those shells.
Yeah.
So this I got from Dusty.
These I got from Miguel, who's no longer in business.
But they're Italian balls.
(41:56):
And they're covered in cord.
And then the rest is just knitting stuff.
You had some little tiny balls on that shawl
that you were wearing.
It might not be the right name for it.
Well, what do you call that thing?
They're called boggles.
Or boggles, when you.
They're fabulous.
They're fabulous.
And you said you like to make them.
And now I believe you.
Look at that.
(42:17):
Yeah.
Is that a fan?
A fan of their?
Yeah.
So that's a shell button.
A mother of pearl.
Yeah.
And so this one, I call this one my Ukraine button.
Oh, the yellow and blue.
I love that.
Oh, I love that.
These are really.
So you have to be wearing a sweater or a shawl
(42:39):
to be able to wear those because you can't pin them on anything.
Yeah.
You have a great.
I love the greens.
Is that green?
Yes.
The green is my favorite color.
So some of them have pins on the back.
Like this one has just a jewelry, cheapo jewelry pin.
Yeah.
So I can wear that on something else.
This one has a pin.
(43:00):
I just had a great collector that had a bunch of just those kind
of jewelry pins for bags.
And they're all from France.
I'm like, yeah, I think I got one in my hair.
I got a beret.
I'm like, yeah, I'll buy all that.
Like whatever.
I see your window is open.
We have a love of birds together.
Yeah.
We are.
(43:21):
My hair was all done this morning.
I look good this morning.
And then I went outside.
I started digging around, cleaning out the water bowls.
And yeah, blah, blah, blah.
And it's like I came back in.
We had a big rain.
So it's like super humid out there right now in my hair.
But yeah, you're a big.
It does not get humid here, but we're going to be hot today.
(43:42):
So this is a.
I did not make this.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a.
So this was.
It's mother of Pearl tiles that was in a bracelet and they chipped.
And so I got worried that they wouldn't last in the bracelet.
And the bars are a pair of earrings that I no longer wore.
(44:05):
And then Pearl earrings, which I no longer wore.
So a jeweler put them together for me.
And then it felt like a little too fussy for me.
So I put I took some brass jewelry pins and put little wraps of wire.
So it looks a little bit more funky.
(44:26):
Yeah, it is.
You've got a good eye and you always wear your pearls.
Yeah.
So this, I mean, nothing is new except the pin that she put on the back and those brass.
Pins.
Yeah.
We're the same.
Yeah.
We're the same.
I've even got buttons off of things.
(44:48):
Well, Bums are Bums are such a historical part of our life when we figured out how to
do buttons.
It's way old.
Like that's ancient, like ancient technology.
Like let's make a some kind of a fastener.
Sure the ancient people were, you know, trying to figure out how to do that.
They knew how to make holes in rocks, which was that was pretty good.
(45:10):
But a rock button wasn't really them.
And then they found oyster shells and shells and an ostrich eggs and eggs.
And, you know, they had all different kinds of organic things that they were able to chip
into little tiny pieces and then use them for something.
What's that?
You know, you've seen old buttons in museums too.
(45:31):
Yeah.
If I could go back in time, that there, it was a lady that owned the business who did
all the mother of pearl buttons for like, you know, like she had the big industry over
in Japan or China, wherever it must have been Japan because it was before China was in the
thing.
But I've seen some stuff on her and it was amazing all the buttons because everything
(45:55):
needed buttons.
And it's not just like one button, one shirt would have 20 buttons and then the hair and
here and here and then the shoes had buttons and a button industry was a gigantic thing
for hundreds of years, you know, to our local Native Americans use buttons to decorate their
(46:16):
tribal costumes.
So they clearly had traded those.
Yes.
So they are covered with mother of pearl buttons in their traditional patterns and stuff, which
is very cool.
They've got a lot of them in our local museum.
Yeah.
You can trace a lot by buttons.
(46:37):
Yeah, sure.
The age of anything can be traced.
Yeah.
Kind of by a button and buttons are just, I see them, I buy them.
I can't help myself because a lot of the things I can, I can, you know, make a mold of it,
for example, it's not in copyright because I have things hundreds of years old.
Yeah.
I have several of those kind of things.
(46:58):
I'm like, you know, I'm just going to chop the back of this off and I'm going to stick
it on something else because now it's kind of new life.
It's okay.
Yeah.
So I take a list first.
Yeah.
And London, who's got an antique button shop, which like no order at all.
So she, if you say I'm looking for this, she can like pull out the box, but I don't do
(47:23):
that.
I like to like go through all of her shelves to find buttons, but she said Zara has been
a huge boom to her business because people buy like basic things.
They don't want it to look like everybody else.
And so they come in and they buy these buttons and she said, in fact, I am wearing a sweater
(47:50):
that I changed the buttons on, but I thought that was such a really interesting mashup of
you know, kind of fast fashion with antiquity.
I love that.
Like, I don't wear things with very many buttons because I got a big boobs and that's just for
(48:10):
me.
But definitely I get that love.
I mean, it's a whole thing.
You remember they used to have bead and button magazine.
I don't think they have that anymore.
But that was a great magazine.
I was in it several times and I even went to go meet with them at the bead and button
show in Minneapolis.
Yeah.
(48:31):
And there's a button group on Facebook.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
Which means everything is there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are you going to do the rest of the day?
Because it's an early day and we're almost out of time, but it's like being a new friend.
Like we seriously have a lot of fun forever.
Yeah.
(48:52):
You ever come to Texas?
You have to come find me.
So today I am, oh, I need to do just some internet stuff like update some links and that
sort of thing.
And we're going to a music performance tonight.
Hence the fancy pin.
(49:13):
And your dress for the day.
One of the way.
Yeah.
I'm going to be doing my dance and I might change my jewelry, but otherwise I don't have
time to be changing my clothes.
I have so much chaos on my desk right now.
I've just finished four projects, which have gone off to the tech editor.
(49:37):
And so one of the things that we had in knitting patterns and writers have the same thing is
like a style guide.
So I have a style guide, but I've been revamping all of my patterns.
And now I have the pattern tailor patterns, which are the ones that use my tool, online
(50:02):
tool.
So I think the balance of the day will be spent updating my style guide, which then goes
out to my tech editors and anybody who does work for me so that they can do things the
way I do it because I like the way I do things.
(50:23):
And I don't like it when people do things differently.
That's okay.
You're allowed to be like that.
You're paying them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, when I taught my students would, you know, ask me like, what do you want?
What do you want?
And I'm like, if I don't say something, I don't care.
(50:44):
If I say, do not use Times New Roman, do not use Times New Roman, because I seriously object
to that, which I objected to because it's, if you can't change, if you have access to
300 fonts and you can't change the font and you're in a creative industry, then you need
(51:07):
to rethink things.
I remember, my sons called me out on that a long time ago.
They're like, really?
Yeah.
Like, it was aerial.
Like, is everything have to be aerial?
Like, what else you got, mom?
I'm like, oh, only like 400 fonts.
Yeah.
But, you know, it's readability, you know, there's certain things that, you know, I'm
(51:27):
gravitating things that can quickly be seen.
Yeah.
And I did, I just made something and it was super little and, you know, the type font
had to be like a six point at some point.
And I'm like, you know, aerial, say, is there, and it's six points, you still can kind of
read it.
But, yeah.
Yeah.
And we have, that's like another thing that we have to take into account now is how, you
(51:51):
know, you can't just post a picture.
You have to put in the alternate text of somebody who can't see.
Yes.
Yes.
And, you know, the thousands of steps, every single thing requires can just be mind boggling
for a solo printer.
So we're doing everything.
(52:12):
Yeah, very good.
And, you know, you have to do the SEO to make sure that it comes up.
And, yeah.
I had two pervers.
So I get it.
I have two guys that, one will work on this video and the other one is doing some other
projects for me because I have to be able to multiply ourselves.
It's just like AI, do my dishes, don't solve problems that don't need to be solved.
(52:38):
I can handle all that.
I just need somebody to do all that other stuff or fix my SEO or add tags or whatever.
I had a great gal who used to do that for me and I think I'm going to have to hire her
back because what happens is that I just don't do it because it's too innervating.
(53:00):
Well, it kind of sucks our energy out because we're creative.
Yeah.
And so some of those, you know, kind of admin kind of BS work is hard sometimes.
I just go, oh my God, I need to list things.
And it can take.
So how do you handle your filing?
Filing?
I don't have filing.
Yeah.
So I have.
(53:21):
I handed you my husband if it's for taxes.
Here, keep this.
No, I do the same.
I mean, I can't be responsible for anything like that because I put everything in the
shopping cart.
I have space.
I have everything in my world is all about me.
Don't even make a file because my whole house, my whole house, the room next door is finished
(53:42):
jewelry and I have a thousand pieces of finished jewelry.
And then this is the bead room and also my studio.
Then I have my work room and then I have the middle of the house is my work station.
I also have a full time job with a big company.
And so I have to have that my computers and I just kind of all new set up for my work
station.
(54:03):
It's been four years.
I've been working at home and it was just kind of like that.
Now it's all like it's like NASA.
And then I have a table or dining room table is all the stuff that we go around mailing
and organizing, you know, all that kind of stuff is on that table.
So besides our bedroom and the kitchen, it, the whole house is joy.
The whole house.
So it's a sickness.
(54:23):
Like seriously.
So I get you.
I got you.
That's why I was, I was mesmerized at looking at your studio because it's very organized
and and I was thinking, I don't know if I want to show everybody all my home.
I was like, don't look over there.
There's like lots of random stuff.
But you know, if you ask me where the one bead is, I could find that bead.
(54:48):
I'd be like, yeah, I know where that bead is.
Yeah, I have piles on the floor and projects, and baskets and none of it is pretty.
You can see over there that, you know, I had like some clear space.
So I've just been piling things up there.
And I sometimes will take photos and like post them to my story on Instagram to shame
(55:14):
myself into cleaning up.
Yeah, you do a good job.
I like your Instagram and we're friends now on Instagram.
So follow me to you.
I do it.
We'll keep up with each other.
And so where can people find you?
So let's talk through that because it's the end of our hour.
So I am Jill will cut it every place online.
(55:36):
So that's pretty easy.
Just usually all one word.
And Jill will cut nets.com is my website, you know, I'm on pay hip because they do
that for purchases overseas.
(55:56):
And as we said, I can't be trusted to do the tax collection for anything.
So they do that.
So I sell my things there.
And pay hip.
I haven't heard of it.
Yeah.
So it's actually pretty good.
It's mostly for downloads, but they've started doing physical things.
(56:21):
And you can use it to sell like instruction manuals, things like that, like if you were
teaching a class.
My education platform is Jill will cut nets dash education on New Zendler.
And so I love paperwork and I always have because I like to write.
(56:49):
And so when I teach a class, there's like tons of handouts and stuff.
So it allows me to put that up.
Like this would be a video that I would put up there so people can watch it again.
And a lot of my stuff is free there.
And so that's the other place is Jill will cut nets, hi, education.
(57:15):
News handler dot com.
And news handler dot com.
But also find you on Instagram.
Yeah, Instagram is great.
DM me, you know, I do everything.
So however you contact me, you are getting me.
I think there's too many places to be contacted.
(57:36):
I feel like they're well ever run with I look at messages and it's like really that happened
like weeks ago and I didn't get a hit on it.
And it's like, I missed that.
Well, it's just like there's like multiple sources of information coming at you.
And it's it's hard to check it.
(57:56):
And I even send my voicemail.
Don't leave me a voicemail.
I don't check it.
Text me.
Because that's where we are in this world.
Who has time for voicemail?
No, that I hate my phone.
And I always have the sound turned off, but I do check messages.
And like I check Instagram and Facebook several times a day.
(58:20):
And I set up things on Slack.
So if I've got to interact with somebody, I use Slack because you can have lots of conversations
over there.
You don't have to follow an email trail.
Yeah, any of the email channels.
Yeah.
So I use that a lot for communicating, but you know, something has to be set up.
(58:42):
Yeah.
So it has been a fast pleasure.
And we are friends.
So I hope you reach out to me.
Do you think because I'm a product designer too, my son's a product designer in LA.
He designs products for like the big things, big, big, big things for like the Oscars and
big traveling concerts for like Beyonce.
(59:05):
He's got that.
He came from my tree.
So you know, we're the same.
Him and I, you.
Him and I, we're the same.
We're always looking at everything and always thinking about that puzzle.
Like how can that be improved?
What is missing here?
I think I've designed products all day long.
Yeah.
At what point?
(59:25):
Yeah, I think we were in Melbourne and we were looking around.
I can't even remember what for at the farmers market, which is like a permanent market.
And I just turned to match and said, well, if we ever decide to come down here permanently,
we can do this thing because there's nothing.
It was like ready made lasagna or something like that, you know, and it was something you
(59:52):
would think like they've got pasta shops.
They have all these other things that you can buy, but there was like no meals, which
we were staying in a service department.
So I didn't want to be like making lasagna.
I just wanted to heat some up.
So yeah, I'm always like, what's what need is not being met?
(01:00:15):
So yesterday, I had a.
Yesterday on my podcast was a friend of mine in Indianapolis.
And she has a company called send a friend lasagna has Stephanie daily and she is wonderful.
And she started this little business right before the pandemic.
(01:00:37):
So she was like in the gravy during the pandemic, sending like out, you know, 500 lasagna as
a week and they're all from scratch and they were all wonderful.
And you just order it up the day before it shows up the next day.
And if you were in a hotel, you can probably heat that up somehow, but that's there is
a really good thing for travelers.
I don't think that's something she's thought of.
(01:00:58):
So I'll pass that along and I'll tell them that we talked about her on this podcast.
We always try and rent something that has at least a microwave.
Yeah.
But like in Australia, we would be sometimes 10 days someplace.
So you know, we would get a place with a full line kitchen.
But you don't have like olive oil.
(01:01:20):
You don't have salt.
You don't have pepper.
So you can really only do very basic salads.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But that's how you pass that on to her because that is, you know, people who are traveling
or like people who are going through cancer treatments and staying at one of those hotels,
(01:01:43):
you know, nothing is more comforting than a lovely home cooked food that you love.
Yeah.
I agree with you.
Yeah.
And I ended up talking about somebody else, but we should end on you.
I would say I'm so glad that you reached out to me because thanks to the Kraft Alliance
(01:02:03):
and we're so happy that we're both members.
I'm very much a proud member.
So I hope that we see each other again.
I'll see each other.
I'll zoom in.
Yeah.
But if you ever have any needs for jewelry, I got your back, girl.
Okay.
Jill has been really a great hour.
It's gone by super fast and I've learned a lot and I hope other people that are listening
(01:02:27):
have really enjoyed listening to Jill's journey because it overlaps with everything, all kinds
of entrepreneurs.
We're creators.
We're makers.
We have that gift that we're creating things for other people.
Yeah.
People happy to and make our souls happy because I think that that's not good.
So I appreciate you and I'm going to stop the recording now and we will end this for
(01:02:51):
now, but thank you.
Thank you so much.
And you can watch for Jill's all just information will be in the description so you can contact
her there.
But one more time it's on Instagram.
It's Jill Wolcott.
Will cut.
Will cut.
Will cut.
W-O-L-C-O-T-T.
Yes.
And yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
(01:03:11):
You can find her.
You can find me and I'm connected to her.
And just let me know if you need any of those things for the information.
I will.
I thank you very much and have a great rest of your day and a great weekend.
It's the summer solstice.
Yes.
Yes.
Go dance around the fire naked tonight.
(01:03:34):
And the strawberry mints.
We're going to go look for that tonight.
Okay dear.
Have a great rest of your day.
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