Today we’d like to introduce you to Maggie Jackman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It’s hard to pinpoint a moment when my art turned into my career. I was already painting rocks and selling them at the end of my driveway when I was around five years old. I started an Etsy shop in high school, at the time I was just selling vintage items I had picked up at flea markets and resale stores.
After graduating high school, I started focusing on photography, which had always been a hobby of mine. I was mostly doing portrait photography and actually built up quite a large portfolio.
After two or three years, I started to feel a little burned out with portrait photography. I really wanted more freedom and autonomy in what I was creating. At that point, I think I was a sophomore in college and I decided to pivot away from photography both in my work and in my schooling. In a turn of fate, I was headed in more of a studio art direction.
The next year or two I dabbled in all kinds of different arts, crafts, and mediums from screen printing to ceramics until I fell in love with embroidery. Now, I have been focusing primarily on fiber arts for the last 5 or 6 years, I do about 30 art shows and pop-up markets a year as well as run my website and Etsy shop. I’m still working on finding and evolving my style as an artist but I don’t think that’s a task that is ever really complete.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I first started doing craft shows I was hauling my pop-up tent, tables, product, you name it down four flights of stairs from my fourth-floor college apartment then back up another flight of stairs to the parking lot. It was definitely a lot of work while I was still a full-time student.
I remember finishing a market one night, running inside when I got home around 10 pm to finish a final exam that was due at midnight, then unloading the U-Haul and returning it before morning. There have been plenty of art show weekends where I never ended up going to bed at all. Whether it was schoolwork or trying to get enough product made for the next day. My mom has always helped me when it comes to setting up my booth at markets but I definitely could not have made it through weekends like those without her help – thanks, mom!
Sometimes I look back on those years and wonder where I found the time and energy. I’m so happy that I started when I did though because it gave me a really good foundation to have a polished brand by the time I graduated college.
Running a small business with one person is always a challenge. There are so many aspects of operation beyond just making art, it absolutely gets hard to balance them all without dropping the ball somewhere.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in embroidery art but I include other fiber techniques and other mediums in my work as well. My central product line is wall art but I also hand embroider clothing, patches, and other accessories.
I would say I’m most proud of the processes I’ve developed over the years that take my pieces from a concept in my head to a final product. I’ve learned a lot of techniques over the years that help me make the best choices when it comes to design and which mediums will work best to achieve my end goal. Along with that, I would say I am pretty proud of how I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone to elevate my business.
Embroidery has picked up a lot of popularity in the last few years which has really kept me motivated to keep my work ahead of the trends. When it comes down to it, anyone can learn how to embroider or paint so I put a lot of emphasis on the design and subject matter of my work. I really want people to connect with the pieces I put out and not just make a pretty piece of art that feels generic. I recently started doing a lot of mixed media work. I don’t want to get stuck on the idea that I can only do fiber art because it really limits the types of work you can create and use just one medium can get a little repetitive.
I don’t think a lot of people have seen embroidery mixed with paint and I have really enjoyed watching people inspect my art and realizing that some of it is stitched and some of it is painted. It makes the viewing experience really immersive, you end up exploring every little detail to discover which medium was used to create it.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
So many! The apps I use most are Procreate, a Color Story, Canva, Instagram, and Facebook. All of my designs go through Procreate at some point, whether it’s just printing off-line work to make the roadmap for embroidery or creating a sticker design from start to finish. I definitely rely on that app a lot. I edit a lot of my social media photos on a color story, they have a grid tool where you can plan out your posts which helps me stay on top of my social media presence. Canva is great for creating promotional posts when I don’t have time to do detailed design work.
My two favorite podcasts are How I Built This with Guy Raz, and The Stitching & Co. Podcast. The first tells the stories of successful entrepreneurs, their struggles, and how they found success. The Second is all interviews with embroidery artists telling similar stories so I really enjoy listening to that one.
I can’t say enough how much I love the TV show, The Profit. A College marketing professor at Webster U introduced me to it and I’ve been watching it ever since. It’s all about small businesses and you can pick up a lot of useful concepts from it.
On a non-work-related note, I recently read a book called The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn. It’s a beautifully written memoir that really makes you aware of the volatility of life. It demonstrates that you don’t always have to be exactly where you planned in order to be content. You just have to live your life in a way that makes you happy.
Sometimes that makes your way of life seem a bit abstract to others, but that’s okay. I haven’t always exactly taken the most obvious path in life or business, so I really connected with that message of the book.
Contact Info:
- Email: artifactstl@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.artifactstl.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artifact_stl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtifactSTL
