Have you ever had that one shop that helped you realize a dream? Or had that missing piece of the puzzle to create a piece of artwork you’ve had in your mind for so long? For me, one of those shops was Unfettered Co, a great shop to find so many macramé, weaving, frames, yarns, leaves, and so much more. Janis of Unfettered Co, brings you in on her secrets for being a successful artist as well as entrepreneur and so much more in her interview below.

I started working with Unfettered Co. last year to create the larger metal frames for my crochet paintings as well as use their gorgeous metal leaves. They worked with me to realize the size, shape, color of the frames and so much more!!! I even got to work with Loren on a custom frame for a specific ocean painting I’ve been envisioning (much more on this in a later post). :). You can see more of how I’ve used their frames and the beautiful leaves in my post about my crochet paintings.

Unfettered Co - a wonderful place to help all your macrame and weaving dreams come true

What gave you the idea/inspiration to start Unfettered Co?

I opened an Etsy shop almost exactly 5 years ago now because I became so taken with macrame (after attending a beginner workshop) that I couldn’t stop doing it. The only real problem with learning macrame in a frenzy is that your space becomes completely colonized with creations and there’s no end in sight: so, you end up needing to sell them or give them away, just to make some space again! 

So Unfettered Co was born from unhinged creativity. I had no idea what it would become, but I just wanted to make things. As I got further and further into that desire, it became clear that Canada had very little in the way of recycled and coloured macrame cord available. I was needing to hand dye all of my own rope before using it and while that process was fun and instructive, it wasn’t overly practical. So, I started looking seriously into cotton production/recycling processes and ended up working with a terrific supplier who was able to match our needs. 

What’s your favorite product to create?

I honestly can’t think of any better product to create than something that will be transformed into art and craft. And luckily for us, our whole shop consists of these products! 

I also love that we’ve managed to retain handmade items on offer in our shop. Loren is a skilled metal worker and he really does a terrific job of lending his expertise to fellow hand-makers. We get some heartfelt messages from customers who’ve dreamed up a project that has nuanced shapes involved, but they can’t realize their vision without metal hardware. So Loren works one-on-one with them to nail down sketches, dimensions, and materials and then creates the metal support they need for their idea. The best part is always seeing the finished piece that comes from this! So much work has gone into it and multiple hands/hearts have touched the idea that it’s bound to be awesome. 

If I had to narrow down a single “product” that brings us the most joy to make, it would be our quarterly Mystery Boxes. These are designed around a secret metal shape that we only give a one-word hint for. We eke out the shape, then curate fibres from our shop to accompany it (just as suggested materials to use), then we make our Mystery Boxes available for a limited time. Customers take the risk of purchasing a total surprise (and this always warms us to the core). They receive a box with metal and fibre and a letter—but no guide or instructions. Many of them choose to participate in our Mystery Box Challenge too where they submit their final creations as entries that are voted on. The entry with the highest votes is crowned a winner and its maker receives the next mystery box for free as a prize. We find that this low stakes competition fuels community with makers cheering each other on and leaning on one another’s shoulders as they complete their challenge. It’s a celebration of creative minds at play and illustrates just so perfectly that no two people will use the same materials/shape/concept in the same way. As a creative community, we draw strength from our differences! 

How do you choose the designs you work with?

Many of our designs have come from specific requests from fellow makers over the years. The great thing about having an art supply business is that our customer base is hugely creative, motivated, and ambitious. They’ll see a shape and feel inspired to lend their own medium and voice to it. So, I suppose you could say that a lot of our metal collection has been designed with an ear to the ground and an intention to listen to the needs of our customers.  

What do you wish people understood about running a handmade store?

I think the bane of any business selling handmade wares is that, by necessity, we compete with the pricing of businesses that are selling mass-produced goods. And, sometimes, I find that folks will purchase handmade goods without thinking twice about the human maker behind them. If a machine is programmed to stamp out the same metal shape over and over again, it can reproduce that product exactly the same every single time. But a human? A human’s hands will make the shape slightly differently, and a human’s hands will incur “imperfections” and “blemishes” that we think make that item more special….but, as you well know, not all customers (even those selling handmade wares themselves) will always agree. 

So, I think we end up needing to acquiesce at times to the demands of a market that often just pays lip service to “handmade” as a value. Loving “handmade” only if it’s exactly the same every single time with absolutely no signs of human involvement and priced at rates that would prevent any maker from earning a living wage—that’s not sustainable. Perhaps we need to think more about employing the term “sustainably handmade.” 

What would you tell a new artist for encouragement?

I would tell a new artist 5 things: 

1) making art renders you vulnerable, and from that vulnerability comes incredible resilience. Embrace it.  

2) people will sometimes scoff at you for pursuing art and that tells you everything you need to know about them: they haven’t found something they love doing enough to be rendered completely vulnerable before it, and that’s their shame, not yours. 

3) don’t waste valuable time working in your medium by chasing down another artist’s vision. The time you spend covering someone else’s tracks is time you haven’t spent finding your own footing.  

4) when your work is copied by another aspiring artist, it will be upsetting. And it will also leave you with a very key (and very painful) takeaway: you haven’t done enough work to dig down and make your work non repeatable by someone with less skill than you have in your medium. So dig deep and do that work. 

5) explore widely. Be relentlessly inspired by different art forms than your own. 

What is something you are passionate about and why? 

I’m passionate about macrame! I love that it’s accessible to folks from different walks of life and with different income brackets. I adore that knotting is a craft that has captivated mostly women for decades now, and that it’s been popularized and sustained  by female-led communities (the same context that often leaves macrame dismissed as an art form). And I am grateful for the ways that it has changed the course of my own life. 

How has COVID  changed or impacted your vision/strategy?

Covid made it so that we couldn’t look up from our sandbox for quite some time. It kept us on our toes trying to meet demand for our products. And one beautiful outcome of covid has been that more people have needed (and found) solace in creativity. COVID made human creativity more demonstrative, more formative, and more communal. 

What is something that has helped you get through during this global pandemic? Something encouraging or positive?

See above ;)

What are three tools in your workspace that you could not live without ?

1) Ldh scissors 

2) Unfettered Art and Supply “rolls Royce rope dispenser”

3)The work of other artists I admire 

If you could have one super power, what would it be and why?

I feel like I should choose a power that is exciting because supernatural or fantastical—but I’m going in the opposite direction on this one. If I could only have one super power, I’d choose the ability to write well. This underrated superpower has made all the difference in my own life; it’s given me the confidence to thrive in most environments and the ability to be seen/heard. 

If you had one (or several) things to share with an entrepreneur, what would it be? What would you encourage them about?

I would encourage budding entrepreneurs to learn how to write. A business boils down to communication, and strong, principled communication will make your work stand out. 

Fun question –if you could meet one person in history or present, who would it be and why?

I don’t think I’d like to actually meet my heroes, to be honest. Having met (and been moved by) their work is enough. I would like to protect their time and sequester it from having to meet me because in the absence of that fateful hypothetical meeting, they might actually get something useful accomplished

What is your dream for Unfettered Co to be (where do you see Unfettered Co in 5+ years)?

Unfettered Co is currently living out its dream of supplying a vital and vibrant maker community  with fibre, metal, and tools for realizing their own dreams. To us, that’s as good as it gets and that’s what we hope to be doing in 5 years too :) 

How can I and my readers help you with your dream for Unfettered Co? 

You’re already doing it! Thank you so much. 

Thank you to Janis, Loren, and Unfettered Co for this interview and thank you for reading this interview! Unfettered Co is one of my favorite shops and they do so much to help support other creatives to include myself. :). What is your favorite product from their shop and what have you used it for? Comment below, send me an email or tag us on social media, we’d love to hear from you! Have a great day my friend!