Creative Evolution Kate Bishop draws creativity from all aspects of her life
interviewed by Bernadette Finnerty

Kate Bishop creates one-of-a-kind clothing, hats, scarves and other accessories from her home/studio in Petaluma, Calif. After her two children were born and several large accounts failed to pay her, Bishop decided to scale back her business considerably. Since then, she says she has grown artistically and enjoys drawing from the creativity of her friends and family.

How and why did you get started in this business?

When I was in high school, the only thing I cared about was looking good and having lots of dates. My family didn't have much money, so if I wanted to have good clothes, I had to learn to make them -- I guess you could say I made a career out of being shallow.

I made dresses for my landlady while I was in college to help pay the rent. Later, while I sampled a variety of jobs, people kept asking me to make clothes for them. Eventually I caught on that I could do this for a living.

Where do you get your ideas?

(Above) "Seagoddess." The creation of the "Seagoddess" ensemble began on a day when Bishop felt she had run out of ideas. "I was thinking I should just go get an office job somewhere, when I started fooling around with some wire. That wire became the headdress (below). The costume followed." It's the artist's favorite creation.

I don't look at fashion magazines much, and don't have a TV. My work seems cleaner and freer if I avoid the influence of modern fashion designers.

My inspiration comes from a lot of different sources:

Nature. Especially the ocean, and flower forms.

My artist friends. Three of my dearest friends are high school art teachers, who work in many different mediums. My husband teaches building-construction arts, too. So I am surrounded by people who are always thinking in terms of combining lines, shapes, color and texture in a balanced and interesting way.

Kids. My house is full of them in the afternoons. The four teenagers who work in the studio with me, my son and daughter, and their friends are all very creative, full of fresh ideas, and passionate in their presentation. They are involved in music, drama, storytelling and sports. Their sense of costume for daily life, the music they bring into the house, their use of both verbal language and body language, all create a very stimulating creative environment.

Materials. I love hardware stores and junk yards. Parts of machinery interest me. Wire and metal mesh items provide fresh perspectives on ways to use fibers. When I get hold of any kind of fiber-like material, whether it is rubber tubing or seagrass or copper wire, my hands start working with it, twisting, weaving, sculpting, crocheting, sewing, to see what it can do. The properties of any particular material may suggest a new piece, or a new way to work with other materials I'm using.

Clients. Everybody has a story, and a story suggests a costume. Even if you spend most of your time sitting at the computer, sitting at the computer isn't your only story. You have a love story, an adventure story, a magical fantasy. These are the ones that interest me. The girls and I recently made hundreds of silk poppies to adorn a huge hat for Kate Winslet to wear in the movie, "The Titanic." It was fun participating in the story of the actress, the story of the character she plays, the story of the film.

For whom do you create? (Is your work affected more by creative intuition or customer interest/demand?)

My work is affected more by creative intuition. Although I do not ignore customer demands, I find that when I digress too far from my creative intuition to please a customer, I don't enjoy the process or feel as proud of the product, and the customer may be disappointed.

"Seagoddess headdress, by Kate Bishop."

If your work is market driven, do you pay attention to current trends/styles, or do you create for your own specific market?

I pay attention to the large picture of trends. For example, people are buying more hats than they did five years ago. I don't pay much attention to which hats most people are buying, because my specific market doesn't include most people. For example, one of the gallery owners I work with in San Francisco called because she had a client who needed an extraordinary hat for a "drag ball." The client gave me some specifications, but he let me be creative. I had so much fun working on that hat ... and he later reported that he was "the belle of the ball." I get a lot of enjoyment out of that.

Who is your typical customer?

My typical customer is a woman, age 30 to 60, who is self-confident and imaginative. She has fun adorning her body and will create occasions to dress up. She is more interested in having a costume that is appropriate for her or for a particular aspect of her personality than one that is appropriate for a given occasion.

From what area of the country do most of your customers come?

Most of my customers come from either coast of the U.S.

How do you find, access and maintain your market?

I access my market by showing at about 20 craft fairs and one or two gallery shows a year.

How do you express the handmade appeal of your work [and therefore the sometimes higher cost] to someone who is being exposed to it for the first time?

When a person expresses surprise at the price of a certain piece, I tell the story of the piece. For example: "This hat was inspired by a tide pool. I tried to capture the colors of the shallow water against sand. The hat is made of abaca, which is the fiber of the banana leaf. It is from a fruitless tree that is grown specifically for the fiber. The silk trim, being an animal fiber, takes the dye differently from the abaca, so you get this interesting color variation. When I take the abaca out of the dye bath, I sculpt it and let it dry in the sun before sewing it together. I tried a few different ornaments for the crown before settling on this arrangement of emu feathers and seashells. I think it gives the piece a sense of humor. Of course, this copper mesh ornament might work, too. Depends on who is going to wear it. What do you think?"

If a person has gone so far as to enter my booth and establish contact with the piece, she is usually interested in the story and willing to get involved in the creative process. And she will stop comparing it to a hat she saw at Macy's for $50.

Kate Bishop

What are the obstacles to selling your particular work and how do you overcome them?

The major obstacle to selling my work is the fact that it appeals to a limited market. I try to find that market by trying a lot of different shows and eliminating the ones that don't attract my clientele. Every year it gets better.

Is your approach to selling your work different from when you started? How has the market for your work changed?

I have approached my work in a lot of different ways, depending on my life circumstances. I made dancing dresses aboard a 28-foot sailboat in the Caribbean and sold them to island boutiques in the '70s. Then for a few years I manufactured a line of silk dresses that were sold by reps in L.A. When I had young children, I cut back to doing custom bridal and evening wear out of an office near my home in the country.

Now that the kids are older and I am free to travel a little, I do a combination of wholesale, craft fairs, gallery shows and couture. I think my work appeals to basically the same market sector it always has, but I have become freer with my design work and less worried about whether anyone will like it.

Do you find that people try to copy your work? How do you deal with that?

When people copy my work, I accept it as a compliment and a signal that it is time for me to move on and come up with something new.

How do you promote your business?

My self-promotion is in the form of personal appearances at shows and occasional mailers to my client list.

What works for you?

The promotion that works best for me is feature media coverage. The times I have made TV or radio appearances, or have been featured in books or newspaper articles, have drawn remarkable response. I've been lucky, though. One of my clients wrote a book about one-person businesses, and she asked me to be a part of that. Somehow, the book wound up in the hands of a local television producer, and I was called for TV and radio appearances. I haven't done much self-promoting to get that publicity.

I have tried a few paid ads. But as far as I know, they have never accomplished anything for me.

"Full Bloom Hat," by Kate Bishop.

Can you determine whether a specific show is going to work for you?

To determine whether a specific show will be good for me, I ask other artists who have tried it. If the response is uniformly good or bad, I figure my experience would probably be the same. Usually, the reports are varied, and I have to try the show for myself.

What do you see as the biggest competition/obstacle to your business?

I see my own personal limitations as the biggest obstacle to my business. Right now I am working on my problem with delegating responsibility. At times in the past I have delegated production responsibility inappropriately, and the quality of the work suffered.

Now I have production under control pretty well, but I'm in the unenviable position of doing my own bookkeeping. I had someone who was very good, and when she moved away I just didn't find anyone to replace her. Why not? Good question. I'll get right on that tomorrow.

Are you satisfied with the direction of your business?

Yes. Over the years, my work has progressed from fashion to art. I make more and more one-of-a-kind pieces, which I sell to individuals or to galleries. These pieces generate orders for limited editions, which I have help producing. My home/studio is full of interesting people, and I make a living doing work that is fun most of the time. While this is not everybody's definition of success, I like it.

Do you think it will change in the next several years?

The direction of my business will definitely change in a few years when the kids go to college. I may go full circle and produce tropical dancing dresses and carnival costumes on board a yacht in exotic waters, or sit on some African shore learning basketweaving from a master, or follow my hats to Ascot and have tea with the Queen. I'm open.

Bernadette Finnerty is editor of The Crafts Report.