ORKING TOGETHER WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER CAN BE A CHALLENGE. IT CAN TURN DINNER CONVERSATIONS INTO BUSINESS MEETINGS. IT CAN DIRECT PILLOW TALK INTO FINANCIAL EVALUATIONS. IT CAN LEAD FAMILY LIFE ON A CROSS-COUNTRY JOURNEY. AND, IT CAN TRANSFORM AN ALREADY DEEP AND MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIP INTO AN EVEN DEEPER, MORE HARMONIOUS ENTITY.
Craft couples, whether working in different or the same mediums, share many challenges, but they also share a way of life. How each couple manages their relationship and their business differs greatly, but they all feel two ingredients are integral to a harmonious existence: an interest in spending time together and communication.
Drew and Kirsi Smith are in their second year as partners in their art glass and sculpture business, the Drew Smith Glasshouse in Logan, Ohio.
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"For some couples, getting away from each other during the day at different jobs is necessary," says weaver Kathrin Weber Scott of Blazing Shuttles in Clyde, N.C. "The idea is that to work together, you really have to want to spend a lot of time together."
She and her husband David, who runs a separate business called David Scott Woodworking, celebrated their 20th anniversary this year. While the couple only occasionally shares booth space at shows, they often exhibit in separate booths, side by side. And, while their businesses are entirely separate, they also overlap in many ways. "We share our credit card merchant account, banking capabilities, and we're each other's main critics and source of ideas. All of these things benefit us," says David.
The foundation for their relationship, David explains, "has been communication. We're very good about talking about everything. It's essential with planning trips to craft shows, juggling out-of-town trips, handling the logistics of loading the van, really in every aspect of what we do. I'd imagine it is even more so with couples working in the same medium."
Nora Kalina and Jo Roessler formed Nojo Design, a furniture-making studio in Easthampton, Mass., four years ago and are getting married in September. Working together in the same medium has certainly affected their relationship, but Kalina says this is one of the best aspects of it. "There isn't one aspect of my life that Jo doesn't understand or isn't a part of. It is a wonderful feeling that you have a partner on every single level," she explains. "When I was younger, I always thought about the person that I'd marry as a kind of partner who I'd walk through life with, and Jo is that [person] completely."
While the couple has developed Nojo Design together, they've also developed certain individual roles in its survival. "I mostly manage the business aspects of it," says Kalina, who keeps a separate studio for painting and sculpture, which remains, for now, her avocation. Her previous work in film production taught her business management skills for things like calling clients and handling publicity. "Jo is less business-oriented and more personal. He's the primary designer right now, which works out because I'm not as good at it," she explains. "In the future I'm going to be learning more about woodworking and will be more involved in the creative aspects, but I'm really more of a painter and sculptor."
Having one person more heavily involved in the creative process of a collaborative business is something metal artist Boris Bally, who once had a short collaborative career with his former wife, cautions against. Bally suggests that craft couples should "always make sure both collaborators are able to share equally. If there is imbalance, it might end up creating an unhappy situation. I would just caution artists to avoid 'lopsided' collaborative situations," he explains. "But with careful planning and good communication, I think true collaborations can have wonderful and happy results creating works that are often stronger that the sum of their components."
For Kalina, this "imbalance" has not yet become an issue. "I think in three or four years, I'd look back and caution about that, too," she says. "Because we are a couple, Jo's happiness is very important to me, so to help him be able to have his creative outlet is actually a great part of my own happiness. I'd like to do more painting and sculpture than I do now, and that will probably happen. We each have things that make us happy, and we help each other achieve those things."
While Christopher and Denise Morse share in the creative process for their 11-year-old original color etching business, The Oculus Press in Grafton, N.H., they too have specific functions. "Each of us has different strengths that have evolved into what each of us does in the business," says Christopher. "Denise doesn't like publicity -- she'd never feel comfortable calling a newspaper to solicit publicity -- and I love it. She has incredible patience for things, like doing the books and the careful printing off, so I'll arrange our booth display while she does that. The differences in the way we approach things has actually filled in any gaps. We both realize that The Oculus Press would not exist without either of us."
Denise agrees. "Christopher's Yankee approach to setting up the business -- to do it as debt-free as possible -- really helped us get through the beginning."
She also believes that this philosophy of accentuating strengths would be equally as important for other couples. "It's really important to discover that as a couple working together you have different strengths and to balance those in such a way that one person is not fully responsible for any one aspect of the business," she explains. "Being responsible, as a couple, for making this fly, you have a basis of understanding for everything that the other person does. If one of us was not fully immersed in this effort, we wouldn't have the same level of understanding." And, her advice to other couples considering a business partnership is to "make sure your boyfriend-girlfriend commitment is really established," before you try to develop such a partnership.
But The Oculus Press, for Christopher and Denise, has always been more than a business partnership. "We formed it as a way for us to find a common ground, not just with the rest of the world but with ourselves. It's like a sanctuary for us," Christopher explains. "Every now and then when I pull into our driveway, I realize that everything I'm looking at -- our house, the barn, the studio, the van -- everything has come from this project. That's the most satisfying feeling, when I can feel like it's all ours."
Photo of the Morse family by Tom Eastman
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DOUBLE THE TROUBLE
One of the challenges most craft couples will face is also one of the most important benefits: Two artists together endure twice the effects of an artist's sporadic income. During off-seasons or "down time" this can be particularly straining without even one person bringing in a guaranteed salary. On the flip side, craft couples are basically guaranteed a spouse who can empathize with the sporadic nature of their income and their schedule. "It's sort of a disadvantage to have no one providing a steady income," says Kathrin Weber Scott. "But the benefit to us is that since we're both going through it, we are able to empathize completely. It's hard for someone with a regular job to understand what a craftsperson is going through. I know other non-craft people who deep down feel like we don't really have jobs. So, if one of those people is your spouse, that's really hard to deal with."
For Kathrin and David, however, having separate businesses hasn't lessened the empathy, but it has increased the expense. "One of the hard things about having two businesses," Kathrin explains, "is that we have to have twice the amount of equipment and studio space. Some of the things we can share, like if we're both doing the same show, but other than that we need separate tools and materials."
Despite the added expense, having separate businesses can also help balance out the ups and downs. "It's interesting," David says, "because we'll both apply to exhibitions and shows, and sometimes one of us will get in and the other one won't. And there are some years when one of us will be more successful and the next year the other will. You just try not to get a big head, and it helps not to get jealous," he laughs. "We also get the roller coaster effect in the sense that there are slow times and better times financially, but hopefully, when I'm down, she's up, and when she's down, I'm up. In a positive light, both of us being craftspeople, we understand the sporadic nature of our incomes."
They also understand the sporadic nature of their schedules and lifestyle. "When you have one person who has to get up, dress up, get in the car and drive to work, while the other one doesn't," David explains, "it's easy for the one who has to go to work to see the appealing side of being self-employed as an artist. It's also easy to get a little jealous of it. So, it's nice to share the same lifestyle."
For most craft couples, the absence of a steady paycheck is most noticeable in the beginning. When Jon Ellenbogen and Rebecca Plummer started their Penland, N.C., business, Barking Spider Pottery, some 25 years ago, Ellenbogen says, "To establish a viable business and make a reasonable living, it required working 80 hours a week -- for each of us."
Christopher and Denise Morse still feel the absence of a regular income even in their 11th year in business. Christopher Morse explains, "When we used to teach and had steady checks coming in, it was much easier to break loose and do other things that we needed to accomplish. When we quit teaching about six years ago to focus on the business, we refinanced the mortgage to a 15-year note. It's still a large monkey on our back month to month, so the fear always exists that if we don't get into a particular good show, we won't be able to pay the mortgage. So, we try to fill that possibility in with other shows that aren't necessarily as profitable."
Christopher and Denise Morse share in the creative process for their 11-year-old original color etching business, The Oculus Press. The etching above is titled "The Ragged Mountain Dance."
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WHAT'S A PERSONAL LIFE?
"I don't think the idea of a life at work and a life at home exists for a craftsperson as it does for someone who goes to a job everyday and then comes home," says Jon Ellenbogen. "The decision to become a craftsperson is a commitment to a lifestyle, not necessarily to a career. And for couples in business together, life in craft is even more consuming. "Few couples are together more hours of a day than we are, unless they live on a sailboat," he says.
Nora Kalina agrees, but does try to make some distinction between work and home. "It takes tremendous mental energy to leave things at the studio," she says, "especially when you're really passionate about something -- either excited or upset. We haven't found a solution to it, but I think it's gotten better with a little more financial success. You don't have to worry about things as much."
Denise Morse believes that "it's impossible to separate your personal life from your business life. When you're making your living from it," she says, "it takes 100 percent of each of you to work things out and find success as a business. Being in it together, you have a survival-level involvement in it."
To at least add some recreation to their work, Christopher Morse says, "We try to make the trips to craft shows an adventure ... During the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, for example, we get to enjoy the Rocky Mountains."
Drew and Kirsi Smith are in their second year as partners in their art glass and sculpture business, the Drew Smith Glasshouse in Logan, Ohio. For them, life together has been affected in all ways by their craft. The couple met about five years ago during the Glass Art Society's 25th Anniversary celebration and Kirsi's first visit to the United States.
As the first female glassblower in Finland, where she grew up, Kirsi had encountered a great deal of resistance when she chose this formerly all-male vocation. "They almost didn't let me do it," she says. Now, operating her own glassblowing business with her husband has provided her a new existence, all-encompassing as it is. "Our work is always there -- we're always working," Kirsi says. "Not just the glassblowing, but solving problems. ... I don't get tired of it. Plus, doing shows has enabled me to see a lot of this country. It has been great."
As for the amount of time the couple spends together, Kirsi says, "We can be together for almost 24 hours most of the time, and I haven't hit him yet," she laughs, "and he hasn't hit me!"
Drew Smith says he has trouble trying to set aside time to do other things the couple enjoys, such as walking in the woods and hunting edible mushrooms. "It would be nice if I had more time with my family," he says.
Nora Kalina and Jo Roessler are partners in Nojo Design, a furniture-making studio.
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WHO HAS TIME FOR KIDS?
For craft couples with children, one of the major challenges has been raising them. Jon Ellenbogen and Rebecca Plummer had to cut back drastically on their 80-hour work week when they had children -- twins, who are now 11. "That was probably the biggest challenge for us, to have time for a family -- for the soccer games, doctor appointments -- and to still be able to get as much done as we needed to sustain the business," says Ellenbogen. "But that's also been a very appealing part of what we do ... For children with parents who go off to work at a job that their children never see, it's difficult for them to have any idea of what their parents do. For our kids, it's very real what we do and how it shapes our lives. It's very easy for our children to have a relationship with it."
For David and Kathrin Weber, too, one of the biggest challenges has been raising their two sons, who are now 11 and 14. "Especially when they were young, like preschool age," David says, "it was a challenge to divide up our time. But the flexible nature of our work and being self-employed has also helped us juggle the responsibilities better. Having kids definitely helps regulate your work day. When that school bus pulls up, the kids get your attention, so our schedule has something to do with the public school system's schedule. Having kids has helped keep us from working seven days a week.
"Another thing that other people always ask us is, 'How do you juggle going out of town to attend craft shows with kids?' It can be difficult," David continues. "Our kids have pretty much grown up going to shows, but there are certain ages when it just isn't a good idea to bring them to shows."
Kathrin adds, "I've spent a lot of time explaining to the teachers why our kids have a lot of supervision at times, and then none at other times -- why they will spend a lot of time with friends. I want them to know the reasons for the disruption in the kids' schedules, and that education is a real priority for us, we just go about it a little differently," she explains. "For us, travel is a big part of that education and of family time together, but it's not always easy to convince the school of that."
As a remedy to some of the difficulties presented by bringing their children on the road, Christopher and Denise Morse bought a trailer this year. "We were spending so much money on hotels," says David, "and Denise would run back to the hotel to stay with our daughter and then wouldn't be accessible at all. So, we decided to buy a camper, and it has really been a good change. It's enabled us to go to shows as a family," he adds. And with a new-born son, this is even more important.
Drew and Kirsi Smith would both like to spend more time with their 13-year-old daughter, Sini, and may soon be able to. "Sini has asked if we'd allow her to try some designs for us," Drew says. "It's exciting because she wants to help and she's so young."
A dresser from Nojo Design.
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Sini will be helping in the design process for a 120-foot ornamental iron and glass fence and two gates that will enclose the circular drive in front of the couple's new retail shop and glass studio in Miami.
Kathrin Weber has also seen how their life in craft has affected their children. "It's interesting to see the influence our work has had on our kids. I think they have a different sense of their own power in the world -- they're not waiting for someone else to direct them. The idea of our independence has been a whole different message for our kids," she explains. But without a support system of friends and family, Kathrin adds, "we would've definitely had to do something different -- more wholesale maybe, but definitely something."
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT ...
MOST OF THE TIME
Not every couple can work together, as some craft couples have already learned. "That's nothing to be ashamed of," says Jon Ellenbogen. "I know couples who have tried to work together and found it very frustrating, and that's fine. It's better to recognize that, and that it's just who you are. And no matter what, it's wonderful to find out who you are."
For those couples who believe they can work together, the most important thing to remember, says Drew Smith, "is to be sensitive to each other's needs, to make sure you're not stepping on each other's aesthetics and to give each other some space in that sense. Artists can be very outright with their ideas," he says. "It takes some real practice to learn to shut up."
And in response to her husband's final words of wisdom, Kirsi says, "That is very good to hear. He did need some practice!"
Noelle Backer is associate editor of The Crafts Report.
