Meet Etsy Artist: margotbianca

While finishing up her printmaking studies Margot created a functional line of batik "to take my mind off of my thesis on the weekends." After graduating she discovered selling her beautiful wares was a great addition to her income. "Making pieces that are small, inexpensive, useful and appeal to a wide audience is key to a production line," she explains of her creations. She definitely focuses on her eccentric artist side, too; "I like to keep my schedule flexible, to avoid having to take a job that gets in the way of me making new work, traveling for shows and residencies, and the other schedule-disrupting activities that are inherent to life as an artist." She enjoys the fact that making functional art is a nice break from fine art. "I can learn a lot about color interaction and the nature of different fibers when I'm not being uptight about creating work with content. The repetitive nature of creating a functional line frees my mind up to consider solutions to dead ends or visual problems in my drawings, prints, project proposals or plans for installations. It also helps me practice not getting offended and frozen by negative responses to my work. If someone doesn't like a batik dishtowel, who cares?" She finds inspiration everywhere - from ambient light, color, lines, and good food." Even a few of her dreams and a cup of coffee or two has influenced her colorful work. Each batik is made with antique Indonesian stamps "that were themselves created by hand." She explains, "the stamps were made to help crafters create less expensive textiles for the European market at the turn of the century. So the designs have this strange mix of Asian aesthetic, made for a European audience. I've collected these beautiful objects from auctions, estate sales, junk stores and collectors." She has painstakingly cleaned and repaired them, learned how to use them, and now creates her earthy, functional art with them. "Figuring out how to use each one is like a little puzzle: some of them were designed to interlock, others are smaller parts of a larger intricate design, and some are still mysteries. It's a great challenge for me to find out how to to give them a new life." Please check out her shop: http://margotbianca.etsy.com
-Wendy Baylis
Dharma Designs
http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com