A Sit-Down with Mallory of the Indie Blog – Miss Malaprop

I am debuting a new feature at Indie Fixx today. Periodically on Fridays, I will be participating in reciprocal Indie Blog Interviews. I am interviewing Mallory of Miss Malaprop on Indie Fixx and Mallory has an interview with me up at Miss Malaprop. Mallory and I are planning on starting a group called the Indie Blog Syndicate, whose members will consist of indie bloggers and with the main mission of advertising indie blogs and bloggers. If you are interested in being a part of this group or doing a reciprocal interview, contact either one of us.

Read my interview with Mallory of Miss Malaprop below.

Why did you decide to get started with your blog?
I had already had the idea of wanting to open a store featuring indie designers, and I’d been following the indie craft scene very closely for quite awhile. I’d been wanting to get a newsletter started for a while, and then I started noticing a lot more indie blogs pop up during the spring & summer. I decided a blog would be an easy way to get a website up and running (my other site, www.dismantled-designs.com is also built on WordPress), and I was also really excited about being able to spotlight indie designers and get the word out about artists from my hometown.

Why is the indie design community important to you?
Over the last few years I’ve become more and more concerned with the rise of mega-corporations and the loss of so many small businesses. This has particularly impacted us here in New Orleans, where many locally-owned small businesses have closed their doors during the last year, due to hurricane damage or loss of tourism. I’m trying to become more conscious of what I buy and where I buy it. I’d rather pay a little more and shop local or independent whenever possible.

Who is your favorite independent designer? Any category of product.
I had already decided what my answer to this question would be even before the events of yesterday…my favorite store of all-time, and therefore favorite independent designer/clothing company is Trashy Diva . They’re based here in New Orleans and they make these amazing clothes based on vintage styles. After contacting them recently and stopping by with a resume yesterday to talk to the owner & the manager, I landed my dream job there!

Other indie faves include my friends’ company, Sigh Co Graphics and my online friends Dainty & Dirty and Lulette .

Give an example of your craftiness from childhood.
I was really into collage when I was younger. I had a box filled with words clipped from magazines – I covered entire pieces of paper with them, very meticulously, leaving no black spaces. I also used to melt Mardi Gras beads for sun catchers, make beaded jewelry, and craft belts out of safety pins and soda tabs.

Name a couple of interests besides Miss Malaprop.
I grew up doing a lot of live theatre, including three summers interning at the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. I also did ballroom dancing very regularly throughout high school – I’d really love to get back into it actually. Watching So You Think You Can Dance this summer has made me miss it.

What’s the best thing about writing your blog? What’s the worst?
The best thing is getting to bring more attention to all of the great indie businesses I love.

The worst part is trying to find the time to do it all. Not just the actual blogging, but other website development and tweaking, promotion of the blog, etc. My list of businesses I want to feature grows every day…I wonder how I’ll ever make it through them all.

What are your future plans with Miss Malaprop?
My intention all along has been to start up an online shop featuring my own work (mostly reconstructed clothing and accessories), as well as other indie artists I love. I want to sell at indie craft shows all over, in addition to the online store. My plan is to slowly let this build until I’m able to open a full-blown, real-life brick and mortar retail store. I definitely want to keep the blog going as long as possible, separate from the store plans….I really love doing this.

What arts and crafts have you tried and/or are experienced at?
I’ve done mostly sewing, although since I’m primarily self-taught, I don’t consider myself a technical seamstress. I’ve recently been trying to learn screenprinting (Gwen from Sigh Co. has been helping me some with that). I tried knitting for a while, but I could never really get into it; I prefer embroidery instead.

What blog do you read every day? List your top 5 blogs—not limited to the indie design world.
I read pretty much everything through my Livejournal friend’s list…most of my real-life friends use Livejournal, and it’s become even more of a way for us to all connect since so many of us have scattered across the country due to Katrina. I also subscribe to non-LJ blogs via the Livejournal syndicated feeds. Non-LJ favorites include:
Bits & Bobbins,
Make It,
Go Fug Yourself
Great Green Goods, and
Modish.

How did you come up with the name Miss Malaprop?
MissMalaprop is sort of a play on my name, Mallory. I joked that if I was a music DJ, I’d be DJ Malaprop. It’s also a nod to my literary and theatre geekdom. Mrs. Malaprop is a character in the 18th-century comedy of manners play, The Rivals. The term malapropism comes from this character, who was constantly mis-using similar sounding words, although Dogberry from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing was doing the same thing in a much earlier play. (I told you I’m a literary & theatre geek.)