Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Naughty Secretary Club

Jennifer Perkins is one busy lady! She is the creative force behind Naughty Secreatary Club, writes a popular blog, is a founding member of the Austine Craft Mafia (the momma to all the other Craft Mafias), a Stitch organizer, is writing a book (Naughty Secretary Club: Jewelry for the Working the Girl…due out summer 2008) and has a show on the diy network called Craft Lab. Whew, I’m tired just listing all her jobs…I don’t know how she does it all.

Jennifer is a real inspiration to me and I am so happy to have been able to interview her for the Indie Artist Fixx this week.

See Jennifer’s interview below.

1. What’s the name of your business and what do create and sell?

Naughty Secretary Club – I make kitschy, crazy, extra large jewelry most times using vintage bits.

2. When did you get your start and what made you decide to take the plunge?

5 years ago or so when I was debating on whether to take the plunge and make Naughty Secretary Club my full time job or not I carefully weighed my options first. I was at the point where I was working as a secretary from 9-5 and then coming home and pouring resin and putting together orders until midnight. When my jewelry started paying me the same salary as answering the phone did it was time. I had a feature in Bust magazine right at that point that produced so many orders there was no way I could fill them if I didn’t quit my job so that was the final push I needed to take the plunge. I have done Naughty Secretary Club as my full time job ever since.

3. How do you come up with the concepts for your designs?

Geesh I’m not sure I start with a concept, I just kind of go. Yesterday my younger sister brought over a psychedelic print 60’s dress she had painted Abe Lincoln on for the Stitch Fashion Show. My job is to make matching jewelry. I studied the print and colors of the dress and made a whole slew of baubles just based on this. We can choose which pieces we use with the dress later, but the concept started with a piece of fabric.

4. What’s been your biggest, or one of your biggest accomplishments, so far?

I have a book coming out called Naughty Secretary Club: Jewelry for the Working Girl in summer 2008 on North Light Books. That makes me really want to put a star on my chart because writing books, especially ones with secretarial jewelry spins, is not as easy as it might look.

5. Tell us one funny/goofy/silly thing about yourself.

I think Grease 2 is way better than Grease 1 and at any given time I might bust out and start singing “Cool Rider”. I want a C-o-o-l R-i-d-e-r.

6. What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst?

I love making, wearing, buying, selling, everything about jewelry. I have since I was a child. Besides my studio being covered wall to wall in jewelry parts I have a spare bedroom that is more like a walk in closet with vintage jewelry covering the walls and table tops. The worst part is that I am constantly busy. Remember I have more than one job. I also produce the Stitch Fashion Show and Craft Bazaar here in Austin which is like throwing a party for 3,000 people each fall so that takes a ton of work. I run a crafty consulting business called Craft Out Loud with Vickie Howell. As of Summer 2008 I am an author. There is the Austin Craft Mafia and my duties for that. Oh and my TV show on the DIY Network, Craft Lab that I have to do quite a bit of traveling for. I LOVE all these jobs, but being constantly busy sometimes gets old. I told my husband sometimes I feel like there are areas in my house and yard that I have not seen or walked into in months.

7. What blogs and mags do you read and what shops do you shop at? List as
many as you want.

My favorite magazines are Elle, Adorn and Bazaar. I like pictures in my magazines and not a lot of text. I also LOVE to buy foreign fashion and craft magazines when I can.

For someone who writes a blog everyday, you would think I read others more often. I do read the blogs of Kathy Cano Murillo (Crafty Chica) and Claudine Hellmuth with some regularity oh and I confess to reading Perez Hilton daily. I have a list of blogs on my blog that I really do peruse when I have free time. I am really not a huge shopper I just bought a T-shirt from a designer in the UK named Keesha on Big Cartel. Before that I ordered some moccasins from Urban Outfitters and some Espadrilles from a place in Paris. Oh and I just got two new really rad vintage purses at a flea market.

8. Were you an artsy craftsy kid? If so, what kinds of things did you do?

I come from a long line of artsy craftsy people. If I was out in East Texas with Grandma Moore I was learning to sew and painting ceramics. If I was with Grandma Perkins in Illinois then I was crocheting. At home my sister and I were big on crafts were wearable. As children my sister and I both really did our respective crafts. I was making jewelry and Hope was painting on clothing (she does Hot Pink Pistol).

9. If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have only one food or one type of food available to you in infinite quantities, what would it be?

Tex Mex. Thai is a very close second, but I don’t think I could live without enchiladas or chips and salsa. I’m assuming this also includes Mexican beer and margaritas.

10. What does indie mean to you? You can give a literal definition, choose to be a little esoteric or a combination of both. 😉

Indie means a lot of things to me and the definition has changed a lot for me over the years. When I was in high school it meant the zine and music scene I was into. Smaller Indie bands like Archers of Loaf and Tiger Trap and the print zine Scratch-n-Sniff I was writing. Indie is still synonymous with music for me and was all through my early 20’s when I was running a record label and writing music reviews for magazines. When I started Naughty Secretary Club and spent oodles of time on posting boards like Get Crafty I realized that Indie had several meanings and also spread into the crafty world. I think Indie is not a matter of how big or how small your company is it is a matter of staying true to yourself and your tastes.

11. What are you reading, watching and listening to?

I am currently reading The Ruins, although I must admit I am not much of a reader. I look at a LOT of fashion magazines instead. I am addicted to Netflix, so I watch movies weekly. This week I saw Miami Vice, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Shanghai Triad. Music wise I am all over the place. Currently Elvis Costello singing a Burt Bacharach song is coming through my IPOD speakers. Lately I have been listening to a log of Federation and Kid Sister.

12. What are your inspirations?

My mother inspires me because she has never met a craft she could not conquer. I called her yesterday and she had been stenciling lace onto her patio chairs with spray paint earlier in the day, she was currently in the middle of grilling salmon and then that evening she was planning on sewing Christmas Stockings to sell on Naughty Secretary Club. The crafty never shuts off for her.

13. What’s next for naughty Secretary Club? Any new plans or products that
you want to share?

As mentioned I am finally working on my book after toying with the idea for years. Naughty Secretary Club: Jewelry for the Working the Girl will be coming out in summer 2008 through North Light Books. It is a how-to jewelry book with a secretary spin. I have lots of fun projects as well as some old standbys like the original resin jewelry Naughty Secretary Club got started with.