Profiling designer and editor extraordinaire Susan Huxley

Designer and Susan Huxley is well known and loved in the fiber arts community for her feisty approach to life in general and her work in particular.

It was great fun to interview her, and I appreciate her thoughtful, honest and heartfelt responses to my questions.  I have put my questions into green ink and have left Susan’s answers in black regular type.

1. How did you create your life in the fiber arts?

I’ve stitched all my life. So when I decided to pursue a degree in my early 20s it was only natural that I’d choose Home Economics. This is part of the Bachelor of Science program at the University of Alberta. Required classes included studio art, art history, and interior design. That’s where I discovered my passion for art. Then, upon receiving an offer to join the English honors program and near-perfect scores in Art History exams, I realized it was time to marry my passions. I switched to Journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic in Toronto, Canada. I never completed the program because I started working full-time at a newspaper. After starving for a few years I became the editor of a national crafts magazine. From this point until now I’ve honed in on home arts editing, writing, tech editing, and designing. Nevertheless, it still took me years to realize that I was a designer and that I should be submitting work.

2. Do you have a favorite product or aspect of all that you do?

My passion is editing. Nothing turns my crank more than sitting in front of a computer screen going over words, instructions, and numbers. Even more satisfying is taking a germ of an idea—or a group of designs—and developing them into a book.

3. What aspect of being a designer, (and however else you are in the fiber arts, such as editor, workshop presenter, etc) is most challenging to you?

Staying on-task and knowing when to quit. I can walk away from a stitched item or an article I’ve written rather quickly but I’m always tinkering with stitch instructions. I write my patterns as I stitch and I make each item multiple times to verify the revisions are correct so instructions are a work-in-progress for quite some time.

4. What part of it is the most rewarding to you?

Overcoming a challenge. I like being shoved out of my comfort zone.

Many people say the thrill is seeing an item in print. I couldn’t care less about that and rarely get a thrill when a book or magazine hits my desk. By the time that happens I’m so over that item and already up to my keester in something else. Everything I do starts with a challenge. My bears and costumes, for example, began with a personal challenge to create elaborate and modern items using only single crochet, chain, and slip stitches. The plarn projects are my exploration of a new material, especially what I can make with it that goes beyond the market bags that everyone is making.

Challenge is also why I steer toward difficult editing jobs: projects with many contributors, hundreds of illustrations and/or photos, or a book that has been through the hands of several editors.

5. How long have you been working in the fiber arts professionally?

Since I was 28. Egad, that’s 20 years ago.

6. What triggers your creativity? What is most inspiring to you?

Fondling fiber is near the top. But I’m most inspired by incredible art and designs by others. I see things that I know I could never, ever, create. This makes me jealous. Then I harness that ugly emotion by picking up my hook or sticks.

7. Are the fiber arts your main focus?

Totally. It’s rare that I accept a writing or editing job outside the crafts category. Two years ago I worked on some nutrition and exercise content for a publisher. By the time I finished the job I was ready to stab myself in the eye.

8. What is your favorite way of getting your work out into the world?

Like many artists, I struggle with marketing and promotion. These functions don’t come naturally to me. I’ve found, though, that publishing a book through traditional means (a pub house) is one of the most powerful vehicles. My favorite, though, is Facebook. I’ll friend anyone because I love, love, love finding out what other stitchers are doing. (Join me: SusanHuxley.) Almost every day I post something about knitting or crocheting. I try to make people smile.

9. Does where you live influence your work in any way?

Not at all. But where I used to live—near the Canadian Rockies—is a huge influence. I was a city/suburb kid but only one generation off the farm, plus we went horseback riding fairly frequently. Much to my surprise I find “cowboy” and “farm craft” elements creep into my work fairly often.

The binder twine apron, which was part of the Women’s Work show at The Gallery at St. John’s in Easton, PA, is a good example. Halfway through the stitching I realized that I probably chose binder twine because it’s such a big part of farms, particularly horse farms. Binder twine is the duct tape of the horse world. It can be used in a pinch as a makeshift halter, mend a fence, hobble a horse ….

copyright Susan Huxley, used with permission

10. Where can people buy your work? (links, please)

This is the year I’m determined to make more room in my studio by getting rid of boxes of books that I’ve packaged, authored, or edited and cutting back on my yarn stash. New books, Crocheted Sweaters, Today’s Crochet, Crocheted Aran Sweaters, and More Crocheted Crocheted Aran Sweaters are all at discount prices at Amazon.com. (I’m Huxley90)

Using up my yarn stash has been great fun. I never expected people to want instructions for the things I’m making…but that’s just what’s happening. The first of my line of Stashbuster patterns is now up on Ravelry, and more are on the way.

And I’ll soon be releasing a series of Upcycle Crochet patterns for plarn (plastic bag yarn), tarn (T-shirt yarn), and audio and cassette tape yarn. These patterns include the items that were in the Women’s Work art show, except for the After the Fight apron.

11. Do you maintain a blog or website? If so, what are their urls?

I’ve just started work on a new website, HuxleyHomeArts.com. I have my fingers crossed that I’ll keep up with it because my track record isn’t great: I neglected my last website, which I set up about a decade ago for my sewing and serging work (I edit in these categories as well as rug hooking, jewelry making and ceramics).

Last year I was blogging consistently—and even had an professional editor working on the copy before it was posted. I was working on an ebook product with two partners. Unfortunately our agreement fell apart when the computer expert couldn’t deliver as promised. I’m now setting up a new blog at WordPress. This blog will be linked to my Facebook and Ravelry pages.

I’m not abandoning the project that I was working on with my partners. One of the gals is still supportive so I’m forging ahead.

12. Do you have a crafting or arts community that influences you and is important to you? (online or ‘real life’). Is it important to you to be in touch with your peers?

Hearing what others are up to and learning about their successes through FaceBook, my in-person group the Saturday Stitchers (we meet weekly from 10-noon in downtown Easton, PA), and to a lesser extent Ravelry have been most important to me. I’m not taking what others are doing and then developing the concepts into something else. Rather, I’m channeling the positive emotions. By touching base with peeps every morning I feel energized for the rest of the day. (When an organization or person is consistently grumpy, complains, or expects to be spoonfed info so that she can leapfrog the learning process I drop her/him/the group like a hot potato.)

13. Do you have an all time favorite piece that you designed?

Funny … I’ve never thought about that before. I’m most pleased with the annual sweaters I crochet or knit for my husband (these are posted in my Ravelry projects). I love the textural stitch patterns (some are my own, others are adapted from Jane Snedden Peever’s books “Crocheted Aran Sweaters” and “More Crocheted Aran Sweaters,” but I can’t say any of them my favorite pieces. I don’t think I have a favorite.

14. Is there a project or product that has ever flumoxed you and just refused to work out?

I will, figuratively, beat the crap out of something rather than give up. The finished item might be worlds away from my starting point, but it will yield something usable … Even if it’s totally bizarre. For example, I used to create displays for the huge front window of my home. (Now I only do a Christmas village.) One summer I decided to show Alice going down the rabbit hole. Only the bottom half of Alice was visible as she dropped out of the hole on the other side of reality. My husband said it looked like I had sawed off the top half of a torso and the 3-foot tall pink stuffed bunny was demonic. Other people said it was creepy.

copyright Susan Huxley, used with permission

15. Many designers are immersing themselves in self publishing. Is this part of the way that you work?

I’ve dipped my toes in the self-publishing pool a few times over the years and I’m now forging ahead with two lines of crochet patterns (Stashbusters and Upcycle Crochet). I’ve helped at least a dozen people self-publish books, crochet or knit patterns, and even sewing patterns. I’ve even brokered the printing for two clients who both ran 10,000+ print runs.

That said, I haven’t totally embraced self publishing. This goes back to my lack of marketing and sales skills as well as the bias I bring from traditional publishing. Self-publishing can yield higher profits than going through a pub house, but you really have to hustle. In addition to staying on top of online sales there’s the constant promotion and, if you want to hit the big time, a considerable amount of hand-selling to yarn and book shops. You also have to overcome the perception that self-published products are poorer quality. Last I heard, for example, Barnes and Noble wouldn’t even look at a self-published product for its shelves.

I’m entering the self-publishing arena now because the traditional publishing model is dying. Pub houses are a mess. Online publishing is the future. But ebooks are much more than the PDFs that we’re seeing right now. I’m pushing forward with online publishing through HuxleyHomeArts.com, but I want my products to be interactive and work on many platforms. Right now the smart phones and e-readers aren’t ready for how-to crafts “books”. But they will be soon. And I want to be ready.

To this end, the PDFs I’ll soon be releasing on Ravelry and my website will be my laboratory for some rather fun features.

16. Is there anything that I have missed that you would like to share with the readers of  Tottie Talks Crafts?

Stay true to yourself but be flexible.

Whether a portfolio contains knit or crocheted designs or a line of books or patterns, your voice and eye should come through loud and clear. It’s easy to get sucked into creating any type of design or published product that the client wants. Anyone can create a design or pattern. If you want to stand out from the crowd people should look at your product and know where it comes from.

An editor may ask you to change a yarn, a color, or even a stitch or shape of a project. Don’t be belligerent but make sure that you don’t stray too far from “you.”

Designing, editing, and self-publishing isn’t the path to riches and there aren’t any shortcuts. My first journalism job paid $175 a week. The first designs I sold paid only $50 each.

Don’t let anyone take advantage of you. If someone says your design, stitching, instructions, or tech edit isn’t good enough don’t take the claim at face value. Ask for proof. Such claims are often tossed about when an invoice comes in higher than expected or the assigning person/editor is inexperienced.

To this day I still sell some designs and do tech edits for really low rates to either keep my name in the public eye or to support a person, yarn, or publication. But *I* decide to offer the lower rate, someone doesn’t force it on me.

Finally, always remember that you deserve to be treated with respect and that you are a business person, not someone making pin money with a hobby.