We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea Misja a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Everything I know about cement is self taught. I did an incredible amount of research, but everything I wanted to do with it, the way to color it, the way to finish it, I unfortunately just couldn’t find any information or tutorials on how to achieve those things, so it was just time to play. This was both aggravating and incredibly freeing at the same time. I would say I made a lot of mistakes within that first year, but the truth was I was making so many discoveries for myself. Each failure, each crumble of a piece, gave me more information to then make my pieces better the next time around.

It’s been 3 years since I started this cement journey and I’ve learned so much. Cement is very much influenced by the natural elements around it, so the temperature, the moisture, the sun, everything effects the process and you have to learn how to control that to make it all consistent. Then with sealing, again each element affects the process and can give you different results.

What I can say to others looking to play with cement, or really any medium, is you have to allow yourself the time to experiment and play. There will be the time to make money with what you’re doing, but these first moments of your craft are the most important and require the most attention… its also the most fun when you’re able to just do something for the sake of doing it. Allow yourself the time to create, to learn, and most of all the time to enjoy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hello! My name is Andrea Misja and I have a small business out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called Maker Missya. I craft cement home decor and planters with unique color schemes. I like to use bold color combinations that I create from custom pigment recipes within my cement, they’re not painted on after, so each piece is unique to that one time pour.

I make a broad range of sizes of planters from the smallest being about 1in, up to a large pot that’s 11in. I don’t like to only do what’s considered a “normal” planter though. I love human anatomy and greek mythology, so you’ll find a number of specialty skulls, hearts and human figures within my collections. For all my non-loving plant people (or self-proclaimed plant killers lol) I also make a broad range of just decor pieces, wine chillers, coasters, incense holders, etc. My business is also proudly queer/woman owned so women empowerment, body positivity and all inclusivity are at the forefront of my values and I incorporate them into my pieces/collections as much as possible.

To learn a little more about my background and how this all got started, I have a bachelor’s degree in digital design (web/graphic), so I’ve been in the design industry since high school. I remember when I worked tirelessly to get my degree and by the end of my schooling journey, I was so burnt out that I hated what I did. I was also a waitress at the time, so I decided I’d take a year off design to travel, make some cash, visit friends and I’d be able to get back to that creative process in a bit, but it was so much harder than just flipping the switch like I thought I could. I had lost that passion that I so desperately needed to be able to succeed in such a competitive market. Over the years I did some freelance work, worked with an artist non-profit for a bit, but never really found that spark again. In 2020 my New Years resolution was a deal with myself that I was going to either continue with what I was doing, but do it better and move up within that field, or I was going to slowly fade out of that and jump into a more artistic role… and then the pandemic happened and life made that choice for me.

During the beginning I made face masks. I had always wanted to learn how to sew, but I never really had the need or time. When my neighbors and I couldn’t find masks anywhere I decided thats what I was going to do to just to try something different and fill that need. It was that little spark of creativity that I had been so desperate for. I then created some larger planter pieces from abandoned wood I found around my neighborhood in Philly and loved how it made my space feel. I wanted to feel that way indoors as well, so I decided to start focusing on how to make things for my indoor space. I didn’t have the tools to do what I wanted with wood and make them much smaller, so this is how I started thinking and playing around with cement. I had a couple bags of cement in my basement that were readily available for me to use, so thats how it all started.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’d say the biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that there is “good” art and “bad” art. No such thing. I think absolutely anyone can be an artist in any medium with the time and dedication to do so. There’s also so many different types of people out there, with different styles and appreciations that there’s an audience for everyone.

I remember being in art class throughout my life and LOVING it. It was my favorite time of my schooling, until about the 6th grade when they started separating us into the “good” artists and “bad” artists. I was actually put into the bad artists category (lol) and basically encouraged to look elsewhere. I didn’t necessarily listen, and instead of focusing on drawing or painting, I just worked digitally on logo design, photoshop, etc. A part of me always wanted to go back to drawing or painting, but it was engrained in me that I wasn’t good enough, so why even try?

Fast forward to being in this creative industry and I meet a LOT of doodlers, painters, sketch artists, and they’re all so different and there’s room for all of them at the table. I think that’s why so many of these online courses are so popular because, as adults, we’re now being given the permission to play around and learn something new without the judgement of being “good” vs “bad”.

My encouragement to anyone wanting to try something new is just to try it! You’re only as good as you allow yourself to be, so if you don’t try, you’re only limiting yourself.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are some absolutely amazing course works out there that were only in their beginning stages when I started my journey and have blown up over the last few years. Udemy, Skillshare, Domestika, Craftsy, all supply really amazing and informative courses that can be purchased individually or as monthly packages that have a wealth of information in terms of creating whatever it is you want to create.       

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.makermissya.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makermissya/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakerMissya/