We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annabella Sardelis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annabella below.
Annabella, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
In my early twenties I did a lot of traveling, and everywhere I went I collected textiles. I had textiles from Tanzania, Japan, Mexico, and Guatemala. The first seed was planted in Barcelona. After graduating from Wooster, my best friend and I saved up enough to back-pack around Europe for 3 months. We were traveling on a shoestring budget and often sought out the least expensive accommodations, which were often youth hostels. We stayed in a place near Las Ramblas and everyday we walked past an upscale atelier. The designer was often sewing in the back. After a week or so I got up the courage to walk inside even though I felt self-conscious wearing my Vasque hiking boots, well-worn Patagonia baggie shorts and most likely a well loved long-sleeve tshirt. I’m sharing these details to paint the picture, I did not look like a fashionista. I looked like a back-packer.
It was a beautifully curated boutique, featuring independent designers and artisans and the designer who was sewing in the back looked so sophisticated to me. This this was 1998, pre-Maker movement in the United States, Over the course of our travels, I encountered several spaces that sparked a similar curiosity in me. I never had the thought, I am going to become a designer and open my own atelier, I graduated with an Environmental Studies major and Women’s Studies minor. My plans were to open a farm-to-table restaurant once I was back in the States.
Fast forward 4-5 years later I was in Antigua surrounded by traditional hand-woven textiles and I watched an indigenous woman weaving a textile seated on the large stone steps of a colonial building. As I watched her I thought, what are the textile traditions of the United States? A small voice inside me said, I want to be a textile artist.
We took this trip shortly after I had walked away from my dream of opening a farm-to-table restaurant in the Kickapoo Valley of WI, but I put in place the steps that launched The Driftless Café, a restaurant that features a James Beard Award winning chef. This start-up process sparked my entrepreneurial spirit. At the time I was also starting a land co-op with my ex-husband and a handful of back-to-the-landers, it was a crazy time. I had experienced a painful miscarriage and I wanted a fresh start so we moved back to Minneapolis so my Ex could pursue his dream of becoming a professor. I am a very goal oriented person and do not thrive without a plan. My back-up plan had been to be a Social Justice / Environmental lawyer, specializing in tribal/native advocacy. Once back in the cities I began studying for the LSAT.
Later that year my father had a health crisis and my brother and I flew across the country to be there with him while he was in the neuro-intensive care unit. He was in the hospital awhile, and the day after he was discharged from the hospital, my father said to me: “The world doesn’t need you to be another lawyer. The world needs you to be an Artist.” Those words were the course correction of my life.
My mom, who was seated on the couch, freaked out saying how can you say that to your daughter, that is the worst advice any father could give. She will be poor. Do you want your daughter to be poor? She should become a lawyer. For the record, that was my last day studying for the LSAT. When someone imparts advice to you after they had a brush with death, it has a lasting impact.
A little context for you: my dad was a very talented artist. Professionally he was a doctor but growing up he always had a studio in our house. And when we were at our beach house on the Leelanau Peninsulae, he would be up at sunrise working with wood on our deck, chiseling beautiful forms into Beech wood. I kick myself that we let those pieces weather away over the years and rot. They just lived outside on our deck, what I wouldn’t give to have one of his wooden sculptures as a side table now. While my father was living, I don’t think he ever regarded me as an Artist. Yes, I was always making things, and I had taken studio art classes while in college. I got so into printmaking my senior year, that I chose to illustrate my senior thesis, Tradition in the Face of Modernity: Case Study the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa with my etchings and monoprints.
Shortly after launching INDIGO & SNOW, a piece from our first collection was featured in the NYT Style Magazine, I had hoped he would be proud of me, but his Parkinson’s Disease was so advanced at this time, he looked at me, without smiling, unable to communicate much, except his eyes told me he was suffering and he needed to go lie down.
My father shared that advice with me nearly twenty years ago and I can hear his words as if they were spoken yesterday. I felt like he was seeing into me at the time, in a way I did not see myself. There is no doubt in my mind I would not have chosen this path as a creative, the path of an Artist if it weren’t for my father. Yes, he shed light on this path, but it has not been an easy one for me to pursue.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Annabella Sardelis is a multidisciplinary artist and designer whose working mediums include calligraphy, natural dyes and textiles. In 2013 she founded INDIGO & SNOW, an atelier dedicated to sustainable design in the Twin Cities. Her focus aesthetically is on the creation of functional items, and seeing the beauty in utility, specializing in hand-dyed and painted accessories, apparel and décor. She exhibits nationally and her work has been featured by the NYT, ELLE, and Apartment Therapy among others. Her goal is to make the world a more beautiful place.
When I made the decision to be a full-time Artist, I knew I needed to diversify my revenue streams. At the time, this was nearly 9 yrs. ago, my strategy was direct-to-consumer (ecommerce + pop-ups), licensing, teaching workshops, wholesale and custom. Overtime I’ve discovered teaching and creating experiences are what really lights me up the most. It’s not being by myself in the studio. I love forming creative connections and collaborating.
I provide a handful of services:
As a teaching artist I specialize in teaching indigo and natural dye workshops, snow-dyeing workshops and Big Magic Workshops, where I teach students my signature design and the magic behind it. I host workshops as holiday parties for companies and organizations. I also host workshops as fundraising experiences for schools and organizations. I love traveling and appreciate the opportunity to travel and to teach.
As a textile artist I specialize in custom pieces for my clients:
I offer a range of custom wedding options: custom wedding dresses, custom scarf collections for the bride, bridesmaids and wedding party, as well as custom Sumi calligraphy pieces for wedding favors.
As a designer I work to be size-inclusive and hand-paint custom pieces for my clients.
Over the years I have also partnered with interior designers to create small runs of custom fabric for their clients which are made into curtains and pillows.
what you think sets you apart from others:
This summer I began reading Your Brain On Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Their book on the neuroscience of creativity articulates what I’ve intuitively experienced for years as a teaching artist. My workshops are process driven, we lean into the process, not the product. I want my students to let-go of preconceived notions of what their piece should look like and lean into having a hands-on-experience. I fully embrace a wabi-sabi aesthetic in both my practice as an artist and instructor.
At this stage in my career, as a teaching artist, I am most drawn to co-creating experiences for creativity, curiosity, connection, and community to flourish.
My best selling design over the years has been the Giving Thanks piece. It was inspired by the daily blessing we say around our dinner table. I was raised Greek Orthodox where we said a blessing and prayer before having dinner each night. My husband was raised in an agnostic home and they did not have this practice, as an evening ritual. When our older son was two, it was important to me that we share a daily blessing before eating dinner. This blessing flowed from me, rather spontaneously one evening and we have been sharing it nightly, while holding hands for nearly fifteen years. Nearly a decade ago I decided to create a Sumi-e calligraphy piece with this blessing, and it has been a best-seller ever since, especially around the holidays. The Giving Thanks piece is available on tea towels, in a range of colors and as a print too.
What are you most proud of :
At first I was going to share I am most proud of the beautiful, dynamic salads I made my Dad when he was sick. Food has always been my primary love-language and those salads were truly nourishing works of art. But I recognize you’re asking this question within the scope of my work as a creative and Artist. I am most proud of the workshop experiences I host and co-create.
Last spring I listened to Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General of the United States, in his On Being conversation with Krista Tippet. As a physician and scientific researcher he’s been investigating loneliness as a public health crisis, contributing to mental health issues. Dr. Murthy shared, “And if we want to break this cycle, if we want to actually reclaim lives that are full of joy, that are fulfilling, we have to rebuild, fundamentally, our connection to one another. And that is one of the great challenges that we’ve got to undertake in the years ahead.”
I realize as an Artist it is beyond my scope to repair the political divisions that exist both nationally and globally. I alone cannot fix the climate crisis. There was a time in my teens and early twenties when I truly believed I could and that I would have a huge impact. This seed was planted in high school, my senior year upon graduation when I was voted “Most Likely To Change The World.” No pressure there. For years I held the weight of this. How can I best serve? How can I have the greatest impact?
I grew up in a home where my Mom suffered from anxiety, depression and psychotic episodes, she barely left the house for nearly twelve years. Her mental illness was debilitating and made her world very small. When I teach workshops, I am aware that people are entering that space and I don’t know what challenges they are being faced with; I don’t know what has transpired in their day, in their week, over the course of a year or lifetime. But during the sacred space of that workshop I have the opportunity to create a space that is full of joy, connection, where curiosity is explored and communities come together to be creative. I am not trained as an art therapist, but I can feel the impact.
I am proud that over the years I overcame my fear of public speaking, and stepped into a role where I can make a positive difference. Because I believe in the ripple effect, when you toss a stone in the water and see the soft rings, ripple out. We are all one, we are interconnected, we are relational. If one being walks away vibrating at a higher level and feels seen, heard and creatively supported they bring that energy to their families, into their week, into their communities. Curating these experiences, it’s what I am most proud of.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
During the pandemic I pivoted to mask making and as a result hit a profound level of burnout.
When the CDC declared the national mask mandate and Governor Walz declared the mandate to wear masks in MN, I felt galvanized to help how I could. I was making masks, thousands and thousands of masks as a solopreneur with only the assistance of one seamstress. It was an exhaustive pace I maintained through the early months of the pandemic.
In the early stages of the pandemic I felt so much pressure to provide for our family. We both applied for unemployment but as self-employed business owners we received letters saying we did not qualify for assistance. My husband is a shiatsu practitioner and herbalist and was not able to see clients for months due to the pandemic. It was on me to support our family any way I could. I would work 12-18 hour days coordinating local pick-ups and packing & shipping orders. We would pick up the masks on Friday afternoon from my seamstress. I would then sterilize them by washing & drying in high heat for fear that the virus could be lurking on the fabric. In the early days of the pandemic the USPS was very unreliable and there was such a sense of urgency for people to get their masks. I coordinated the local pick-up from the steps of our home, because I was working from home in the early days of the pandemic. I coordinated a mask pick-up every 15 minutes from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. on the weekends and had weekday pick-ups as well. This was in addition to what I was packing + shipping in a week from our home office – it was a lot. Granted when I look back at the mask making initiative, I do feel positively about how my small, artist run business was able to give back. I have never been in a position to philanthropically contribute a lot. We as a family would donate $200 annually to organizations that are near and dear to our hearts, $25 here, $40 there. During my mask-making initiative, I donated 20% of the proceeds, and was able to donate thousands of dollars early in the pandemic and that felt truly meaningful.
However, this exhaustive pace bumped up seamlessly with the murder of George Floyd and the Uprising in Minneapolis. Our proximity to George Floyd Square and the 3rd Precinct, which was burnt to the ground – activated my nervous system in a way that was profoundly depleting on deep levels – we live 11 blocks from one, 13 blocks from the other. I’ll be honest, it’s three years later and I still have a sense of PTSD when I reflect back at that time, it still feels triggering.
In June 2021, I publicly announced on the internet that I was burnt out and needed to pivot from INDIGO & SNOW. I had built a life-style brand, but over time it became a life-style I didn’t want. It felt ironic to me that my focus was on sustainable design, but I built something that did not feel sustainable to me. I am not referring to materials, or my carbon footprint. I am talking about pace. And let’s be real, it did not feel financially sustainable. The hustle of being a small-business owner, having two young kids, who are no longer that young. Caring for a mom who suffers from dementia. All of it got to be too much.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Connection to the Earth. Connection to all living beings. Connection to our communities. Our connection to ourselves. Being in right relationship with the Earth.
When I originally launched the Giving Thanks design, it was rooted in a blessing that we shared around our dinner table. At the end we say blessings on our meal, I never added that line to the tea towel, perhaps because I wanted it to be more universal.
Currently, there is a lot of momentum for businesses and corporations to be more green, to be more sustainable, to develop and implement circular design initiatives and to reduce their carbon footprint. While I applaud these efforts – I feel they need to go deeper.
Our collective consciousness needs to be protecting our fresh water, the air we breath, the soil where we grow our food, oceans that are home to so much biodiversity and how we care for all living beings, for our elders, for one another.
INDIGO & SNOW is a values based small business, committed to giving back and giving thanks. For me Giving Thanks is honoring our relationship with the Earth and all living beings. We live on such an abundant and beautiful planet. Everyday should be rooted in a practice of Giving Thanks, protecting our sacred soil, water, and air.
Contact Info:
- Website: indigoandsnow.com
- Instagram: @indigoandsnow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoandsnow/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabellasardelis/
- Youtube: in the works
Image Credits
Photo credit: Caitlin Abrams/Mpls.St.Paul Magazine (profile photo + photo of me painting scarf) Photo credit: Jacinda Davis (Giving Thanks tea towel photos) Photo credit: Madison Holler (photo of Indigo + silk velvet dress the model with red hair) Photo credit: Louisa Podlich (photo of model laying down with hat over her face) Note: the earrings that the model is wearing are also designed and made by Madison Holler aka Rubinski Works