We recently connected with Lisa & Scott Cylinder and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa & Scott , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

We began our creative venture together as collaborators making a wholesale line of jewelry. As it grew and became successful, we found that the grind of orders and repetitive work was wearing us down both mentally and physically. And while it provided our family with means, it was not fulfilling our creative needs. Ten years into our business, we decided to take a risk.

We struggled with the idea of splitting ourselves somehow to be able to do both artistic works and continue to make a living with the production work, without tanking the business. Our risk was finding a way to give ourselves the time and energy to make artistic, one of a kind works where we could stretch our ideas and material use to make works of value and interest to us as artists and humans. We started this plan by letting our sales reps go, and cutting our wholesale back by half. It was a big risk!

Once we began, the supply and demand theory kicked in with our steady clients, and the business survived – and is still a big part of what we do in the studio. You have to have at least one person (or one entity) to pay your bills! The one of a kind works continue to grow and change, without the constraints of needing to make money from them, therefore giving them free will to go where we go with our thoughts, materials and concepts.

Lisa & Scott , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a husband and wife team that met as students at Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia) in the Metals/Jewelry program. Lisa then went to work for the jewelry industry after graduation as a designer, while Scott finished his undergraduate degree. They both moved to New Paltz, New York when Scott was accepted to an MFA program at SUNY. There, Scott finished his education in the classroom while Lisa worked for many different craftspeople in the Hudson Valley and learned how to run a small business. Upon Scott’s graduation, they married and started a jewelry wholesale business in 1988. This was the beginnings of Chickenscratch Jewelry. Ten years into this venture, we decided to take a risk and make our unique works as Lisa & Scott Cylinder. We revamped the business to provide us with enough income to take care of our family, and started down the new path (balancing business and art) together. We have never looked back.

We are unusual because we are full time makers, and husband and wife. Our work is conceived, drawn, engineered and made by the two of us (passing it back and forth) without any assistants. If you call or email-it will be either one of us that responds. It is very personal to us to make connections with our clients and collectors. We have participated in most of the largest and best retail craft shows in America, and have been represented by hundreds of shops with our production work, and have exhibited with some great galleries both here, and most recently, in Paris with our One-Of works. We continue today much like we did so long ago – together.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Since we have been at this for 35 years, we certainly have had to pivot as life throws you an occasional curve ball. Being flexible and knowing yourself, as well as being realistic about goals helps every business succeed. We’ve had to flex when either one of us with out for medical reasons, births, injuries,family stuff etc. We have had to shift and pivot when the world throws you a War, an act of terrorism, a housing crisis, a pandemic. You just never know what is coming!

Many times we have been in a tight spot financially and creatively. The ability to know yourself and flex is as important as air to breathe. When the Pandemic closed everything, and our show schedule and orders were cancelled taking a big chunk of money with them, we decided to put our heads down and make new one-of works that were showstoppers. Where were we going to sell them? We didn’t care, because we know ourselves and knew that this was a time to invest in ourselves and use the time to explore. We’ve made some of our very best works during this awful pandemic-and going to the studio in a mask everyday is how we stayed sane and pivoted to the next level of our creative venture-together.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Education. We believe that when the public schools changed their mandates to test taking quotas, the first things to go in the curriculum were arts. Whether that is home economics, shop class, printing shop, photography etc., the stunning lack of knowledge about making art and the crafts is mind blowing.

Most of our best clients are over 70, have had an advanced education or a European parent or grandparent who valued the arts. They understand the joy and history of making because they were educated to appreciate it. Many young people cannot even use a ruler properly, let alone know any art history, theory or have ever been to a museum or gallery. It is so important to the future of our creative ecosystem to understand the arts so that our handmade trades continue to grow.

We need education in the arts in order to continue to have artists be a vital part of our human experience. Whether it’s in the classroom or online, curiosity is the key to developing future artists and craftspeople. Bring back arts in schools, teach everyone to cook and sew. Make a lamp or a stool. Paint, etch, sculpt and find your passion. If we don’t teach this as a way to live, it will be lost.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lisaandscottcylinder.com
• Instagram: @lands_cylinder

Image Credits
Scott Cylinder