We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Fisher recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I think I’ve always wanted to be “artsy” but was too afraid to put myself out there and show the things I made, let alone to try and make a profit from it. I never really excelled in any art class or participated in shows. Looking back, I’m guessing it was because it just wasn’t the right art for me. A few years ago I found a paper from elementary school. It was a coloring page, and it had a note written from the teacher that said something about learning to color in the lines, man if I could go back now and tell them “no I’ll color however I want” that would be great.

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! I’m Michelle, Mother, wife, business owner and so much more. I have 3 awesome kids Olivia, Halen and Benny my husband Chris and we have a lazy dog named Carlos Pickle. Benny was born in March of 2020 right as the world was shutting down. Having a new born and two young kids at home during the pandemic in the middle of winter was starting to take its toll on my mental health. I knew I needed a hobby, an escape, something to pull me out of 1)seasonal depression 2)postpartum depression 3) not sure it has a name yet but we’ll call it pandemic loneliness. I’ve always loved tie dying and just so happened to have a kit that had been sitting around forever so I grabbed that, a couple of old shirts, some bleach for reverse dyes and started creating. I made a post on Facebook about the shirts and recieved so much positive feed back and I think a few sold. That was it, I was addicted. I couldn’t stop, therefore Clearly Weird was born. Every night after the kids went to bed I would head down to my dungeon (the basement) with the baby monitor and tie shirts, dye shirts and watch soooooooo many tutorials trying to soak in all the knowledge. I don’t think it was until March of the next year when I did my first vending event. That was nerve wracking. “I have to talk to strangers, I have put these creations on display. Wait how do i display them” Many many questions and doubts of whether or not I could do it ran through my mind (still do) but I did it. I remember one of my first sales actually. It was an upcylced funny cat shirt that i bleached and tie dyed. The person who bought it, they saw it and immediately knew they needed it, the cat on it looked just like their cat who had recently passed away. I remember telling me and showing a picture and I’m thinking to myself “oh, wow this is like a real connection, someone can relate to my art” It was weird, so weird but in a good way of course! I feel a lot of the time that the energy and love I put in to creating tie dye then finds a person with matching energy and it just calls to a person. I didn’t really push too hard trying to grow a business as my kids were still pretty young, I kind of fumbled through events and displays to see what works and didn’t work. At one point I bought a small trailer that was turned into a mobile boutique. I LOVED that trailer but it didn’t work out very well. In the trial and error stage I started setting up DIY tie dye where the customer could create their own shirt. That quickly became my favorite thing to do, watching all the little artist come to life and go wild creating a peice of unique wearable art. Also when adults give it a try and start reminiscing about the last time they had tie dyed. I enjoy the stories so much.
Like I said I didn’t push too too hard in the beginning. But this year, 2023 I decided it’s on, I’m growing. And it has been the most amazing time! There are so many free resources for small business around my area, I took a class called Get your business Rolling. I think it was the first week’s homework to write a mission statement. With that mission statement and a few other things I learned the first week I applied for a festival acceleration program through ECDI. To be completely honest I’m still not even sure how but I was one of the small businesses chosen to be in the program, they loved the interactive DIY part. Which meant I would be a vendor at the Wonderstruck Festival in Cleveland, it also came with a business coach and so much more all sponsored through ECDI. Crazy right? Little did they know I had been following this music festival with a goal to vend there since I started Clearly Weird. That event is probably another story on its own, but it was fun. I had several other big events throughout the summer, so much help from friends and family. Between helping with the kids or coming to an event. It was a lot of fun and I’m very thankful I went slow the first year or so and was able to do most events this summer without too many “oops I forgot something and need to run home or the store to get it”.

As much as I enjoy being a mobile business doing pop ups all summer, the ultimate goal would be a place for Clearly Weird to call home. I would absolutely love to have an art studio and small retail shoppe. Picture this, a tie dye party where all supplies are provided, professional dyes at the ready and a friendly expert to guide you at making a beautiful piece of artwork that you can wear and show off. Oh I can’t forget the best part, no mess for you to clean up!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I LOVE “fail” stories. I know that’s weird but I do I love them. Most of the time we only see the successes or the amazing end result of a work. We don’t see the struggle to get there, we don’t see the stress, the tears, the doubts. I think we all need to share these stories to know its totally normal. It’s ok, you might have tripped and fell, but did you get back up? That’s what matters. Totally not creative related but once upon a time I played roller derby, I played my first bout and afterwards I was asking my kids about it. Their comments “it was fun but you fell a lot” they weren’t lying I have zero coordination and probably have no business on skates. But anyway I told them “so what, it’s literally part of the game and I didn’t stay down I got up and continued”

That being said I can’t even tell you the amount of events I’ve left with little to no sales and wanted to quit. The limit does not exist. Even though I’ve been more selective at which events I vend, I guarantee I will still leave some sad at the sales. At the very least I usually make a new friend or meet awesome people.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Well I’ll start with teachers not telling young children to learn to color in the lines. Referring back to that paper from elementary school that I found. They probably told me what colors to use too, why can’t a cat be blue??? That’s just silly of course it can it’s just a coloring page!

I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m now immersed in the art world but I do think society is on a good path to support artists and creatives. There are so many more tools accessible to schools, I have a friend who is an art teach for high-school and they have all sorts of things, sublimation printer, vinyl cutter and I’m not even sure what else maybe a 3d printer. Back in my day we had scissors, glue and a pottery wheel.

Contact Info:

• Website: Coming soon! Finally!
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/clearlyweird.tiedye?igshid=MTk0NTkyODZkYg==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clearlyweird?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@clearlyweird_tiedye?_t=8hjD7jSCSNf&_r=1