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

Michelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

My passion for making began beside my grandmother on our front porch. I was 7 or 8, and she was crocheting granny squares. Watching a little hook and a ball of yarn turn into colorful squares, and then blankets, just fascinated me. I taught myself to crochet from a book (my grandmother didn’t have the patience) and asked for knitting lessons for Christmas when I was 10. From then on I was never without a project.

In my teens and twenties, I couldn’t imagine what a creative career path would look like. There were no models that I could learn from. I wish now that I’d been a little more courageous. If I’d just dived in, putting up a tent at local shows and selling the things I made, I have no doubt it would have been really difficult financially and personally. But I also know now that I connect with creative people and my own creativity only when I have the mindset and when I’m in the spaces where ideas and makers converge. I was hoping for a creative life to fall into my lap instead of building it myself.

Michelle, 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?

I called my business WoolNeedleThread because it reflects the deep love I’ve always felt for textile crafts – anything created with wool, needles, and thread. I make one-of-a-kind bags and accessories in vibrant combinations of colors and textures. I create both handbags and project bags that support the creation of our own beautiful, individual styles in a world that is constantly telling us to be the same.

My product line began with project bags for makers. We pour decades of experience, days, weeks, sometimes years of our labor, and usually a huge amount of love into our handmade projects. We live with them as they grow and take shape, take them with us everywhere, and proudly show them off to all who will look. That process deserves to be honored. I want makers who use a WoolNeedleThread project bag to feel a little joy every time they pick up their project. I want to keep the precious work of their hands well protected. And I want them to feel confident stepping out into the world carrying their work.

But of course we carry things with us all the time, whether it’s a creative project or just our wallet and keys. Every time that we pick up a bag is an opportunity to bring a little of that same confidence and joy to our lives. Media, big box stores, and even high-end boutiques want to tell us what we should like and how we should look. What if instead we felt emboldened to choose our favorite, bright color? What if we felt like we could choose the pattern or design that spoke just to us instead of the one that everyone else has?

The desire to have something individual to me came to me one day years ago when I stepped into an elevator and the woman beside me said, “Nice bag.” We were carrying the same bag, with the same name on the front. I suddenly felt as beige as my mid-range designer bag. The straps had started fraying almost immediately and it wasn’t even particularly comfortable to carry. But it had that uninteresting office-appropriate look and that designer name, so I had thought it was the right choice. That day in the elevator I decided – never again.

I almost never make exactly the same bag twice. I combine materials and textures in different ways to make each one of a kind. I love working with unusual but functional, beautiful materials like hand-waxed canvas and Portuguese cork, and gorgeous fabrics from indie designers. As different as they are, every bag I make shares my commitment to quality crafts(wo)manship and functionality. I want your bag to be useful, to last, and to help you feel confident in your own inimitable style.

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

There’s still a divide between the respect for art and for craft. Art is revered while craft is too often undervalued. Even worse, the range of crafts that are so often disparaged are those traditionally practiced by women.

I don’t think a creative ecosystem can thrive until we as a society better understand and appreciate all kinds of craft and creative work. I believe this has to be built from the bottom up. We need to encourage creative expression in children, and to feel empowered as adults to make time for creative pursuits. We need to talk to our friends and family about craft, art, and handmaking and encourage a turn away from the throw-away fashions and race-to-the-bottom prices of big box stores. The business and economic practices that make ever more, ever cheaper clothing and accessories possible are antithetical to the values of handcrafting and artisanal work. I don’t suggest that everything we own has to be handmade or unique, and I recognize that personal finances play a big role in these decisions. But I do believe a lot of people have room in their lives for a change in their buying habits.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’m lucky in that I find almost every part of my work rewarding at least some of the time. I love stumbling across unusual or vintage fabrics or trims and thinking about how I might use them. I love trying color palettes outside my comfort zone and seeing that finished bag for the first time. I love playing with colors and textures as I plan a new bag, and the feeling when an idea for something new develops. I really enjoy helping people choose the perfect bag for them, and seeing the photos of them wearing or using it for the first time. I even sometimes enjoy the more mundane tasks because I get a real sense of satisfaction from handling a problem myself or developing a new skill on this long road of managing my own business.

I also really love the community I’ve built around my business. It’s a small group, but I so appreciate the other makers that I have real interactions with (beyond the usual social media comments), the fellow small-business owners that have supported me on this journey, and the customers who’ve come back again and again and whom I’ve gotten to know a bit. My day-to-day work is done alone, so I feel it’s particularly important to invest my time and energy into building those relationships.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.woolneedlethread.com
• Instagram: @woolneedlethread
• Facebook: @woolneedlethread
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/woolneedlethread
• Twitter: @WNT_Bags

Image Credits
Photos: Michelle Packer, WoolNeedleThread