We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shantel Sutter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Shantel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
As a child I always enjoyed crafting and being artistic. As an adult, I originally chose a medical career and helping people as my professional path.
I re-found my love for creating with my hands. By October 2018 I was preparing to learn how to sell my artwork and crafts regularly to try and make a business of it. Prior to all of that, I had never even thought that I would be capable of creating something beautiful enough to sell to someone. But wow? People want to buy my art? This is crazy.
Tragically, shortly later in November of 2018, a fire devastated the town I was living in. The fire killed 90 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. That day my family & I lost everything we had and ever owned, including all of the craft supplies that I had gathered to eventually open up my art business. Thankfully, we had escaped with our lives.
Being homeless in an instant while half of California was flooded with homelessness, we made a tough choice to go to Colorado to stay with family. Our amazing friends, family, and people that we didn’t even know rallied to help us rise from the ashes. Many amazing people donated craft supplies and home necessities to my sweet little family. We saw a little light at the end of the tunnel. We started completely over from scratch and we began to pick ourselves back up quickly. I started crafting again. Therapeutically, it helped me cope with everything that we had gone through.
After that I had ventured off into other crafts and eventually found my way to polymer clay. I officially opened my business in 2019 to be able to try and help have a steady income for my family as a stay-at-home-Mom. My clay work started selling. I was following my dreams and my path. As a stay at home mother, I was helping provide income for my family.
Shantel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I create with clay. There is a lot of science behind my art; color mixing, chemical reactions with polymer clay from using specific paints and glues to seal, and oven temperatures and times, etc.. From start to finish there are several processes with each clay project that may include, sculpting or cutting the clay to design, baking the clay to cure it, sanding or finishing to clean up the clay, then handpainting and sealing the clay to complete it.
Creating clay art is a huge learning process and there is alot to it that most people don’t realize. It takes so much trial and error, fails, experiments, learning curves with ovens, burned batches of amazing works, incorrectly curred batches that snap at a simple touch, ruining art while trying to seal it or preserve it after working hours on it, etc., etc., I’m still learning things daily. I’m a firm believer in: there is always something new to learn.
Over-all, it takes alot of guts to show up to a craft event presenting your hard work. You have to hold back the tears if you over hear an insult from someone looking at your art. They just dont know about the blood, sweat, and tears, yawns from many late nights trying to perfect every aspect of it all. I have had to learn to turn that frustration into something beautiful for others to admire. It’s completely magical.
I’d say my style is whimsical, nature, folklore and magic inspired. I make my own color recipes. I make earrings, other jewelry, decorated wooden boxes, wands, indoor fairy garden ornaments and decor, decorated glass jars, wall art, keychains, phone grips, and i have plans to create so so so much more.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I am resilient because I didn’t let a devastating tragedy provoke me from chasing my dreams.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of this all is the sparkle and the happiness in my children’s eyes when they see what their Mom has created and worked so hard on. The glistening look in their eyes says it all- as I talk about how I make my wands and that I can customize one specifically for them. Just as heartwarming, a grieving mother once asked me to help her commemorate her son by sculpting a tiny merboy sleeping in a seashell. Rest In Peace Triton ♡. I am so honored to be able to help people remember their loved ones in a little magical way.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
All photos are taken by Shantel Sutter (Fern Rising).