by joe nickell
photos by michael gallacher and linda thompson

Like many of her fellow art school graduates, CarolLynn Lapotka arrived in adulthood unsure of how to transform her passions into a profession.

From her youngest years, she knew that creativity was in her blood. At the same time, she was strongly motivated by environmental concerns and the kind of pragmatism that comes from growing up on a family farm in Wisconsin.

“As a kid, we didn’t have a lot of money,” she says. “So I always wanted to try to figure out the next business idea to better my life and have a steady source of income. In general, I just have a creative mind and I need some place to put some of this energy. I’m constantly thinking of new stuff and crazy ideas all the time.”

In 2005, one of those “crazy ideas” began to take form. After reading an article in a magazine about how to make skirts out of old T-shirts, Lapotka took up needle and thread and began sewing. After producing about 30 of the skirts, she set up a booth at a holiday craft fair.

Thus began a venture that has evolved over the years into not only a full-time job for Lapotka, but a small enterprise that employs four part-time workers in her studio in St. Ignatius.

Julie Mullette browses the annual MADE Fair hosted by the Zootown Arts Community Center showcasing local and regional artwork.

In addition to those skirts, Lapotka now produces children’s clothing, headbands, leg warmers and other clothing items – as well as custom-bound journals and other products – which she sells at consignment stores in Missoula, Billings, Whitefish and several other cities around the region.

Each item is handmade, each one unique. And almost all of the primary materials she uses are recycled.
For her, it is something of a dream job come true.

“I am making my living doing creative things now,” she said, her voice filled with wonder and bemusement. “I never thought I’d be able to say that or do that, or I thought I’d probably at best be doing it for someone else.

“I think it’s a reflection that, in general these days, people are yearning for something made locally and made in a way that’s soft on the environment and that is unique,” she added.

While no objective research exists to support Lapotka’s claim, one needn’t look far to see that shops around western Montana are brimming with locally made functional crafts, household items, clothes and foods.

Moreover, as one examines the wares at outlets such as the Missoula Artists’ Shop, Upcycled, Home Resource’s ReVAMP shop and others, it is clear that these aren’t your grandma’s doilies and afghans.

Today’s craft-making entrepreneurs are more likely to be young adults and even teenagers who, facing unstable prospects in the job market, have chosen a self-directed path of creativity to make ends meet. Not surprisingly, they are choosing to make items that reflect the lifestyles and detritus of this modern age, from bowls made out of semi-melted LP records, to belt-buckles made out of bicycle gears, to earrings made out of parts stripped from VCRs and computers.

“Throughout history, when times have been toughest, people do things with their family and do creative things to make money,” said Lapotka. “With the way things are in this economy now, it just makes sense that people would look for a way to make money that’s more personally fulfilling.”

Perhaps nowhere is this broad-based movement more readily evident in Missoula than at Upcycled, a relatively new shop located on Missoula’s Hip Strip. Sandwiched between the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center and the Silk Road Restaurant, the tiny store practically overflows with funky craft items, all handmade in Montana, and all employing at least 70 percent recycled materials.

Kay Langland, a longtime photographer and copper artist, said the store’s inspiration came from a simple recognition of the exploding community of young, local craftspeople trying to make a living (or at least a supplemental income) through creative reuse of discarded materials.

“I think a lot of people today are realizing that it’s an exciting challenge to reverse the creative process and say, ‘I’ve got these interesting materials, what can I do with them?’ ” said Langland. “It’s a great way to get the creative juices going, and it’s good for the environment in the process.”

Indeed, Langland credits the green and buy-local movements as primarily responsible for the resurgence of craft markets across the country.

“As a world, we’re more focused on our energy use, our footprint that we’re making,” said Langland. “Years ago, when people handmade things, it was more a stigma that they couldn’t afford to buy things. They made things out of necessity. Now, people are doing it because it reduces our footprint, it’s interesting, exciting, it’s something to talk about. And when you recycle, almost everything is unique.”

CarolLynn Lapotka echoed that sentiment.

“The word ‘handmade’ was almost a bad thing when I was younger,” she said. “But now that has totally flipped: Things made in big factories aren’t seen as being high quality or good for local economies anymore. It’s a flip in mentality of the process of consumption.”

At Upcycled, popular items include Langland’s jewelry and artistic photographs – the latter printed on scrap pieces of copper and mounted on other reclaimed and recycled materials – as well as wallets and belts made by shop co-owner Donovan Peterson out of recycled rubber inner tubes. Altogether, the shop represents the work of some 78 craftspeople, some of them as young as 14 years old.

“I grew up on a farm in Illinois, and I think of all the things my parents kept and recycled – everything from tinfoil to pieces of machinery,” said Langland. “It’s not a new concept, but I think there’s definitely a new appreciation for products that creatively reuse things that people normally throw away.”

While consumer attitudes have clearly contributed to the resurgence of handmade items in modern economies, realities of the job market have an equally important role – particularly in Montana, where many young, skilled and eager workers find themselves unable to find employment in their chosen vocations.

Such was the case for Iris Estell, a 26-year-old Montana native who spent several years studying culinary arts and later working as a pastry chef in the Seattle area. When Estell became pregnant last year, she decided to move back to Montana to have her child. But once here, she had trouble finding employment that adequately suited her skills and fit her schedule.

So last March, Estell struck out on her own, whipping up handmade, small-batch caramels, which she sells via the online craft site Etsy.com.

“I started doing this to get some extra spending money,” said Estell, whose products range from simple chocolate caramels to morsels spiced with chipotle chilies and other flavors.

Estell said that the small operation fits perfectly with her current lifestyle, which includes juggling a part-time job, a five-month-old son, and classes at the College of Technology in Missoula.

“I do this mostly just whenever I have a little bit of extra time, a lot of evenings and weekends and bits here and there,” she said, noting that her candies are made-to-order. “I use organic and local ingredients whenever I can, which I think makes the flavor a lot better and appeals to more people.”

Many observers credit Etsy.com with a significant role in the explosion of the craft economy across the country. At the site, small-scale craftspeople can advertise their goods in a marketplace designed to provide shoppers with easy access to unique items – and personal connections to the people who make them.

For Joshua Marceau, a Hamilton resident and doctoral student in biomedical sciences at the University of Montana,  Etsy.com served as a turning point, of sorts, in what had previously been a hobbyist fascination with silversmithing.

Marceau, who grew up on the Flathead Reservation, first began dabbling in the craft about five years ago, while taking a class at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.

“I was really into chemistry at the time, and it turned out that my chemistry professor there also taught the silversmithing class,” he said. “I like working with torches and hammers and drills – I’m kind of a tool junkie – so it just fit my personality and turned into something that I enjoyed doing for relaxation and as a creative outlet in my spare time.”

Marceau followed his interest as purely a hobby for quite some time, buying his own tools along the way and producing jewelry for friends and family, and to give as Christmas gifts.

Then his wife stumbled upon Etsy.com, and suggested that Marceau set up a “shop” at the site.

Since then, he has kept himself quite busy producing rings and other jewelry, much of it custom-made to the specifications of people who find him through Etsy.com.

“A lot of people find me through Etsy and then ask me to do something particular for them,” he said, noting that he has shipped his work across the country and to customers in France, Australia and elsewhere. “It’s a great way to make those connections all over the world.”

While Etsy.com serves as the online hub for those engaged as buyers and sellers in the craft movement, many local shoppers have begun to structure their holiday shopping around a single event: the Holiday Made Fair.

Started by Lapotka and a handful of other craftspeople in 2007, the MADE Fair has evolved into one of the largest and most diverse fairs of its type in this part of the country. This year, more than 175 artists and craftspeople submitted applications for booth space at the holiday fair, which will take place at the Holiday Inn Downtown at the Park on Dec. 11. (A separate, summertime MADE Fair has also drawn large crowds to Caras Park in recent years.)

Lapotka said that the range of vendors and the size of crowds that have attended past MADE Fair events is a testament both to the boom in handmade products generally, but also to the Missoula community’s love for the local, the quirky, and the hand-made.

“There’s some crazy, amazing talent in Missoula,” she said. “People seem to love coming to the MADE Fair because they get to see all this original work, they see their friends, they can share their ideas. We’ve had just such amazing support. It’s really gratifying.”

Joe Nickell is a Missoulian reporter. He can be reached at (406) 523-5358 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Michael Gallacher is a Missoulian photographer. He can be reached at (406) 523-5270 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Julie Mullette browses the annual MADE Fair hosted by the Zootown Arts Community Center showcasing local and regional artwork.