As the sun sets Monday in the Teter lounge, Mackenzie Conner frantically sifts through twirls and twines of yarn. After she knits and purls her last stitch, she sighs in relief with a sweet smile that stretches from lock to lock of her blonde hair while gazing at her finished works scattered in disarray around her.
This scene is all in preparation for the next day’s IMU Student Craft Fair in the IMU Frangipani Room. This Union Board-sponsored event invites students to capitalize on their talents through individual display tables that feature on-sale items.
“I became a part of it when I received an e-mail from Sheila Maben, the advisor for apparel merchandising. I sent in an application saying what I wanted to sell and after that they just told me that they saved me a space in the room,” Conner said. “It was really simple.”
As a lover of arts and crafts, Conner dabbles in any hobby that can be found within the aisles of Joann Fabric and Craft stores. As her round blue eyes search for the brightest color of yarn or an eye-catching paint color, her cart fills with items that will be molded into something that reflects her own persona each time she visits.
As a young girl, she thrived in her art classes and continued exploring different ways to express herself as she grew. She learned to sew from her grandmother, who was a seamstress, and over the years picked up knitting and crochet.
“It was just a hobby for a long time until I started selling my things to make a little money,” Conner said. “This year, after I decided I didn’t want to major in psychology anymore, I settled on Apparel Merchandising. I think it’s a really good fit for me.”
She started selling small things like handmade polymer clay charms in the shapes of breakfast food and cartoon characters last year. Her crocheted headbands and scarves have given her the most profit with their popularity in the fall and winter seasons.
“Mackenzie has always been very into crafting and blogging about her work. She is always knitting or crocheting in the lounge, or like right now, she is painting a chair for an art project,” said Haley Nelson, best friend and Teter floormate to Conner. “Her blog and all of her art work is so original and well done. I do buy from her often because everything is made of quality material and I would recommend her work (especially her winter headbands) to anyone!”
In 2010 she started her own blog called Birdfriend documenting all of her work. She sells all of her work on this site as well as featuring it as a page on Facebook in hopes to gain momentum as an artist/business-owner.
Conner is also very involved within the Retail Studies Organization at IU, which helps students network within the fashion industry, and the website www.hercampus.com , which enables students from college campuses to report and write about the popular trends and topics on campus. These extracurricular activities allow Conner to promote her business at IU as well as provide a successful path for her to follow within her personal business goals.
“I find RSO to be very useful because of the volunteering and events that I can take part in, as well as hearing all kinds of inspirational speakers. I love leaving a meeting after hearing an IU alumnus talk about how she got to where she is now,” Conner said. “As for HerCampus, I enjoy it because of the experience with writing I can get. It helps me reach a different audience and gives me experience in writing about fashion.”
“She has a really great work ethic and is always ready to help at every HerCampus meeting,” said Courtney Kabbes, IU campus correspondent to www.hercampus.com. “She’s dedicated but in a gentle way. All of her stuff is really cute. Her work reflects her personality a lot.”
Since Conner works on most of her art in public areas, others have seen and been inspired to begin creating their own items. When Julie Byers met Conner in high school they started out as friends and classmates. As Byers got to know Conner more, she saw what Connor could create with a simple needle and yarn and wanted to do the same.
“I consider her as somebody to learn from. When I see something I want to do, but am unsure how, she explains,” Byers said. “I do not sell my items but maybe one day I would like to.”
As for Conner’s work, she is inspired by the work of artist Amy Butler who has her own fabric line and also designs purse and accessory patterns for other people to sew. She has expanded to designing coordinating yarns and scrapbooking papers.
“Her designs are beautiful and I love how her company combines crafts and fashion,” Conner said. “I would really like to do something like that of my own.”