Interview with a Maker: Kristin Walker of Twin Ravens Press

Kristin is the owner, designer and printer behind Twin Ravens Press. She's a vendor at many of our shows and will be at the Nov. 22 and Dec. 13th shows.

Meet Your Maker (MYM): Describe what you make and how you got your start.
Kristin Walker (KW): I design and print custom wedding invitations, birth announcements, shower invitations, Bar & Bat Mitzvah invitations, menus, programs, business stationery and business cards, greeting cards, letterhead, small hand-bound books, calendars... you name it! All of my work is designed either on paper or in a computer program like Adobe Illustrator, then printed on an antique 1912 Chandler & Price Letterpress.

I studied photography, graphic design and printmaking in college and knew that I wanted to eventually be an independent or studio artist as a career when I graduated. I spent some time working odd jobs and applying to work in studios outside of Eugene and when my job applications turned up fruitless, I decided to start TRP. I continued working my side jobs for a while until at one point I realized I was making more money and enjoying myself more when I was doing my own work and working directly for others. At that point I quit my day job and started running Twin Ravens Press and developing my own work further, full-time.

MYM: Is this your largest source of income or do you have another job?
KW: Twin Ravens Press is my largest and only source of income. It was scary making the leap from having this as a side job to a full-time one, but I'm totally glad that I did!

MYM: Any advice to someone about making the leap from hobby crafting to selling?
KW: My biggest piece of advice would be to make sure you are totally excited and passionate about what you're making. If you aren't
passionate about what you do, it's really hard to convince other people that they should be excited about it!

Once you have the excitement/passion thing down - network, network, network!! The more people you know and the more people you can contact about what you do, the more likely you are to make sales and get a steady or regular stream of clients. Always make sure that you're doing it because you love it though! If you don't love it, it's really hard to sell it!

MYM: Have you had any big breaks? How did they happen?
KW: About a year into owning and operating Twin Ravens Press, I was hired to design and print a custom wedding invitation set for a couple who had been accepted to blog for WeddingBee.com. Her pseudonym is "Mrs. Cherry Pie", if anyone is curious. I didn't think much of it at the time, but after working with this particular client, I discovered that WeddingBee has quite the following. "Mrs. Cherry Pie" wrote several glowing reviews on WeddingBee about working with me and about her invitations and I got several subsequent custom jobs as a result. Doing her stationery suite led to more custom jobs for other "bees" as well as for other brides who were reading the site. This really helped me launch my career into a more nation-wide and international marketplace. Since then I have been hired by couples across the country and around the world to do work for weddings, as well as by other folks who need business stationery, personal stationery or other custom paper goods designed and printed. I feel pretty lucky!

MYM: Where can we find you online?

KW: Currently you can see and read about all the different types of work that I do (custom, greeting cards, calendars, invitations, business stationery, etc.) on my blog. Twin Ravens Press also has a facebook page (Twin Ravens Press) and an etsy site. I am currently working with a web developer who is working on a site design for www.twinravenspress.com and it should be up and running in a couple of weeks!

MYM: Any further info or comments?

KW: I gladly welcome people in the area who are interested in studio tours to come by and see my shop! It's best to e-mail or call in advance, but I'm glad to show my shop, my work, etc. to anyone who wants to come by and see it!

Also, it makes me feel like a total nerd, but I keep a large world map in my studio that I put pins in for every place I've ever sold a greeting card to, or for every place where someone has lived that I've done custom printing for. I currently have pins in 42 U.S. States, and sixteen different countries. Whenever I'm feeling unmotivated or worried that maybe I didn't make the right decision, I look at that map and think, "Wow... I've gotten to do some pretty amazing things for some pretty amazing people. This is pretty cool!" Sometimes, you need little things like that to make you remember why you got into this in the first place.