Welcome to the Muggles Market Spotlight for 2018! Today, we are delighted to announce the addition of new artisan Pretty Clever Words to our third annual Muggles Market at this year’s Geek Gala. Laura Kasperlik (also known as Lulu) took a few minutes to answer some questions about her business and general geekery.
- What kinds of items will you be selling at this year’s Muggles Market?
I make and sell everything in my product lines, and they are all pretty things with clever words! From home decor (painted canvas word art and banners, vintage-style silkscreened felt pennants and pillows, and silkscreened framed prints), to accessories (shirts, tanks, canvas totes and zip bags), to the geeky and sublime (sarcastic hoop art and wooden pointy directional finger signs…whew. sounds like a lot..). Everything I make has words or quotes or punny goodness. Words have power. - How did you first get started making these things?
It’s been an evolution certainly – this is my phase three career, after roles in healthcare and international HR. After leaving corporate life, I knew that I wanted to be in the creative, handcrafted world for my next challenge, so I started in the chippy/repurposed/painted furniture genre. And it was fun! There are no mistakes in that world – a lot of happy accidents, and I learned much about letting go and finding creative purpose, especially after the buttoned-up worlds in which I’d previously worked. However much I loved it though, I kept coming back to my passion. I love reading – and knew that I had to work with both words and art.
- What has been one of your favorite projects to work on?
Two disparate items come to mind – the canvas word art and the wooden pointy finger signs. The canvas word art is my passion. Layers of paint and paper and varnish and handwritten words (of course!) just make me so happy to create. The wooden pointy fingers have been fun and colorful! Whether the locations are real or are straight out of our favorite magical school series or trendy shows and movies, I enjoy having a relatively small pallet on which to create with fonts and words and paint. It’s a joyful thing. - What else can you tell us about yourself?
Sarcasm really is how I hug. I love quick witted friends and quirky, imperfect family members. I’m prone to crying at grocery store ads about family dinners. Due to the visual nature of them, I could sneak around on Instagram and Pinterest allll day.
Mr. Pretty Clever (my husband Mike) is my VP of Logistics and Moving Stuff – also car loading, setup, hydration and snacks. Mmmm..cannot forget that he ALWAYS remembers to put gas in both vehicles, so I gave him a promotion and added VP Fleet Maintenance to his title. - So this year’s Geek Gala theme is “Gears and Ghouls” and focuses on steampunk and day of the dead cosplay. If you could have one body part cybernetically enhanced or replaced, what would you choose, how would you want it changed, and why?
I’d like to say my heart (So I could maybe live a very long time.) or my brain (I’ve always wanted to be smart as well as a smarty-pants.) or my eyes (Hey, glasses since the age of 8.) Really, I love working with my hands so much, that I would have cybernetic fingers that are strong enough to act as hammers and drills and paintbrushes AND have motor skills so fine that I could thread a needle with the brush of a finger.
- Check out their website at: Pretty Clever Words
And make plans to come visit them on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at this year’s Geek Gala
