Meet Laurie Freivogel of Kiku Handmade in Oak Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurie Freivogel.

Laurie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been creating ever since I was little – needlepoint, latch-hook rugs, always drawing. I knew I wanted to be an artist, and went to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, but it didn’t really teach me how to make a living as an artist (nor did it teach me anything about glass). My BFA is in drawing, with a strong coursework concentration in printmaking, which I loved. After college and moving back to Chicago, I no longer had access to a printmaking studio, so I satisfied myself with drawing and making hand bound books for awhile (I even sold them on a website that I coded by hand in 1994!), but my art got put on a side burner when we moved to Oak Park in 1997 and had our son in 1998.

My love of glass started when I bought a fused glass pendant at an art fair in the 1990s – it was the first time I had ever noticed fused glass. I was totally drawn in by the texture, the molten-liquid-turned-solid moment, the transparency of the vibrant turquoise balanced with the organic, opaque red inclusion. After our daughter was born in 2001, I quit my full time job at a computer consultancy to stay home with our two kids. Very soon, I found myself going crazy as an at-home mom with an art background and nothing to make. In the spring of 2004, I went to an art fair called DEPART-ment in the burgeoning indie craft movement that was growing in Chicago and had an epiphany: glass. I bought myself a small kiln, some books and glass, set up a studio in my basement and started experimenting. Soon enough, I was creating humdrum pendants, earrings and pins that were lovely, but unfulfilling. I needed a new direction.

About a year after, I learned the basics of glass fusing, I realized what I had been pining for – imagery and pattern. I had a small silkscreening setup in my studio already that I used mostly for fabric and thought maybe I could use it to incorporate my designs with the glass. I spent months researching and experimenting with materials and techniques until I figured out what worked. I knew I had found my niche and began working on my designs. My imagery and drawings are primarily inspired by pop culture, pattern and nature. I particularly love mid-century modern and Japanese design aesthetics, in fact the name “Kiku” means “chrysanthemum” in Japanese. Using fine enamels, I print with multiple screens onto layers of glass to create depth and, using my knack for color and composition, pair it with an amazing glass color palette.

Today, I have four kilns in my basement studio and mostly sell my goods wholesale to stores across the country, and I help to organize a small, women-focused holiday art fair at the Bell School in North Center called the Chicago Art Girls Pop-Up Shop. The Chicago Art Girls is a small group of professional women artists who have been getting together for years to share amazing meals and information about being a professional artist, from show tips to business information to instagram tutorials, and has helped me immensely in my own business. I feel lucky to be a part of a community of strong, creative women in such a non-traditional career.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a straight path. My first art fair, a sidewalk sale in Oak Park that I paid $25 to be in, I sold $20 worth of stuff. Granted I was in front of a vacuum shop a block away from the action, and put all my necklace-blobs on a highly patterned tablecloth in full sun. Lesson learned. I went on to do that DEPART-ment show, the Renegade Craft Fair and DIY Trunk show, for years until the economy tanked. I even went on to help organize DEPART-ment, which was volunteer run and a total blast but a LOT of work. In about 2008, I started doing more traditional art fairs, starting with Wells Street Art Fair, the One of Kind Show, Penrod, Art Fair on the Square and more, plus a little wholesale. It’s such a hard way to make a living, counting on good weather, finding childcare for an entire weekend and having my husband get off of work a day early, schlep to a show, hope it doesn’t rain (or worse), and hope that folks want to come buy what you’re selling. Little by little, I cut out shows and added in more wholesale, and started doing a big wholesale gift show called NY Now in 2011 and have switched my business to 95% wholesale and 5% retail art fairs. I am now down to 1-2 art fairs a year, plus my annual open studio in November in Oak Park.

My biggest struggles have been in the past two years. First was a very big, long story about the glass industry in the states revolving around environmental issues (from a very bad and misleading report in a local Portland paper), resulting in a couple of the big shops closing and my glassmaker, Bullseye Glass, not making or selling over 50% of their colors for roughly a year. I had to stockpile what colors I could get, and hope and pray that what I had lasted, or substitute colors. Not easy when you’re a production wholesale artist supplying stores with the designs they want! That is now behind us, and my next big struggle is just keeping up. I added my 4th (and last?) kiln in my now very hot basement studio last November, and can mostly keep up with orders. Protecting my hands from further damage from the work I do, a problem with every artist I know faces, is my main goal now.

Please tell us about Kiku Handmade.
My company is called Kiku Handmade. Naming things is not a skill of mine, I think every drawing I did in college was “Untitled”, but one day my husband, who spent a year or so in Japan, said the word Kiku and I knew it was perfect. Who on earth would remember my long last name of Freivogel? Kiku means chrysanthemum, and my logo is my and my husband’s chrysanthemum tattoos, so it’s very personal. It’s also short, sweet and easy to remember! 🙂

There are a lot of glass fusers out there making beautiful things, but what sets my work apart is the imagery. Screen printing on glass with glass enamel is still not widely practiced, in addition to all of the glass fusing equipment you need a screen print shop set up to burn the screens, so it’s a little less accessible for many. In addition to that, I have a couple of styles of imagery. My “full lines” where I make the design on everything from coasters to little dishes to serving pieces are a little more traditional and less quirky, like dahlias or cameras or koi fish – many of the designs are based in nature. I have a lot of fun designs like skulls and luchas and mermaids that I only do on coasters and little dishes and bowls, and then I have my Greetings From Your City series, featuring city skylines and landmarks like Chicago’s old Magikist neon sign. I love seeing someone come into my booth and say “Oh! I remember that sign!” My biggest selling series is my relatively new Icons Coasters line, which features pop-culture rock stars, authors, jazz and country singers, actors and general superstars (like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, for instance).

I’ve been fusing for 14 years, and screen printing on the glass for probably 13, so that’s what I’m best known for.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Too many to count! I spent a lot of time in the water (I love swimming), and a lot of time with my family at my grandma’s cottage in Lake Geneva. We went up every weekend. At the time, I hated to be left behind when the adults when out, now that I look back, spending time playing dominos with my grandma and her Swedish neighbors after a long day on the boat is a pretty great memory.

Pricing:

• Coasters are $15
• Catch-all dishes are $30
• Serving platters start at around $85
• Custom pieces run an extra $15-30

Contact Info:

• Website: kikuhandmade.com
• Email: laurie@kikuhandmade.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kikuhandmade/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kikuhandmade/

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.