Interview by Kara Larson

Photography provided by Chip Addington

Conducted in collaboration with American Craft Council

How has your studio/production changed over the past month? Do you typically work from home?

About a year and a half ago, I moved my studio to my home. I used to have a shop in the Midway area of Saint Paul, and the rent just got crazy expensive, so I fixed up our basement enough to move home—and I’ve never been happier that I did that than I am right now. It’s made life a lot easier to be able to keep working without having to try to go somewhere. My level of anxiety would be so much higher if I was worrying about next month’s rent right now. It’s a scary time for a lot of folks, but I feel blessed that it’s a little easier when you have a shop at home.

I saw that you’re making masks as well as surgical caps. What was the impetus to make both products? How has it felt to switch production to these objects?

It’s been kind of a weird experience. I mean, all of this is weird. I was making a few masks to donate because folks need them, and we were doing a Zoom game night with some friends of ours, and one of them is a nurse at HCMC, and she’s like, “You know, the masks are going to be helpful for people, but one thing we really need right now but just can’t get because everybody is so swamped is surgical caps. So it would be super helpful if you could make us some of those.” I looked at different patterns and ended up trying a few and making my own based on what was working better. They would get batches of prototypes and then based on their feedback I would tweak things. And now I have a design that works and they’ve got quite a few of them. My wife is a physician’s assistant for Allina Health, so we gave a bunch to their clinic as well.

I would not have thought of making surgical caps if not for our friend, and honestly, I feel better making the surgical caps than I do the masks. I’m still making masks because people need them, but I find making the masks deeply unsatisfying because I know how much better an N95 works. So when I’m making a mask that I know is not as good as other options out there, that is kind of antithetical to my normal operating procedures. Usually if somebody is already making a better version of this, I don’t really want to make it, but until we get caught up with production enough worldwide for medical providers to be able to send N95’s to the rest of us, it’s kind of the best we have.

Have all of the caps and masks you’ve made so far been donated?

So far they’ve all been donated, but we’re going to start selling them next week. And we’re going to do a one for one setup, so buy one and one is donated. Or for every three masks, a surgical cap is donated, so we can keep the supply line going for helping folks as well as helping to pay for material.

Absolutely. You have to offset material and labor costs. Are you currently making any products from your regular Addington line?

Yeah, I’m still working on my normal product range. Before this hit, we were getting excited and geared up for the American Craft Show, which has been pushed back, but we’re still hoping when things open up again that we’ll be able to continue to make some sales. We plug away as we have time on our normal line of products. Like right now, I have about half a yard left of the fabric I use for the caps and masks, so I’ll finish those off later today. And then for the next few days while I wait for more of that fabric, it will be back to bags and backpacks and all of the normal stuff that we make.

How has all of this affected the rhythm of your process?

I feel like the rhythm has been pretty similar just because, again, working from home, it has been less of a shock to make changes. Unfortunately as you watch the bank account for the business drain, it’s nice to feel like, okay, I do have products on hand, so when things do open up, hopefully we’ll get a little bit of a bounce. And I think with Mother’s Day coming up and graduations, which are typically kind of big times for us, there’s still an opportunity to spark joy as we meet peoples’ more “normal” needs that are, in a lot of ways, a lot more fun, but less important in a crisis.

The latest project is a woodblock carved greeting card, and I was already playing with that process and making those, and since social isolation has come up, it was like, this could be a really fun way for people to stay connected, a joyful process for me, hopefully it’s a joyful process for those on the receiving end as well. I think it’s an important thing to focus on—it can be easy to stay in crisis mode and sort of glued to what’s happening and where the numbers are and things like that, so it’s nice to have a little bit of side focus once in a while doing something that feels both mundane and beautiful.

I think it’s so refreshing to see the creative exploration of makers outside of their craft. How does playing with other mediums and crafts reflect your personality or the way you make?

I think of so much of the brand as being a really small operation and coming out of the maker’s personality. So in that exploration time, it’s fun to look into a different part of my personality and what brings joy to me. And I think that’s reflected with the nature of the woodblock prints. I’m carving the [Lake] Superior shore, or islands I remember in the Boundary Waters, or just the beauty of houseplants. And I get to go through the process of carving the blocks, which is a fun exploration, and then printing, which is a really repetitive, but really cathartic process. It’s been a great way to get out and explore in a time where we can’t get out and explore. It’s been fun to feel that sense of travel and sense of escapism.

Thinking about your woodblock prints and your Addington goods, how does nature inform and inspire your work?

I think it starts on the inspiration side where being outside, being out in nature, is both energizing and fueling. It’s interesting because the base of my brand came from bags, and so much about bag-making is a response to nature. So much has been informed by being out in nature and being able to bring those supplies with you to experience the outside world either as recreation or because it’s how you make your living. There’s always that component of how nature informs design function. There’s one more step, especially with leather because it’s a natural material. It’s kind of like woodworking, where each different piece of wood, in this case, piece of leather, has a bit different character, different grain, so even when you’re making this thing that is informed by nature, you’re making it out of a natural product. It’s deep-seated into the process that you’re going through, which I really enjoy.

Your designs are both informed by and wholly functional in nature.

Yes, and then I think it goes to that third step of then being really considerate that what you’re doing is not being degrading to the natural world. That’s where you come into the sustainability side. We try to tackle that a couple different ways. The first one is, whatever the product is, trying to make it in a way that’s not going to be landfill. If it’s a bag, I do my best to make sure it’s repairable. And that’s a service I offer on any of the bags I sell. And luckily so far we haven’t had to do that, and we also try really hard to build it to last. It’s a question I’ve struggled with because I use almost entirely nylon in the bags, which is obviously not a natural product. It’s an oil-based plastic, but in a lot of the research I’ve done, it seems like the downside of nylon is balanced out or even outweighed by its longevity. It’s one of the few times the everlasting aspect of plastics works out for the better. This is one bag that will last so much longer than a cotton bag, that durability balances out the sustainability issue with its source.

Another strategy we use is trying to reduce as much waste as possible. I am careful in how I cut the pattern from the fabric to make sure our cutoffs are super minimal. Especially with bag liners, two cuts of a ballistic nylon roll will get me two Flight Tote liners and the remainder left on the roll is the exact width of a tote liner. It feels good that just a handful of fabric is the only waste from this 80 pound roll of 40 yards of nylon.

I am also careful and particular about where we source leather from because traditionally leather can be very bad for the environment, particularly with water. It’s a pretty water heavy process. It has a huge pollution impact if it’s not being responsibly done. So as much as possible, we work with North American and European tanneries because they have a lot more regulations and a lot more eyes on how they’re doing that.

A good example of that is Wickett & Craig, which is the tannery where all of our strap leather, backpack, and bag straps are from. It’s a tannery in Pennsylvania and one of the last veg-tan tanneries in the U.S., which means that the tannery uses a vegetable-based product—they use tree bark. And that is what the leather is soaked in, rather than a more modern tanning method which is usually using chromium salts and some other heavy metals, which are less ideal. They also have a water treatment plant on-site, so as it uses all this water for the leather, it’s then processing that water and either reusing it in their factory or it’s going back into the river they’re next to cleaner than when they got it out. For most of our products, we’re able to source leather from that kind of tannery where we know it’s not a developing world tannery that tends to be a lot harder on its workers and the environment.

They’re one of the only tanneries that will work directly with small makers, which is super nice, because right now I’m working on sourcing all of my thinner leather that I use for clutches and such from S.B. Foot [Tanning Company], which is Red Wing’s tannery in Minnesota, but their minimum order is like 5,000 sq. ft., which is a ton of leather. I’m not at the point where I can order directly from them, so I have to go through other distributors to get their leather. It’s funny because the place I usually buy from now is in Canada, so I’ve got this leather that’s tanned 50 miles from me that I buy from a guy in Canada because I can’t buy it directly.

It’s tough when you’re a small maker because even when you find an amazing fabric or leather, you still can’t get it because you’re not at that buying threshold. I have a huge amount of respect for Patagonia, and they’ve done some really great things for sustainability, and because they have the buying power they can go to a mill and order this fleece or this nylon technical fabric, and ask for it to be recyclable material, and they have the buying power to make that happen. So hopefully someday we’ll be at that point, or hopefully the rest of the industry will shift so that becomes the norm.

Along the same vein, I’m interested in how the pandemic is shifting the way we buy things and support local business. What are your thoughts around this?

It’s a funny thing because that has affected what I do directly. You know, I would never be making surgical caps if the normal places that make surgical caps had them in stock. I am never going to out-price someone who is having them manufactured in Bangladesh. My cost of materials is more expensive than what you could usually buy a surgical cap for on Amazon. So it’s a really funny situation where I’m kind of the choice of last resort for that. I hope when they experience it, they think, “Oh, there is a quality difference,” and maybe that will inform future decisions as well.

But I also think there is a growing awareness of where this stuff comes from. I think this is one of the first times that most consumers are really considering supply chain because one of the masterful things about the ‘just in time’ supply chain management that has happened over the last 20 years in the rest of the economy is it seems super seamless. It’s always there, and increasingly “there” is my front porch when I want it. So I’m hoping that this moment inspires the idea of, “I can wait a week to get this thing shipped to me if it’s something that is better quality.”

One hope for me is that patience trickles down and people make those buying decisions, and they, through this process, start looking for those supply chain things and looking at the invisible line that happens before they get the product in their hands.

Totally. Convenience and price and immediacy seem to take precedence in buying trends. I hope this can be a point of reflection for a lot of folks when thinking about the impact of their choices on local small businesses and artists.

I think it’s such an interesting perspective being in the maker community because a lot of us are paying attention to that. One thing that this has definitely done is brought up the visibility of makers in a lot of ways because all of a sudden people are looking to makers for things like masks or surgical caps in a way that they never would have before, and I think that will have a longterm effect. Like, “Do you remember that one time in a pandemic five years ago, who made that cap? There’s some local guy who makes that—we can find this locally.” And I just hope people remember that it was the small makers who were trying really hard to help in a weird time to fill gaps. I hope people will see that and remember that.

And I think because the maker community is so uniquely supportive, it makes sense that everyone is stepping up. It’s been super inspiring.

Yes, one thing I love about the maker community is how supportive it is. I do not feel like I’m in this alone at all. I think that’s a super helpful and healthy experience to be able to see that. All these small businesses really worked hard to try to make peoples’ lives better in a tough spot, and I just hope that remains visible.

How should people go about supporting local businesses and makers right now?

It’s actually been an interesting experience for me and my wife to think about how we spend our money. It’s always a great excuse to say, “I’m buying this latte to support local business.” And that’s usually just an excuse to buy a $5 coffee, and now it’s like, “No this is real—on Saturday, we need to go to Bootstrap to get some coffee because they’re having a hard time right now.” Just thinking really realistically about how these companies mean a lot in my life, please don’t make me go back to buying Starbucks lattes, I need really good coffee, and the people to make it happen in my life.

One thing that a lot of makers are probably missing that I know I’m missing is interaction with people. One of our favorite events is the American Craft Council show and that’s partly because it’s a great way to bring in a little revenue, but the bigger thing is that it’s such a good experience to connect with the people who are going to be using the items. There’s this great moment from the maker like, “I’m so proud; look at this thing I made.” And they’re curious and excited, and you get to talk to them about how they’re going to use this thing. You see how all this work you put into something is going to light up somebody’s life. That’s something that’s a lot easier to miss right now because we’re not having those kinds of interactions.

See more of Chip’s work here: https://www.addingtonco.com/

Learn more about American Craft Council here: https://craftcouncil.org/

Chip Addington of Addington Co.