Today we’d like to introduce you to Owen Lartson.
Hi Owen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My work started when my mom was dying. I didn’t intend for it to be work at that point, I just needed something to keep my mind busy in the quiet moments between trying to help arrange affairs and everything else. I learned how to weave macrame knots, because I had one that was falling apart and needed a replacement, and at this time, on a whim, thought, “I wonder if I could make this myself?” When all was said and done with my mom”s funeral and I returned to Houston, I kept weaving more and more knots. I did so when alone, when out with friends, every moment of the day I had my hands free enough and sufficient space for my corkboard and pins and cord. My friends started asking me to make things for them, and insisted on paying me at a time when I was just giving them for free. Ample encouragement and being absolutely miserable at my day job prompted me to start charging regularly, create an Etsy store. From knots, I moved to working with resin for a time, and then I ultimately moved to making chainmail, and it’s my favorite medium so far. I have since expanded a bit more into casting pewter and candle-making, but chainmail remains my deepest love and the craft that I enjoy the most.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s definitely been a bumpy road. Very winding too. Things were slow in the start, and I wasn’t certain I could even make a paid hobby of this let alone a job. Then in early 2020 around the peak of covid, I was laid off from my job and had to slow down on school. To support myself I threw all of my weight behind this budding business, and for a time my online sales were enough to really give me hope. Since then it’s been a fluctuation—there were times when I had more work and more requests than I knew what to do with, and other times when not a cent would come to me and I had to desperately scrounge funds just to get groceries let alone supplies. Most of the struggles have been mundane things. Lack of space, tarriffs, recovering from homelessness still even after years of somewhat more stability. But I literally can’t stop what I’m doing, because I don’t only do it for money. Even when I’m not earning much, I’m making something. It feels good just to do so, and staves off the worry for a bit, haha.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I summarize my work as “Chainmail & Misc.” I specialize in weaving chainmail and would say at this point I am most known for it. Either that, or to people who have been following me for awhile I’m best known for weaving macrame knots. I’m most proud of my ability to learn these skills on my own, from scratch, for lack of anyone around to teach me and at a time when neither of these crafts had much attention on them. I don’t compare myself to others very often; what sets me apart is me. I have my mind and my experiences and my reasons for creating everything I create, and even people in the same medium have their individual experience and eye.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I am historically a very cautious person. I research everything before I do it, and often have time committing to a decision where there is no clear benefit. Risks, frankly, terrify me, and it is often only when I am lacking in any mundane options or have tried the same safe thing over and over and gotten tired of it that I leap into a risk like a dam bursting. The most major risk I took was not immediately looking for another day job when I was laid off. I knew I would be miserable, draining my energy for nothing, not even paid enough to justify suffering that much. So I stayed self-employed and have since poured every ounce of money and energy I have into my creative practice.
Pricing:
- Coin Purse Keychain: $60
- Maille de Barre Lighter Cover: $90
- Il Pagliaccio Neclace: $150
- Keep That On Me Keychain: $80
- Holy Hell Flail: $130
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.choirchain.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/choir.chain
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/choirchain/
