Makers Market At The Point Series Three
The episode starts out with Aidan Fraser, the owner and designer behind Luster Hustler, who is a potter who specializes in taking female body forms and turns them into art — functional and sculptural.
“I took my first clay class at seven years old and sort of ever since then clay has been in my life on and off. I realized it was my passion in high school, when I took a ceramics class and realized that I remembered everything from when I was seven. So that was a cool realization for me. So since then, I took some formal classes in ceramics and sculpture in college, but I have a lot of experience, just life experience with clay and sculpture, and art. So in March of 2020, during the lockdown, I started making pieces up in my kitchen counter and selling them on an Instagram page and it did really well. So last November of 2020, I decided to do this full time,” said Aidan.
Aidan Fraser with one of her pieces of art.
Aidan has a passion and appreciate for the female body as she encourages women to not shun away from expressing themselves.
“My work really focuses on the female form, because that's sort of just what happened. My work is political and I didn't necessarily set out to make political work, but it is the women's body is, you know, the center for a lot of controversy and political talk and my work really is a homage to the women who have supported me to get me where I am today. I've had a lot of wonderful men in my life as well. But I think that my true safety net has always been women. I think that a lot of women feel that way. So that's sort of, you know, an homage to them. But it's also a physical representation of my journey towards self love, and body positivity and self acceptance. That's something that resonates a lot with other women, and it's something constant and ever fluctuating. I don't think that I'll ever lose that part of my design and my message. It just immortalizes women in their true form. So I focus on like, the real parts of their body, I use gold luster to accentuate the pubic hair and scars and things that in, you know, in social media, or just media in general is literally blurred out… I focus on the parts of women that have typically been shunned,” said Aidan.
Aidan crafts funtional and sculpure art forms and she loves seeing her favorite pieces being bought by her customers. Each piece tells a story and the body form she leans towards creating is typically in a relaxed pose.
“Because my work is focused on the nude form, people often don't really know how to compliment it, because they're complimenting something that isn't typically beautiful. Air quotes. So I've heard my favorite compliment is when women will say, Hey, that looks like me. Like, I see some similarities here. They're sort of like, joking, but also they're not. So I think that the reason people are really attracted to my work is because not only is it beautiful to look at, it's gold and shiny and, and pretty, but it's real it shows real bodies. There's not a lot of work that's doing that. My sculptural work is a little more obviously, real and my functional work is chunky ladies — curvy with small boobs, or no boobs, or whatever. So the functional stuff is a little more whimsical, and functional work always is easy for people to understand. So it's sort of bridges the gap between sculptural, which may be too much for people to take, and it might be too much like art. So the functional work is kind of there to sort of soften the blow of what we're talking about and looking at,” said Aidan.
Maine is a big part of Aidan’s life as she grew up here and the community has helped mold her into the entrepreneur she is today.
“I'm from Maine, I grew up and I was born and raised in Darmariscotta, which is a small mid-coast town up the coast from Portland about an hour. I went to high school there, I went to college in Portland here at the University of Southern Maine, which allowed me also to do a semester in London, at Kingston University, which was awesome. I am so proud to be a Mainer. I love it here. It's beautiful. People are friendly. I've sort of been integrated into the arts communities from a young age. So that's a very small and supportive community. That really has led me to be an artist now. You know, my family members or artists. My school teacher, my ceramic teacher in high school is a world renowned ceramicist. It just sort of happened. I never really realized how many different connections and how many different networking opportunities I've had until now. When it's all coming together. Like all the skills that I've learned throughout literally my entire life I'm putting to use right now to start my own ceramics business,” said Aidan.
The second guest on this episode is Britt Swett who is the owner and founder of Birch & Grey Co. Britt is a full-time attorney and started a side gig to fill a niche, a niche of taking the everyday stress and squeezing it out into all-natural aromatherapy dough.
“It's a cross between a stress ball and play dough. They're designed to be played with and help people relax and they're full of essential oils and natural ingredients. It's just a great thing to play with while you're sitting at your desk or to relax,” said Britt.
Britt launches different scents each season to give folks a unique natural dough experience. From pine in the winter to grapefruit in the summer, she loves to play around with the scents and encourages feedback from her customers.
My products include cream of tartar, olive oil, and all natural lotion. As well as the aromatherapy oils and all natural pieces of each scent. So rose petals, lavender. The crafting process really started with me and continues to start with me developing the scents and determining like, what scents I want and how I get all those natural pieces of ingredients,” said Britt.
Britt sources her ingredients in the US and she finds that her customers are enjoying her dough while working from home.
“Some people pull it apart. I have people that like to roll it up into individual little balls, and then combine them early. Anyway, you can play with dough and be totally imaginative. My partner will get headaches and chills. She'll be so embarrassed that I said this. But she likes to puts it in a flat pancake, and then we'll put it over her eyes,” said Britt.
Britt will be expanding her product line to include salts and other bath care products. She enjoys the community of entrepreneurs she surrounds herself here in Maine as they have helped her with this expansion.
“It's a beautiful place to live. I feel like it's the most beautiful place I've ever lived and it's the kind hearted, thoughtful people that live here. My boss at my full time job will always say a Mainer will help you with anything and give you the shirt off their back…I feel like it's a community of really hard working people. I love that mentality and that entrepreneurial spirit,” said Britt.