Visitors to the crafts exhibits at the 2011 Northwest Washington Fair weren’t the only ones who took notice of Margaret Nathon’s whimsical recycled-wool dolls, which earned her a best of class ribbon. Editors from Martha Stewart Living magazine came calling, too.
“I thought this has got to be a crank call,” laughs the retired grade-school teacher.
But the New York editor assured her it was for real. They were planning a story about helping kids put on a puppet show with a homemade cardboard stage and had noticed her felt puppets online. Nathon has marketed her puppets on the craft website Etsy since 2007.
The editors asked if Nathon could send some puppets for a photo shoot to go with their green and blue color scheme. “It was on a Thursday, and they asked if you can have them here on Monday,” says the crafter.
Margaret Nathon’s recycled-wool felt puppets and dolls are available at:
Anticipating reader interest in Nathon’s work, the editor asked her if she had some inventory on hand if orders started pouring in. When Nathon admitted she only had a few, the editor advised, “Well, get sewing! You need 100 puppets in case people want to buy them.”
Nathon recalls one of her daughters pitched in and they stitched up more than 100 puppets over the next two months.
The magazine photographed some for the story and then … “The editor said there was an executive decision and we’re not going to do the do-it-yourself section in the magazine anymore.” So they sent her puppets back.
It was disappointing, but Nathon, who grew up as a Wisconsin potato farmer’s daughter, came up with a plan B. She took some to the Whatcom Museum gift store and put the rest on Etsy. “They all sold,” she says. Plus, she had a fun plan for the profits: “I told my daughter, let’s go to Hawaii!” While it wasn’t a magazine spread, vacationing in an island paradise that winter was a memorable reward for their work.
“It was an honor to be considered by them, to know the quality was high enough,” says Nathon. Besides, “I just do it for joy.”
Nathon and her husband, a Boeing retiree, were avid fair fans when they lived in southern California. So it was only natural that they checked out the Northwest Washington Fair when they moved to Bellingham in 2004. Nathon dove into the fair spirit, volunteering at the WSU Whatcom County Master Gardeners’ booth and the Whatcom Weavers Guild wool show. “I like the way they landscape the fair, the way they keep it up so nice.”
“You need to go to the fair, it’s one of those things that’s just part of our heritage.”
“I really like the way the fair reaches out,” says Nathon, who did 4-H for about eight years as a child, showing vegetables and sewing projects. (She chuckles that she wasn’t in FFA but FHA – Future Homemakers of America – in high school.) “Whenever I talk to anyone who’s new here, telling people what not to miss, I say, you need to go to the fair, it’s one of those things that’s just part of our heritage.”
Nathon reels off a long list of what she enjoys at the fair. “I love to people watch. The different musical groups. I go through every barn and see all the animals.”
For snacks, she always beelines for the ice cream at the Whatcom County Dairy Women booth. “I just love that.”
Still, Nathon’s favorite fair fun remains the craft exhibits.
“I like to see what’s new. I can always zero in on someone who’s still doing colors from the old days. I love to be surprised by someone who takes the old colors and does it in a new way. I like to see the new cutting edge of crafting,” says Nathon, who is a member of Allied Arts of Whatcom County and exhibits these days in their annual six-week holiday show. She also donates her dolls for fund-raising auctions to non-profits such as the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center.
She values how the fair honors the tradition of handwork. “I think there are people like myself who cannot NOT make something. They have to have their hands going. I love that aspect of the fair.
“Personally, it’s the satisfaction of knowing that I can make this. I can buy a doll or a puppet, but if I make it there’s a sense of pride that I’ve done this. “I’m always thinking of a different way to do something or something I could try.”
Her advice to anyone who’s showing crafts for the first time? “Go to the library and whatever your craft is, look to see what’s out there and current. Then make sure your item has the wow factor, something that’s different, really unique.
“Take a chance, see what feedback you get. Don’t be afraid to put it in the fair. Give it a go!”