Artist Showcase - Papacho Creations

Welcome to another Artist Showcase, where we select an Etsy artist to feature.  This week's artist is Gwenaël Petiot and his shop is Papacho Creations.  Petiot is a macramé artist from Paris, France. Macramé is an antic art using only knots. Macramé can be made with different kind of cords, cotton, hemp, and polyester and be mixed with beads, gemstones or even leather.

Azurite Macramé Bracelet

Here is Petiot's story...

In 2007, I decided to quit my job in the television industry and travel around South America for three months. The first time I saw someone doing macramé was in Caracas, Venezuela. The man made me a simple bracelet, I was really impressed he did it only by making knots. I stayed in this part of the world more than 4 years and to make some money while traveling, some local friends from Peru and Argentina taught me how to work with cords and I started selling my creations in the streets of Chile, Bolivia, and Colombia.

Multicolored Flower Macrame Necklace

When I returned to Paris in 2011 to sell my creations at the summer street market, the partner of Anne Valérie Hash, a French haute couture designer, bought me several creations. Hash loved them and with three weeks until her runway show for the Paris Fashion Week, she asked me to collaborate on a number of pieces. The collection debuted at Le Jeu de Paume, in front of the Champs-Elysées. Six months prior I was selling my bracelets for a few dollars a piece in a little village in the mountains of Cuzco, Peru, in order to pay for my next train ticket.

Multicolored Flowers Macrame Earrings

Being able to explore the world while working on my craft is what makes keeping my business small and handmade imperative. Thanks to the online selling, I can be free because I can work from every place I travel to. I just need a few stones, threads, a camera, and a portable computer. Life might be easier, money-wise, if I keep working in the fashion world, but I really think that liberty has no cost.

Multicolored Friendship Bracelets

To get this liberty and enough sales on Etsy, you have to fill your shop with new and originals creations that cannot be found in other shops. You have to be different or at least have your own touch and be very careful about your work details and finish.

Macramé Multicolor Wristband Bracelet

 

Ammonite Macramé Bracelet

Thank you Gwenaël for sharing your story with us.  If you would like to see more of Gwenaël , check out his Facebook page.

Next week we'll select another Etsy artist to feature.  If you would like to be considered, just drop Zoica or myself a note via Etsy convo and we'll take a look.

Thanks for stopping by...

Until next time,