Amanda, the founder of Fortuneknot Designs, specializes in creating wearable works of art from painters like Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Renoir, and more.
In this interview, she shares the most pressing questions she’s had as the owner of a creative business that is still in its first year, and how challenging it is to make an impact on social media as a newcomer.
We also discussed pricing, why the economy is the biggest challenge for creators today, and her diagnosis, which helped her hone her craft in a way that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.
When did you start your small business, and how did it come about?
I’ve been crocheting for a while, but it has only been about six months since I started my business, Fortuneknot Designs. I’m just now starting to get off the ground and make some progress.
What gave you the idea to fuse crocheting with fine art?
It’s going to sound really cliché, but it did just come to me one day where I thought to myself, “Well, why couldn’t I do that?”. Because it would just be crocheting rows, and I would just be color-blocking each stitch in each row. So why couldn’t I make the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer?
So, I did it one day, and my boyfriend was like, “You need to sell these things. These are really good!” Then I did another one, Sunflowers by Van Gogh, and my friend was like, “I wanna buy that.”
When you decided to turn crocheting into your creative business, what were your first questions?
My first question was, how am I going to do my taxes? Do I need an LLC, or do I just need a DBA [“doing business as”]? Do I have my own Social Security number as my business and my EIN [employer identification number]? How do I get clients? What if I’m really bad at this?
I am a chronic overthinker, so any little bitty question you could think of was bouncing around my head at a hundred miles an hour, stressing me out all the way, because I don’t know anything about this stuff. This is my first business. I’m totally new to this, and I’m just trying to fake it till I make it, just like everybody else.
Do you have any specific plans about where you would like to take your business?
I have a few ideas. One idea was suggested from a comment on my TikTok account. They said, “Why don’t you make an ebook?” And I thought, that’s an amazing idea. So, eventually, I want to make an ebook of all of the tapestry designs that I do, so you can make the tapestries, too.
I want to open my own art gallery, make all of the tapestries, and put them on the wall so people can go: “I like that one. I want to wear that one.” Then they can write their name down and all of their information, so I can work with them to take that painting off the wall and put it on their back.
I also want to sell my patterns and have maybe a waiting list of people wanting to buy the finished pieces. But I think that’s a little far off. So right now I’m just focused on getting my patterns out, and then the rest will come as it is.
How long does it take to create one piece?
Cumulatively, if I were to add up all of the hours I spent, it would probably only take around 24 solid hours, but I stretch that over the course of two, three, sometimes four weeks. So it doesn’t always get done quickly.
Sometimes I just get frustrated with it, so I put it down for like a week and then go back to it. But my problem is that when you’re making something like this, all you can see are the little bitty squares of color, and they don’t look like they match up or that they should even go together. But when you take a step back, you can see it all fall into place.
This is why I get frustrated looking at it so closely for four or five hours a day. I have to put it away and then go back to it. So, it’ll take me about three weeks to complete the tapestry, and another week to do the whole finished garment.
You do commissions. Are you planning to sell ready-made pieces?
I would definitely love to, but the costs are a problem now. For instance, the Creation of Adam cardigan didn’t cost that much, around 80 USD to buy all of the yarn. But, on more complex ones, I spend 150 USD or anywhere from 80 to 150 USD on the yarn alone. So I would be out 150 USD until that is sold, and I don’t know when that would be.
So, for now, I prefer to make them all custom, and I can fit them to your body type. I can make sure the sizing is correct. I can make sure it’s the color you want. This way, I know for a fact that the customer will love what they purchase.
Are there any other costs you need to keep in mind?
Recently, I’ve discovered it is going to probably cost a little bit more to make my designs, because one of the biggest chain stores that supplies craft supplies and yarn, JOANN, went bankrupt. This puts a lot of creators in the dark.
Also: buttons. Buttons are really expensive. It’s like 10 bucks for six of them. So that’s a weird cost.
How about digital costs?
I have to pay for my domain name, and I have my iPad, which has my patterns on it as I use Procreate to keep track of the layers of my designs.
Can you explain how you use Procreate for your designs?
Yes! So, I put the painting on a grid. This tight little grid is the pattern of the painting. Then I find all of the colors that would be needed in the painting, and I drop them one by one onto the piece. At this point, these are just pixels. Essentially, I pixelate the entire painting, and then I painstakingly drop each color into the proper square, trying to reuse colors and deciding where I would need to splice the yarn to get a different shade of the color that I need.
I also find the hex codes for all of the colors that I need, so I can go into any craft store and pull up the colors and just go, “Okay, I need this color”, or “If I mix these two colors, I can get that color”, and so on and so forth, until I start crocheting row by row, starting from bottom up and switching colors as I go.
When it comes to promoting your art, what is your experience so far with digital channels?
I’m still trying to figure out Instagram because everything I post on there just flops, and I can’t figure out where that sweet spot is.
On Bluesky, I post behind-the-scenes videos of the things I’m working on.
On TikTok, I post longer-format videos where I ask people about different processes and different crochet techniques, or about selling patterns. I eventually want to post compilation, time-lapse videos of me putting my art together from start to finish.
One day, I want to have a Discord, too, where I can help people find patterns, and we can just all hang out together as crochet artists.
But I’m still figuring out social media. I’m a millennial, but not the most tech-savvy, so I’m just trying to do what I can.
How do you feel about managing social media?
We are having to adapt to different algorithms across different platforms in order to reach our target audiences, which isn’t always the easiest thing in the world. We have to use one method for one social media and another for another.
We’re having to change how we interact with people from platform to platform, which can be a little bit confusing. I’m still not sure how Threads work, and I don’t know how to reach people there. I just figured out Lemon8.
I try to just post every day or every other day across all platforms. With Bluesky, I can be a little bit more lenient on it. I can post once every five days and still have constant interaction because they just have a simpler algorithm that will push your content to relevant people without you having to pay for promotions or advertising.
With Instagram, it’s a little bit harder because you kind of have to post with promotions and advertisements, or else the algorithm won’t seek you. You have to be flashy and fun, and I can be flashy, but I don’t prefer to be flashy.
With TikTok, it’s a little bit more streamlined. If you have good lighting, if you have clear speech, and if you post little infographic pictures or gifs or something in your video, the algorithm says, “Hey, we like this and we’ll push it.”
You have to try to figure out the rhythm of each platform to see what posts do well in your feed and try to copy them. For me, it’s a little harder because I don’t have all of those fancy tools, and I don’t know how to do all of that. I only have my crochet stuff, so I’m not exactly sure how to translate that into constant content for media, but it is something that I will have to figure out very soon.
Do you feel the need or the pressure to be present on all of these channels?
I do. Because not everybody is on TikTok. And if they’re not on TikTok, maybe they’re on Threads. If they’re not on Threads, maybe they’re on Instagram. If they’re not on Instagram, then who knows where they are?
I don’t like Facebook. I don’t even like being on Instagram or any Meta-involved platforms, but I have to be where everybody is so I can be visible.
It can be overwhelming to try and be everywhere, especially while trying to build your creative business.
That is why making my website was my number one priority. Make the website, then make the content so everybody will have some place to go, so I can be seen, and I will show up in search results if you search Fortuneknot Designs.
And let me tell you, that was another kind of hell, getting a website up and running. I never felt such pressure or faced such difficulty in my life with technology before, and I hope to never do that again. And after I got it all set up, I’m like, “Okay, okay, it’s done. Now, I get to do the fun part, and I get to make videos, and I get to take pictures.”
Little did I know that that is just as hard. It’s just a different form of hard. They are all at their own level of difficulty. It’s just a different flavor of difficulty.
Another thing that is usually difficult for creators, especially at the start, is pricing. How do you approach it?
I charge base materials. Whatever I have to spend on the piece, whether that be a hat or a full-size cardigan, or socks, it’ll be the base materials, and how much I paid for materials. And then I will charge anywhere from 10 to 20 cents per yard used.
If I only use a hundred yards, it’s not that difficult of a pattern, then I’ll charge you 10 cents per yard for all of the hundred yards used, and then add a labor cost on top of it. So it’s the cost of materials, 10 cents per yard, and then labor.
But for the more intricate designs that I have to do and for the more difficult patterns that I make, the labor cost goes up because it takes weeks, if not a month or two months, to make these things. So I have to make sure that my time is properly compensated and that my skill is represented in cost.
How do people react to your prices?
I had somebody ask in a comment how much a cardigan that looks like Starry Night from van Gogh would be, and I said, for that one, it would cost around in the neighborhood of 900 USD. And they said, “That’s fantastic, that’s a good price. I’m sure it would be beautiful, but that’s just out of my price range for right now, so I’ll have to save up for later.”
I’ve never been outright told “You are too expensive. This is not worth it.” I’ve only ever been told “I’ll have to save up. It’s really beautiful. I’m very sad I can’t get it.” It does make me feel a little bit better than being told outright that “What you do is too expensive”, then I’d shrink down.
You’re still at the early stages of your business, but is there a platform you already tried but decided not to use anymore because it just didn’t work for some reason?
It’s starting to look like it’s Instagram. I just can’t figure it out. I don’t know what the algorithm wants from me. I’m about ready to call it quits there, and just post pretty pictures here and there. I don’t know what I’m doing there.
For new creators and new accounts in general, whatever you do and whoever you are, it’s always going to be way more difficult to make a name for yourself on Instagram because you’re not being prioritized in their algorithm.
You are a newbie. You are a new little fish, and they don’t care about you. So after you’re there for a year, two years, three years, the algorithm starts to look at you like, “Okay, well, maybe you can come in here. Maybe you can be in the Cool Kids Club now.”
But I started my Instagram business account not that long ago, probably less than six months ago, and I don’t get anybody who sees my stuff. My friends who happen to follow my main account and my business account will see it. But, it doesn’t go anywhere.
As a fresh business, do you do Fortuneknot Designs part-time, or have you already gone full-time?
Currently, I’m a fully employed artist, which means I only get paid when I get paid. But, I do this full-time with heavy quotations. Back in 2019 or 2018, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and I’ve been unable to hold a classic office job or a standing-all-day-on-your-feet type of job. And I can’t get hired by anybody because of my physical issues. I have generalized anxiety disorder. I have ADHD, where I just forget things or a lot of things.
I still have to get more diagnoses to figure out what else is wrong with me because I feel it, I know that there’s something else there, so I’m not cut out for a nine-to-five.
I know a diagnosis like that can be troubling and brings so many consequences to deal with, but do you think that maybe one day in the future, looking back, you’ll say that this time was great because you could start doing what you love, and it was a turning point for your life?
Yes. As much as I hate having been diagnosed and as much as I sometimes hate or question why I was even born like this in a body, that doesn’t quite work; it has given me an abundance of time to work on my craft and to perfect it and to work on things that I love.
So as horrible as everything has been, everything that has happened to me, the diagnoses, the pain, the daily pain, and everything, it’s helped me hone my craft in a way that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Can you explain a little about how this influences your daily routine in relation to your craft?
It’s a different level of pain every day, and what I can ignore and what I can’t.
With crochet, sometimes I’m hunched over all day, and I have to stop hunching my back. I also have arthritis gloves.
I need to keep my bones where they’re supposed to be while I crochet for hours upon hours. I need to take frequent breaks and make sure that I don’t overexert myself or crank my hands up too hard.
In the grand scheme of things, these things don’t look like much. They seem like general precautions to make sure your body is being good at being a body. But my body is not good at being a body, so I have to make sure that I listen to it very carefully so I know where my limit is, even with something so relaxing and not as physically demanding as crochet, because even the littlest thing could break me.
Speaking of different challenges, what do you think is the biggest challenge right now for creators today?
Not to get dark, but I think the biggest challenge right now is going to be the economy. Right now, at least for the US economy, it isn’t the best, and I know that the US kind of sets the precedent for the rest of the world. So if we’re not doing good, then we make a chain reaction in everything else.
The world needs artists, and it needs creators to keep everyone’s spirits up, but it’s also our livelihood, and it’s the way we make money. And if we’re not able to make money because nobody’s able to afford what we make and what we create, then it gets a little bit disheartening.
I think the biggest problem is the economy and everybody’s ability to afford to splurge on art and to get some little pretty something that spices up your life. Right now, we’re all in survival mode, and it’s not the first thing on our minds.
I also often see that people have gotten used to getting products for low prices, and they’re fine with it even if those things are of lower quality. And then they’re surprised when something, even a functional design, is a bit more expensive. In this climate, creators have to fight a war against that mindset every time they try to sell their handmade, quality products.
It’s particularly a big problem with crochet because you can see products now in stores that look like crochet but are not crochet. It’s just a stacked knit stitch or an extended knit stitch. It’s not actually crocheted, and it’s knitted by something.
Knitting can be created by a machine, but you cannot crochet with a machine. Crochet has to be done by hand. It cannot be replicated by any sort of machinery. So if you see something that is truly crocheted in a large store like Target, you can almost guarantee that, wherever they got it from, they used uncompensated, basic slave labor to make these things.
They’re selling crochet blankets for $15, whereas if I were to make the same blanket, I would have to charge $200 for that blanket. I know those workers aren’t getting fairly compensated for that stuff, and it’s heartbreaking to see that. So it’s not just artists and local artists getting harmed by it, it’s those in factories, too.
To tap into another pressing issue of our time, is your field of art influenced by AI on any level?
Yes. You’ll see people reposting or sharing these pictures of crocheted motorbikes, crocheted dogs with a ball in their mouth, and crocheted grannies—and none of those are real.
You can kind of tell if you know how to suss out an AI image. The edges are blurred, everything is a little too crisp. Other things are blurred in places they shouldn’t be.
But, I’ve also seen a creator who does felting on a sweater, who got sent an AI image of the human anatomy on a sweatshirt, and they said, “That’s AI, but I bet I could make it.” And, they made it with felting. So it can be inspirational, but I think it’s more harmful than inspirational because the art, the art and pictures that the AI is drawing from, are directly stolen from artists.
AI is just mashing up and regurgitating. Pictures and art that artists and designers spent hours, weeks, months, and years of their lives on. So I don’t fully believe in the efficacy of AI because I think there are a lot of big problems with it.
It uses too much water. It pollutes the planet. Until everybody can figure out a safe way to do it, I think it should just be used as little as possible, and it should not be trained on stolen art.
Find Amanda and Fortuneknot Designs:
Featured image source: Fortuneknot Designs Instagram
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