Today we’d like to introduce you to Hailey Waters.
Hailey, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My grandmother always had us kids on her heels while she was busy doing everything. She had chickens, sold the eggs at the bar down the street, a stunning garden, and massive flower beds. My favorite though, was her big wooden floor loom. She made a lot of “rag rugs”. I remember sitting and watching her worn, strong hands move over the strings. There is a common theme among the women in my family. We are not afraid of hard work. Which is why I love weaving, making with my hands, creating something tangible. That is my jam.
It was 2015 and I had just had my second son. I was a stay at home mom, wife to a traveling salesman, and was pulling my hair out a bit. I needed something for ME. There was a burning fire to do something on my own, but what? I had taught yoga for a while but with two toddlers, it never fell into a natural routine for me. So I ordered a lap loom and started weaving, browsing for directions and lessons. I learned a lot from books, and still retained a bit from memory. It organically grew and friends started asking for pieces, and then their friends started asking. Before long I was weaving all the time. About six months in I got curious about the boom of macramé. I bought another book and sat down to teach myself. I fell in love and quickly jumped on the macramé train. Macramé to me was even more physical and that really spoke to me. I enjoyed the mental challenge that the “math” side of macramé brought, and the physical part of making hundreds of thousands of knots. At some point I was asked if I taught classes. I decided to dive in, I figured if I can do it, I can teach it. Classes are possibly my favorite part of what I do. I love sharing my passion for my craft with others, and showing people they can step out of their comfort zone and learn something completely new. There is always enough room in the world for creative people!
I home school my two young boys so this fiber journey has really provided me a great outlet to have something for myself and work around our ever adventuring schedule. It has continued to grow at a rate I can control which I am so thankful for. I create during down times, bedtimes, or sometimes the boys join in and help cut rope, ball rope, make giant knots out of rope! It is a great meditative practice for me that forces my busy body self to sit and be.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Creating a small business while having a newborn, two year old, and a husband who travels for work is an absolute recipe for a smooth road…Oh wait.
No way man. I was completely in the dark on almost everything when it came to starting a little business. Shipping, taxes, marketing, advertising, photography, business cards, etsy, website making, need I go on?
I will say it was the road of hard knocks. I reached out to friends who were fluent in areas, I read, I fell down, lost money, cried, wanted to give up. I also sold, kept selling, created cool stuff for even cooler people. Taught a lot, and met dope people along the way.
Really, the amazing people who asked ME to create art for sacred spaces such as their homes kept my head up over everything. Now a couple years in I am so thankful for those lessons and hard times. I am also not naive that there will in fact be more hard times! When you’re the CEO, and everything else in between there are bound to be road bumps. I couldn’t have kept going without my incredible husband always supporting my wacky dreams, and friends who keep ordering fiber art!
It is a business that keeps forcing me to grow, and step outside of what I know and that is worth all the obstacles!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the The Watersmark story. Tell us more about the business.
I love being creative in new weird ways. Not falling into the norm but balancing somewhere on the outer edge.
I create one of a kind fiber art pieces. Mainly working in custom art, which is surprisingly satisfying to me. I love the challenge of taking my clients thoughts, and inspiration and bringing it to life through a series of strings and knots. I never make the same piece twice. I see where that sets me apart from some fiber artists as the audience for what I do isn’t as “popular”. People always approach very unsure when they are commissioning a piece, and I get it! It is an investment, and what/how do I tell this chick I want!? I work until we both see the picture, through sketches and samples, getting it just right. Every now and then you get the dream client that digs your vision and tells you to “go for it!”. Those usually end up being my best works. No perimeters, walls, ceilings, just freedom to make.
My specialty is making oversized fiber art pieces. The bigger, the better in my opinion! I’ve currently got a couple huge cut aspen trees drying in my garage awaiting the perfect project. I love the hard work that goes into making larger pieces and the pay off after HOURS AND HOURS of work. To see this huge knotted or woven beast that I have made and send it off into the world is so cool. I am a thrift-er at heart and I can imagine years down the road some thrift-er finding my pieces in some antique store corner and being so smitten with their find. Those are the things I think about when creating. What story will this piece tell now, and later.
I also offer classes. I have always had a knack for teaching since I was young. I love people, and I love boosting moral by showing someone they CAN do something totally new. I am a traveling class. I do not currently hold my classes in any one place. I have all the materials and I bring it to you! Ladies night, bachelorette parties, baby showers, you name it, people are loving the small class scene right now. I offer weaving or macramé classes and both are a ton of fun, and a great workout for the brain.
I would have to say that I am super proud of myself, because there is no elf family helping me create, and run this little business, it is all me, baby! I started knowing little to nothing and I have brought myself to the point I am at, and continue to grow. I have learned and fell down, and kept going. It feels good to have never given up when it got hard, to move through and learn from lessons, rather than throwing in the towel. It’s an organic growth that moves where my life moves and that just how I like it.
All of my pieces tell a story, I enjoy seeing what my clients see when they receive their piece versus what I saw while creating. We are all so different and I really like watching the personal part of my art affect people. I grew up in fine art, and around all types of artists. I share the love of storytelling as most fine artists do. This is not just a piece to fill my shop, it is a piece that may not sell for years, but when the right person sees it, and better yet, feels it. It will go home. My love of the story and the feeling that art gives you is what sets me apart.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am a bit of a wanderer. Anytime I needed a change in life I just picked it all up and moved. So from my tiny home town in Colorado I moved to Corpus Christi. I worked a million different jobs, and had at least a million different roommates, ya, that girl. When I was over Corpus, it was randomly onto Dallas, knew no one but my roommate. Again, a million jobs, a million roommates. So when I started this little business, after moving yet again and ending up in Mckinney. All of those coworkers, roommates, acquaintances, became my clients! As far as luck, I am lucky to have met so many wonderful, supportive people over the years that continue to ask me to create for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: thewatersmark.com
- Email: haileywaters@hotmail.com
- Instagram: thewatersmark
- Facebook: facebook.com/thewatersmark
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
