Rita Volpi

This summer, I had the opportunity to talk with Rita Volpi of Team Pickles. She is one-third of the staff of Team Pickles, creators of the ever-popular Mr. Pickles. If you haven't seen Mr. Pickles yet, you can check out their website. Wholly Craft also carries a selection of Mr. Pickle items.

Rita was kind enough to answer some of my questions via email recently, and I can answer what you all want to know....Yes! She's totally hot too!! I couldn't think of who she reminded me of everytime I saw her and I finally figured it out. It's Adrienne Curry! Yow! Anyway, Rita is as kind and gracious as she is beautiful and you should check her out!

How long have you been crafting Mr. Pickles as a business? Did you start it as a hobby that turned into a business?
My brother, Jack and I came up with the idea of Mr. Pickles about 3 years ago. I was working in Connecticut, and he was in Chicago and we were on the phone talking about interns, dog names and somehow came up with the name Mr. Pickles. Jack started some drawings and painting, which I turned into t-shirt iron-ons...it was around that point in time that we decided to think about our doodling as a business.

Do you have another job?
Yes, I work as a Training Director

How often do you travel for pickle-related activities?
We travel about 10-12 times a year for pickle-related activities...some to check out the larger gift shows (NY Gift, Stationery, etc), some to sell goods at craft fairs (Renegade, Bazaar Bizarre, etc), and some just for inspiration. We recently took a trip to the Pacific NW, which was great for brainstorming, checking out shops and meeting other artists.

Do you have any employees? An accountant?
No employees, no accountant. Team Pickles is comprised of me, my brother, Jack, and my husband, Eric. We are lucky because during our busy times, our families offer to help out as well. Our mom is currently "Employee of the Month" for all of the work she's done to help us with Plush Rush, a local art show we're curating.

How much $ do you spend on advertising?
Hmmm....that's a great question. Our big advertising for the year was a 1/8 ad in each issue of Ready Made's Swap Meet. That was some big coin.

How old are you?
34

Do you feel women have a harder time in starting their own businesses than men, or do you think youthful age is a bigger handicap than sex?
Gosh- I've never thought about sex, nor age as an obstacle to starting a business. I think time is our biggest obstacle...we don't have as much as we'd like to dedicate to it.

You share this business with your brother and husband. Do you have a division of labor, or specific duties? What are yours?
Yes, I share this business with my brother, Jack and my husband, Eric. We all have creative input and we all do sales. Jack's the main creative guy-he and I come up with most of the craziness, but he does all of the artwork. His title is Chief Creative Officer. Eric's the operations guru
(Chief Operations Officer)...he finds our materials and does all of the sewing of our handmade Cuddlers. I'm in charge of the website and am the master planner. The guys call me "PM" for Project Manager...my business card title is President. I know that the titles may sound lofty or corny, but we like to think like a business and imagine the possibilities.

Do you do un-Mr.Pickle-related crafts?
Not really...they all end up coming back to Mr. Pickles. I recently thought it would be fun to do latch hook again (like when I was 7), but I got green, white and black yarn so I can make a Mr. Pickles.

Craft fairs: worth the fuss vs. pain in the ass....discuss.
If you pick the right fairs and prepare for them, there're worth the time. We recently attended Renegade Chicago, which is a really well-coodinated show. Its a great location, there's choice vendors and Sue and Kathleen have excellent publicity. I guess that's what we look for when choosing.

Where do you sell most of your products?
Right now, most of our products are sold at the fairs. Our goal this year was to double our retail presence and we've done that...so I'm hoping that next year we'll be selling more of our products in shops.

This is directly from Mayra of Monkeyhouse Toys...what gave you the idea to do stuffed meat?
My brother started calling me meat names last year. "Ham Slice" "Pot Roast" I started calling him names back "T-Bone" "Meatball". Then we started drawing "Space Meats." With all of this meat-talk, it was just a
matter of time before the PLUSH MEATS were born.

What other crafters do you like? admire?
Gosh- I'm almost afraid to name anyone, because I'm sure I'll leave so many great people out. When the artwork for PLUSH RUSH came in, I fell in love with the work from Jen Rarey (http://www.studio-rama.com), Nati Gianinazzi (http://www.natalia-gianinazzi.ch) and Laura Granlund (http://intimidnation.com). I'm inspired by Paul Frank, whose work I've loved for years. There was a great article in Inc. Magazine recently about how he took Julius, his craftiness & artwork and parlayed that into a huge business. He's kept the integrity of his artwork and products and doesn't have appeared to ever have sold out to "the man." I admire that he loves what he does and has made that his career. That is my dream for Mr. Pickles.