(bright music) - I have to ask a very blunt question, who's Fran and who's Judy?

Because it's Fran & Judy by Kim.

- Yeah, so Fran is my maternal grandmother and Judy's my mom.

And this business came into light during the COVID times and I decided to name it after both of them because they were basically my creative inspiration and taught me embroidery and encouraged my creative pursuits.

So I wanted to do in tribute to them.

- And here you are with a business.

- Yeah.

- Fran & Judy by Kim.

Lots happened in between.

Did we study art?

Did you just always have this passion for the world?

- Yeah, I did study art, so I went to Michigan State and I got a degree in art history and visual culture.

And then I went on to get a master's in historic preservation.

My day job is, for the past decade, I've worked in museums and art and exhibits from the Detroit Institute of Arts to now I'm at actually the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

- Oh, that's a nice place.

- Yeah.

- But here we are in your studio where you do your work.

What work do you do when you're not in nature?

- I really got into felt embroidery, particularly, so cutting out felt shapes and using needle and thread to embroider on top of them.

And I wanted to make something small that would be able to fit into just a small little package to send to family that we weren't gonna be able to see for the holidays.

And then once all of that was over, and January rolled around, I kind of thought, I had so much fun with that, how can I translate that into something else that's not sort of holiday themed?

I just started drawing again and creating paintings and then I would take those drawings and paintings and translate them into shapes and figure out how to cut them out into felt.

Now I've become more confident and skilled with scissors and I can just kind of go ahead and cut out shapes and let the different colors of felt take me from there.

- When did you know this would be a business?

Did you jump right in?

- So I've always wanted to be an artist, and even growing up as a kid, and even when I kind of had the choice of where I was gonna go to school and what I wanted to do, yeah, after I just got to be in my 30s, I kind of just decided this is it.

Like I wanna actually try it out.

And I became more confident in myself and thought, "I can do this."

- [Shelley] Give me the definition or how you define felt, from where does it come?

- Oh yeah, so it's wool.

I don't have my own sort of- - Sheep.

- Sheep.

(both laughing) Or produce wool, but there's also acrylic felt, which is less sturdy and not as variety of colors selection and things like that.

- Let's look at your products.

Many gracing your mantle.

Describe a couple.

- Yeah, so a lot of my design choices kind of go back to my art history courses and my love of decorative arts.

So tea canisters or teapots, blanket chests from like Pennsylvania Dutch.

And they have all of the different sort of whimsical flowers around the sides.

And that's really where I gain a lot of my inspiration.

And then also my grandmother, Fran, was a florist, and later in life did a lot of artificial flower arrangements.

And so a lot of our time was spent just sitting at her kitchen island.

So flowers are just a really meaningful subject matter for me.

And I just love adding the whimsical side of things to it, and that kind of full cart feel.

- Talk to me about planning, choosing your colors, and more.

- One thing that is really important to me is finding upcycled and thrifted frames.

So I love to go antiquing.

I love to go to thrift shops.

I really allow the frame shape to really lead in my artistic direction.

I then think about what shape of flower I wanna put inside of it, and I kind of stretch my fabric around the hoop and then lay the frame on top.

And then I work by just arranging different shapes of flowers inside of that space.

(gentle string music) I just love to be able to create with my hands and I love encouraging others to do the same.

I feel like this is a very meditative process and any time that people can take away from their busy schedules, just a moment to themselves, even if it's just 15 minutes to focus on something that they're making with their hands, I find it very meaningful to me and I hope other people can do that too.

So I hope it's an inspiration to others.

- Besides felt, what's your art?

- Yeah, so inspired by a lot of the florals that I create with embroidery.

I love to do any sort of tools that come along with embroidery.

So I started making pin cushions and I utilize little wood bowls and then I paint them with similar floral, fun, whimsical designs.

And then of course having felt it comes with a lot of scraps and I love to minimize the amount of waste that I have.

So use a lot of those scraps to stuff the inside of the pin cushion.

- You have something called a DIY kit?

- Yeah, yeah.

So again, like it's really important for me to be able to share my art-making practice through the ability of allowing other people to try it out too.

So yeah, I make DIY embroidery kits.

There's four different types of ornaments that people can try with detailed instructions and all of the materials they need from the needle to the cut felt shapes to the threads so they don't have to, it's not a huge investment if they wanna just try it out and see if they like it.

- [Shelley] Is there a zen moment with what you do?

- I would say the actual embroidery is the most zen part.

So when I can just kind of sit down, I have the shapes all already cut down and put on my hoop and I can just, I don't plan it out, which feels nice to not have to follow any sort of guidelines or anything.

I know in my head the stitches I want to use or I can, I have like a whole library of them so I can kind of just let my needle and thread lead me.

(gentle music) - Do you have to be perfect to do this, have the perfect angle of the circle, or does it come with what happens when you're in the machine?

- Yeah, I mean, no, like anything, it just takes practice.

If you were to look at some of my work from four years ago, it would look a lot different than what you see today.

But with embroidery, it just takes a lot of practice.

There's lots of different types of stitches to learn, but I say if you even just know one, you can try it out for yourself.

- And how inviting is Kalamazoo to an artist that wants to share her work?

- Oh, I love being in Kalamazoo.

I feel like ever since I kind of stepped my foot into wanting to be an actual artist 'cause it's hard to actually call yourself that sometimes when you finally make the decision to move forward with your business.

I've found a lot of similar people in similar situations and have had great opportunities learning and growing from the artist community here in Kalamazoo.

- Did the Fran part of Fran & Judy, did your grandma get to see the success that was building in you?

- Yeah, she always knew that, like, I had a creative eye like she did.

She didn't get to see the business as it is.

She passed about, let's see, I think it's been about 12 years now.

So, but yeah, she's always been someone who knew that I had an eye for the arts and creativity and always motivated me to pursue that.

- So it was important that her name came first.

Fran & Judy by Kim.

- Yes, hmm-mm, yep.

- Here we are, nice.

Thanks for carrying on your family's tradition.

- Yeah, thank you.

(bright music) - Thank you so much for watching.

There's also more to explore with "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" on YouTube, Instagram, and WGVU.org.

We'll see you next time.

- [Announcer] Support for "Kalamazoo Lively Arts" is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of Greater Kalamazoo.