What started out as a fun team bonding activity has turned into a small hand lettering art business for junior volleyball player Molly Spitznagle.
“This summer we as a volleyball team had a lot of off time, and we all are here in the summer, so we had this thing called art club,” Spitznagle said. “We would do it and Jewell Dobson and I just kind of stuck to it.”
Spitznagle credited senior Jewell Dobson for helping her get started in hand lettering. Once she got her start over the summer, she kept at it, and now does different kinds of lettering on canvases.
“A lot of them are like Bible verses or quotes or sayings. I’ve done some name canvases for rooms or something like that, but they’re mostly lettering quotes.”
The initial idea didn’t involve making any money, but it slowly turned in to a fundraising outlet to raise money for her yearly mission trip to Honduras.
“I wanted to find a way that I could fundraise for myself, and I really enjoy art and painting and lettering and stuff like that, so I thought that I could make money off of canvases,” Spitznagle said. “It’s really popular right now, so it’s kind of expanded from there and blown up.”
Now that Spitznagle has raised enough money for her mission trip, she has other plans for the canvases. As an athlete, it is hard for her to find time for a job to make spending money, so she decided to share her talents with the public.
“I’ve just kind of tried to make it into a little side job because being an athlete it’s hard to go to an actual job, so this I can do on my own time. I can make my own schedule. I can cut people off if I have too many orders, so I’ve been making some extra cash which is really nice.”
The 11×14 canvases start at $15 and the price increases as the canvas size goes up. Spitznagle says she keeps the prices low because she mainly letters for her own enjoyment.
“I don’t want to keep upping my prices,” Spitznagle said. “A lot of people have told me that I should start asking like $50, but I don’t have to pay that much for a canvas, and I really enjoy and love doing it, so it’s not something that I’m looking to make a bunch of money or like scam people, I really just want to just make some money and enjoy doing it.”
Spitznagle is a psychology major, but has considered carrying her talent into a future career. She has even considered opening a small business to do wedding invitations or envelope addressing.
“It’s kind of just where it takes me,” Spitznagle said. “I’m majoring in psychology, so it really has nothing to do with it, but I really enjoy it, and it’s something that I’ve kind of latched on to. If I can make it work or just have it as a side job I think it would be really nice.”