Vista woman's whimsical crafts catch attention of Martha Stewart

By: CAMERON LEIGH JAMES - For the North County Times | Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:30 PM PDT ∞

When Dawn Buettner Huntington's son Robbie was born three years ago, the Vista crafter says she wanted to decorate his nursery with something different.

She figured other people would appreciate something different, too, she said.

An architect who holds a bachelor's degree in art history from the UC San Diego and a graduate degree in architecture from UCLA, Huntington doesn't know how she came to put a pair of wings on an elephant. When the idea occurred to her, she thought, "Why not? It's fun and you don't see that anywhere else."

And then, she says, she wondered, "What else can I put wings on?"

A flying elephant, pig, rabbit, giraffe and cat inhabiting a bog filled with bamboo and reeds and botanical elements round out Huntington's design elements. She puts them on bibs, baby booties, note cards, goody bags, acrylic paintings and mobiles. She sells her handcrafted items under the label Buzzing Bog at craft fairs and through her Web site www.outoftheboxcalifornia.com.

The whimsical creations caught the attention of "The Martha Stewart Show," whose producers called the 33-year-old mother of two last September to see if she'd be interested in being a guest. Huntington sent a videotape, and in February she received a call back. Would Huntington send in some of her work?

"I was like, Martha? Martha?"

Huntington sent in a silk-screened pillow, a pair of booties and a bib because the steps to make them could easily be broken down and explained in the six-to-seven-minute crafting segments on the "Martha" show.

"I was also thinking about things people would be excited to learn about or were innovative, like the bibs," she said. "I print them on fabric with a regular inkjet printer, which is something anybody can do."

Five days later, Huntington said she was on a plane to New York with her mother, Laurie Buettner, and sister, Melanie Norton. Huntington's husband, Tom, stayed at home with their sons Robbie, age 3, and 2 1/2-week-old Finn.

Huntington says she started reading Stewart's myriad magazines and watching the television specials back in college. The opportunity to meet Stewart fulfilled a long-held dream, she said.

"It sounds corny, but it seemed like I knew her," Huntington said. "When I first walked out on the set, everyone was buzzing around her and it was like she was glowing," she added.

Huntington had always been interested in design, she said. As an architect, she first designed elementary and middle schools, and later worked for a firm designing waiting and operating rooms. She says she spent her lunch hour sketching and in her spare time, enjoyed sewing, painting and woodworking.

"I always liked having something creative to do outside of work," she said.

When she stopped working after Robbie was born, she discovered a thriving online crafting community. Inspired by other crafters' blogs, she started one of her own.

"Every new mom who's home for the first time feels isolated and wonders what they're doing with the days," Huntington said. "The time goes by so fast you feel like you don't have anything to show for it, so that helped."

Huntington said she started making wool felt booties with her mom, who creates the hand-poured soy candles sold on Huntington's Web site. In the spring of 2004, she said, they rented a booth at their first craft fair, and although the bulk of Huntington's sales come from craft fairs, she developed a Web site last year.

The Internet has helped Huntington expand her crafting talents, too, she said. She learned fabric printing, a technique she uses to make her bibs, and the art of silk-screening online.

"You can learn how to do anything online ---- you don't need to take a special class," said Huntington, who enjoys making the pillows, the most popular items in her line.

"It's fascinating to create these drawings and be able to put them on the fabric. It's such a great feeling to glob a bunch of paint onto a screen, roll it out, lift it up and there's this perfect image."

"The Martha Stewart Show" is taped in front of an audience. Huntington said she prepared by reading blogs written by other guest crafters.

In preparation for demonstrating her crafting segments, Huntington said she spent a day laying out, cutting and sewing the booties and bibs in the craft room to beat all craft rooms.

"Being in that room, and seeing the projects that they've done on the show hanging up on the walls and shelves with every kind of craft material you could ever want, it was right up there with meeting Stewart," she said.

When the cameras rolled and Huntington began showing the doyenne of handcrafts how to make a pair of booties, she said, "It took me a few seconds to realize I was teaching her and needed to take the lead. It was wild."

Dawn Buettner Huntington is slated to appear on "The Martha Stewart Show" at 11 a.m. Thursday on KNSD Channel 7/39. Visit: www.outoftheboxcalifornia.com.

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