Marianne design - en tillverkare med mer än bara dies

Sedan diecutting maskiner som Big Shot och Cuttlebug lanserades, har marknaden för dies formligen exploderat och nya, vackra mönster släpps nästan månatligen. Idag finns inte bara en uppsjö av dies att välja mellan utan också ett antal tillverkare som försöker överglänsa varandra avseende former och invecklade mönster. En av de mindre kända tillverkarna är Marianne design med säte i Nederländerna. Vi tyckte det var spännande med en tillverkare från Holland och upptäckte inte bara att ägaren Marianne Perlot är både trevlig och generös, utan också att Marianne design har ett sortiment som sträcker sig långt utöver dies. Vi har intervjuat Marianne Perlot som även sponsrar oss med en blogcandy som du hittar i inlägget nedan. 

Intervjun är på engelska, använd gärna vår översättningsknapp om du har svårigheter med språket.

Vill du se mer av Mariannes produkter rekommenderar vi ett besök på hennes webbplats.

What is Marianne Design?
Marianne Design is a company that designs and manufactures products for crafting. Specializing in stencils and 3D cutting sheets. We started with stencils for crafting by hand, like embossing, embroidery, cutting etc. At this time most popular are the Creatable dies that can be used in several machines like Big Shot and Cuttlebug.

Who is Marianne?
Marianne is living in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Mother of 3 sons and married to Anton (a notary-sollicitor who has retired). My hobbies are crafting (ofcourse), reading thriller novels, walking, riding my bicycle and last but not least: babysitting the 2 grandchildren. My age is 57.

How did you come to start this company?
In 1989 my first craftbook was published and I have written many since (sold over 1 million). After a few years I had made books with all products available and started to think of products that were not there yet. I started designing . In 1994 I have started a real company and started working with other designers as there was too much for 1 person. Marianne has been the force behind a lot of new craft-techniques (like Ornare, which is elegant paper pricking), 3D cutting techniques (Marianne was the one that invented the cutting sheets) kaleidscopefolding (which is folding with small printed papers like teabags), irisfolding (folding with the printed insides of envelopes) and many many other techniques.

Is everything designed by you or do you have designers?
Some things are designed by me. Some of the dies I design myself, but I work together with some of the best designers in the Netherlands who design stamps, 3D cutting sheets and of course part of the collection Creatables.

You are a scrapbooker your self, how did you find this hobby and for how long have you been doing it?
I have been crafting all my life. It started in school. When I finished school I have been an exchange student in the US. When I came home if went back to school and worked at a solicitors company where I met my husband. When my first child was born I went back to school and studied to become a craft teacher for 3 years. And I have worked as a teacher for 10 years. I started making little dolls from wooden balls and quiltfabric and sell them on school basars for a good cause. One of the teacher said that I should write craftbooks about that, so more people could learn these techniques. After making many dolls and decorations for in the house in many techniques (stenciling, quilting etc) I discovered paper and started making cards. That is when 3D cutting came, and embossing, stamping and so on. While visiting craftshows in America I discovered scrapbooking. I have tried to introduce it in the Netherlands, by writing books about it, but it was too early and I went back to cardmaking. A few years later scrapbooking came to Holland and I have written a few books about it. Now I am scrapping just for fun. My company has specialized in cardmaking products, but you can scrap with almost anything, so I use these products in my scraps.

En layout av och med Marianne.

What is your philosopy, thing you feel strongly about when it comes to the company.
Crafting is something you do for fun, so you must enjoy it. You can make little presents and cards for other people. They will appreciate that as in this fast world, that is getting faster and faster, nobody takes the time to make something nice for another person. When you make it, you think about that person and you make something in their favorite color or with an image that you know they will like. When I started a lot of women were happy with the little books that showed them what they could make with little effort and just a few materials. The ladies were very pleased with the new products I designed and all the craft techniques I helped promote. Especialy the older ladies, who had lots of time to spend, as they did not work anymore, were very happy to find a nice way to spend their time. They started small craftsclubs and started to craft together. And they all had lots of fun doing so.As I can not teach everybody myself, I have a team that travels the stores in the Netherlands and promotes crafting by showing how much fun it is and what you can make.

What is the best thing with owning Marianne Design?
The fact that I can show people how much fun it is to craft and that you can achieve a lot more than you think you can do.

Where is Marianne Design in two years from now?
At this time I have written a lot of books, work with all craft magazines in the Netherlands, help and support other authors and even have my own small magazine. But in the future there is the internet. There is a worldwide interest in the Ceatable dies. So there will more to see and to on my website. It also depends what crafters like to do and what new things we think of to do. But Marianne Design will at least have great products for cardmaking.