In honor of creative mothers our local paper ran an article on mothers day that featured 3 local creative moms and their kids and gock's frocks was one of the moms featured! The kids were thrilled to see themselves in the paper!
Here is an excerpt of my part of the story...
Finding time to engage in creative endeavors in the midst of diaper changes, soccer practices and carpools can be a constant challenge. But some local artists have found ways to nourish their creativity by building businesses around their talents.
“I’ve always loved creating,” says local children’s clothing designer Kristen Hallagan. “I needed an outlet for all I wanted to do.”
Kristen Hallagan’s grandmother taught her to sew when she was 8 years old.
The 41-year-old has had a passion for creating things since. When she was in college, she sewed hand-crafted hair holders and designed T-shirts for a Regatta team.
Yet she decided to become a teacher. When her third child was born, she chose to stay home with her children.
And she was still sewing. In 2003, Hallagan decided to sell some of her children’s clothing designs at the Rochester Public Market during the Christmas season. She initially called her business “Crazy Mama,” because “I (was) crazy for trying to do this with three young kids.”
She eventually renamed her business, Gock’s Frocks, in honor of her grandmother, Betty Gocker. She started selling on eBay and then Etsy. Her business was an “outlet” for her.
She’s always had the art of design, now she learned the art of pricing and marketing her children’s and women’s clothing.
She has gradually increased her output, and had outgrown the basement, spilling her colorful skirts and dresses into the children’s playroom. She now rents a studio in the Hungerford Building by the Public Market and works there while her children — Klem, 13, Eily, 10, and Leo, 8 — are in school.
“How do I do it and give it 100 percent and everything I want to do?” she would often ask of her art business. “That’s the challenge for any mom.”
But, as with any artist, “the creative part would have come out at some point — you can’t suppress it,” Hallagan says.
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