‘I can’t paint a picture, but give me a pair of scissors . . .’

Two years ago, Margaret Eaton would have scoffed at the idea of doing anything other than the political consulting and lobbying she had done for years. Yet, after rising from door-to-door soliciting for a grass-roots labor organization in Cleveland to becoming field director for the National Abortion Rights Action in Washington, Eaton chucked it all--without a clear notion of what she would do next. The 32-year-old woman fell into creating handbags as Christmas gifts, then delved into creating artsy earrings, necklaces and pins out of clay and plastic. Now, from the workshop in her North Park home, Eaton is busy crafting hundreds of pairs of earrings to sell this fall at art shows in Southern California. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed her, and Vince Compagnone photographed her.

My mom says ever since I was a little girl I always was very interested in politics in some way, even if it was just what was on the news or what was going on in the neighborhood. I was always asking, “Why are these people doing this?” and “Is it the right thing to do?”

I went to a small, private liberal arts college, which was expensive. I come from a big family of 12 kids, and I had financial aid for the first three years, but in the middle of my third year there was a problem and I didn’t get my financial aid. And it was so expensive I was going to drop out for a year and get a job. The first job I found was with this political organization in Cleveland. They were working on issues that affect labor and the people in the community.

I was 19 years old, and I learned more in two weeks working that job than I learned in 2 1/2 years in college. I got really interested, and, before I knew it, I was running one of these operations, and I was an organizer. I just kind of moved up the ladder from there.

By the time I finished (with politics), I had been a lobbyist in the state of Washington, I had run a successful City Council campaign in Seattle, and I had worked on a big union election campaign in California for the California State Employees. That was very exciting. So I tried all these things I really wanted to do before I actually gave it up completely.

I never thought I would quit until the last year and a half. I never thought I wouldn’t do it forever, but then something just happened. It wasn’t like this conscious choice that I didn’t want to do political work anymore because somehow I don’t believe in it. If anything, my feelings about certain things are still very, very strong. I just had this other part of me. I’ve always been a tinkerer. I sewed clothes when I was in high school. That’s how I got started, by making handbags.

There’s a place in Seattle where I was living, an open-air market that has 200 spaces reserved for artists and crafts people who live in the state. My sister and I got a space, and I started making different kinds of purses and handbags and tote bags out of upholstery fabric with big cabbage rose prints. And we made a little money.

It was so exciting. I got into the whole thing of if you make 10 bags and sell them for this amount of money. . . . Everyone kidded me. They said, “Oh, you’re just organizing this little world,” because I was putting all my political organizing skills into this. I love cash-flow projections, and I love strategies and time lines.

I switched to jewelry because I like shapes. Even when I made handbags, the thing I liked was coming up with the most unusual shape you could make for a handbag. I’m much better at sculpting things instead of painting. I can’t paint a picture, but give me a pair of scissors . . .

This year, I’m going to do about 30 art shows. I’ll do about 18 in the fall, every weekend. That’s why all summer now I’m making stuff to get ready to sell. I do pins, earrings, bola ties, bracelets and necklaces.

I think people aren’t meant to do one thing their whole life. I think that people who do do one thing their whole life are either very driven and very passionate about it, or they’re trapped and they can’t leave their job.