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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Divas of design


These greeting cards, designed by Marina Addison, are printed to replicate Addison's original watercolor artwork with gold accents. 
 (The Spokesman-Review)
Amy Klamper Correspondent

Sitting at the kitchen table sipping tea and flipping through a collection of antique postcards, artist Barbara Schriber describes her creative process.

“I’m very linear and organized,” says the 33-year-old owner of Barbara Schriber Designs, a wholesale company in Sandpoint that makes handmade vintage-inspired paper gifts. “Once I get started and get the process going, I’m OK. But I need to have an assignment.”

Not so for her mother, artist Melissa Neufeld, a friend and frequent guest of Martha Stewart, whose craft designs are regularly featured in Martha Stewart Living and Country Living magazines.

“Mom likes to come up with stuff on her own,” Schriber says, glancing across the table at Neufeld, who is busy cutting out strips of crimped paper with a delicate floral print. “She always has ideas, and she’s always working.”

Both Schriber and Neufeld say that while their creative approaches differ, each brings valuable skills and a unique sense of style to what has evolved into a collaborative mother-daughter design team.

“It’s important when designing that both of us provide input,” Neufeld says. “It’s much better than working alone.”

Her daughter agrees.

“It’s like one of us gives the other a jumping-off point,” she says.

Schriber, a self-described “number cruncher” who spent years working as a financial analyst in the Bay Area, credits her mother with helping start her business.

In 2002 when she and husband Scott scrapped life in the big city for a 40-acre spread outside Sandpoint, Schriber figured she’d look for work doing what she knew – finance.

But Schriber’s husband, a building contractor with a steady income, encouraged her to explore other opportunities.

“I never thought I was creative – I can’t paint or sculpt,” says Schriber, who considered going to law school earlier in her career.

But when her mother suggested she help with a vintage postcard project, Schriber decided to give it a try.

“Mom gave me some ideas and got me started,” she says. “Mom gave me the tools, my husband gave me the support.”

It wasn’t long before Schriber had a body of work all her own. And with the help of her mother’s industry ties, doors began to open.

Schriber says much of her company’s success is the result of watching her mother build her own business from the ground up.

“Mom started her company out of our house when I was about 12,” Schriber says.

“I had two wrapping papers and two stickers,” her mother recalls.

“And she turned it into a multi-million-dollar industry leader,” Schriber says.

Today, Schriber is running a successful company of her own, though Neufeld continues to help with the business, which supplies an impressive list of retail outlets, including stores in San Francisco, New York and London.

Last fall Neufeld left the Bay Area with Barbara’s father, a former attorney, to join their daughter in Sandpoint.

At the moment, mother and daughter are busy designing and building a display booth for an annual stationery show in New York later this month.

But even in the midst of this creative frenzy, Schriber’s design studio – a converted farmhouse with mint green walls and pink laminate work stations – belies her “type-A” self. One wall in the production area is lined with clear plastic bins meticulously marked with words like “Dresden,” Glitter Glue” and “Copper.”

Even the studio’s retro-chic kitchen, where mother and daughter brainstorm over tea, is sparkling and clutter-free.

“I’m very organized,” Schriber says.

Currently the company employs five people – all women, including a few single moms. Together, they help run the studio and assemble Schriber’s creations.

Schriber also regularly consults her mother.

“The more creative I get, the more I think I’m turning into my mom,” Schriber laughs, explaining that as her artistic side develops, she is beginning to let go of some of her more linear tendencies.

Still, she admits, the collaborative process has its challenges.

“Sometimes I have to remind myself that she’s my art director telling me what to do, not my mom,” Schriber says. “But to have someone as gifted and talented – most people don’t have that.”