Unique take on china painting helps ‘best budz’ speak their minds

To classify what Heather Duggan and Annie Palder create as china painting would be oh-so-wrong.

It’s true their artwork involves china, usually delicate pieces several decades old and adorned with pastel flowers.

Also, they kind of paint on the designs, although it’s actually a procedure that uses heat guns to attach vinyl to the plates and trays and ring holders and rolling trays and stash jars. The latter items are part of the friends’ preparation to be part of South Dakota’s incipient medical marijuana industry.

Mostly, though, they’re producing pieces to let other people of like minds know they’re not alone in a state that can seem overwhelmingly conservative.

That’s why some of their pieces display a picture of the late rapper Tupac Shakur asking, “Why do we hate our women?” Or the late actor/national icon Betty White’s face with a message urging people to “be a Betty, not a bully.”

Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wears a crown and a lace collar. Below her portrait are two words: “I dissent.” Some pieces just proclaim cheerfully, “In my defense the moon was full.”

“We want to put ourselves out there as true as we are,” Duggan said. “We’re cannabis supporters, we’re mental health supporters, we’re feminists, we’re mothers, we’re powerful, and we want that to be shown.”

Duggan and Palder started their business, Best Budz by Heather and Annie, last year during the pandemic. Their wares have been seen at pop-up shops at places like Icon Event Hall and are sold at Full Circle Book Co-op in downtown Sioux Falls. They will make their first appearance at the next 605 Made Night Market, scheduled for 4 to 10 p.m. Aug. 27 at a parking lot on the southeast corner of Phillips Avenue and Sixth Street. On July 21-22, they will be at the Art Collective at Icon.

The women’s friendship, however, goes back for years. Duggan was born in Watertown but moved around as her father’s employment with the Hy-Vee grocery store chain took them to several communities, primarily in Minnesota. When she was 15, the Duggan family returned to Watertown. That’s when her friendship with Palder, who grew up in Watertown, began.

“Her dad owned the Burger King, and we played on the same softball team that Burger King sponsored,” Duggan said.

Something sparked that summer between the teenagers. The two girls became fast friends, perhaps in part because neither one has a neurotypical brain, Duggan said. She was a daydreamer who flew under most people’s radar, she said. Palder was similar in character and approach.

Today, Palder describes her friend as fierce, someone who takes the initiative and “doesn’t really give two hoots who’s going to stand in her way. She complements me in a way. I am more reserved, and we make a good team.”

After graduating from high school, Duggan moved to Italy to work as a nanny and then lived in New Jersey. When she moved to Seattle, Palder went west, too, and they were roommates for about a year before Palder returned to the area. She and her husband now live in the Fargo-Moorhead area, where they are raising four children.

Palder’s oldest child, a boy, and Duggan’s son were born a month and three days apart.

“She called to tell me she was pregnant, and I was so happy for her,” Duggan said. “Turns outb I was farther along. We would not change that for anything. Being able to be mothers together was so important.”

Duggan returned from a trip to Texas last year with the idea to turn old pieces of china into statements of belief and power. When she proposed it to Palder, she found a warm reception.

“I’m a stay-at-home mom of four, and as you can imagine, it takes up a good part of my head space and energy,” Palder said. “It’s fun to branch out a little bit and get creative in my craft room, coming up with things that are funny to me and meaningful.”

Palder had purchased a Cricut cutting machine at the pandemic’s onset. It allows them to create the designs and lettering. Early response to their pieces has been positive.

“Everybody I show our pieces to, they say they’ve never seen anything like it before,” Palder said. “It’s so nice to feel the support.”

Duggan travels from Sioux Falls to Palder’s home once or twice a month so they can go thrifting together at the larger antique malls, looking for china pieces that suit their purposes. Much of it comes from the 1970s and ’80s, with floral designs and gold rims adding elegance to the sometime blunt messages.

Duggan makes sure the piece and message complement each other. Her pieces with Frida Kahlo quotes go only on “absolutely beautiful” plates. They chose the Tupac Shakur quote because they say he was one of the original feminists. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is featured, and Duggan expects to add plates with feminist icon U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki soon.

A familiar face in the local restaurant industry, Duggan has been a server at several well-known eateries. Four years ago, she joined the company that owns Minervas downtown. She also works at The Attic East. Working double-shifts four days a week gives her three days to pursue other interests.

She also has a connection to downtown Sioux Falls as an artist. Through her ties to Full Circle Book Co-op, she met Sarah Benson, owner of The Hello Hi.

“I love her art, and she loves mine,” Duggan said. “We’re definitely going to do something in the future.”

Duggan describes herself as a “maximalist.” In her home, she has “stuff everywhere,” and she’s always on the lookout for unique pieces that she can upcycle. She sometimes uses words that she knows others may consider offensive. Duggan does not.

“A word is a word, whether you choose to take it in a way you are taught by society to,” she said. “I enjoy the juxtaposition between the words and the beautiful pattern of china already there.”

Palder and Duggan communicate throughout the day when they can’t be together, tossing around different ideas for objects. Because so many people took to gardening indoors during the pandemic, they are creating “thirst traps” for plants and have made a planter from a ceramic coffee pot.

While Best Budz by Heather and Annie is committed to recycling items, they use new glass containers for the stash jars they are making in anticipation of the medical marijuana industry taking off. They hope to put their items in a dispensary someday.