Elijah + Rhonda Wyman: Figs and Ginger1. How did you get started with your business?
We started by doing indie craft shows just like this one!
2. What is your favorite tool to work with?
Our new battery operated Dremel is fantastic. No more flexi shaft! It's super freeing.
3. What/who inspires you?
Forests, cute animals, our pets Crashdog and Puppykitty, traveling, and each other!
4. Man-bag or murse?
Is a murse a male nurse? If so, a murse with a man-bag.
5. Where do you see your business in 3 yrs?
Hopefully making us a stable, livable income while having a previously unheard of amount of fun.
6. If you only had one thing to tell someone starting a craft/indie business what would it be?
Make up your own rules. Just follow your bliss! Nice guys don't finish last anymore. Love and kindness are the new business model. It just makes sense to be a sweetheart to everyone. Competition only exists if you make it!
7. Rock, paper or scissors? Rock. Rock always wins.
8. Are you a full time crafter/designer? Yes! This year is our firsty at not having a 9-5!!!
9. Do you have a craft crush? (A designer or indie/craft business that you admire.)
Oh man, so many...Iff'n Books, Poppy, The Postcard Machine (Seriously the best idea EVER!), My Favorite Mirror, 80 Grit Art, The Candy Thief, and a million more I can't remember right now.
10. What is your favorite current indie/DIY trend? Oh man...
11. What was the best compliment a customer ever gave you?
A lady came to our table at the Bust Show in Manhattan with the most janky, beat up bird necklace we've ever seen, and said that she loved it so much that she didn't even take it off while sleeping. She had completely disfigured it within a year. We fixed it up for her...which was basically sending her a new one. That was super flattering.
12. What craft would you like to try or learn? Welding, letterpressing, and blacksmithing.
~~~
Suzanne L. Vinson: Silver Tree Art
1. How did you get started with your business?
I've been giving away handmade projects for over twenty years. Through some talented women here in Richmond, I was encouraged to move from hobby into business. Silver Tree Art evolved into being quite naturally. I needed to "support my habit" of creating and it made sense to expand. Friends asked for my work and it continued to grow. Etsy made it possible to have an online shop while I work toward creating my own site online. The shops which carry my work help me to keep challenging myself to create something new and inviting. The core of my work centers around my love for my grandmother and her quilting. I have fabric that is over 50 years old from her quilt remnants. I wanted to keep a piece of her with me and made vintage fabric pendants encased in resin. Folks went wild and that has become my signature in my work. Friends and family have expanded my collection of fabrics. Each season inspires me to create new pieces using the colors I am most drawn to. Now I hope to inspire others using their own fabric within my pieces. Often it's a way to capture a memory or set of memories. My business is meant to inspire creativity in others and to attempt to teach others how to use their creativity through retreats and workshops.
2. What is your favorite tool to work with?
My hands. I love using my hands working with clay, stitching fabric, or forging metal. If I had nothing else to work with, I'd play in the yard making mudpies!
3. What/who inspires you?
What: color, nature, fabrics, found objects, family treasures, and a good story! Who: my friends, my family, and food! I love what those three can do to enable the mind, body, and spirit. And there's nothing like creating with a good movie or good music playing while drinking a glass of wine. A perfect way to unwind, I'd say.
4. Man-bag or murse? Super Handy bro-bag.
5. Where do you see ! your business in 3 yrs?
Exploding. I have grown in the last couple of years with some devoted clientele. Silver Tree Art would have expanded into more stores around the globe. By then, I hope to have space which will enable my creativity to expand.
6. If you only had one thing to tell someone starting a craft/indie
business what would it be?
7. Rock, paper or scissors? Scissors. I can cut some mean shapes!
8. Are you a full time crafter/designer? I am a full-time mom, artist, crafter, minister, etc. I use my arts and crafts experience in all that I do, whether leading retreats, support groups, or preaching a sermon. And I'd be your kind of preacher. I hope to launch my cottage business into full force in the near future. Spread the word! Silver Tree Art is expanding.
9. Do you have a craft crush? (A designer or indie/craft business that you admire.)
More than one! My latest is artist Sarah Neuburger with The Small Object.
She has great taste and I love her little clothespin people! Another is Jenifer of Sprout Studio. I love her colors! There are many local Richmond artists I love. I am always drawn to folks who have a similar style and who make me want to run and grab my materials and work.
10. What is your favorite current indie/DIY trend?
I have loved reusing materials for years. Reusing materials has certainly picked up as a trend.
11. What was the best compliment a customer ever gave you?
A dear person whom I admire told me once that if she made jewelry-it would be just like mine. I love that compliment!
12. What craft would you like to try or learn?
Do I have to tell you just one? I would love to delve deeper into pottery, learn welding, continue printmaking, attempt etching, and do more metalsmithing. There's always a new creative adventure that awaits tending.
~~~
Valerie Williams: Holland Cox
1. How did you get started with your business?
I was having my quarter-life crisis and started sewing again after a long break to try and get over it. I decided to try and sell the things I made so I could afford to buy more fabric! :)
2. What is your favorite tool to work with?
Not technically a "tool," more like materials, but my *favorite* thing to work with has got to be cotton velvet. So delicious!
3. What/who inspires you?
Saturated color and bold patterns inspire me, and in turn, anyone who is unafraid to wear such color and pattern every day, not just for "special events."
4. Man-bag or murse? No man-bags!!! Sorry guys, your clothes have pockets.
5. Where do you see your business in 3 yrs?
I hope to still be sewing happily in three years, hopefully in my own sewing room instead of my dining room!
6. If you only had one thing to tell someone starting a craft/indie business what would it be?
Be patient with yourself. Take the time to make things exactly as you want them to, whether it is your product, your web site, your business card, whatever; there is no race, and the only real deadlines are the ones you set for yourself.
7. Rock, paper or scissors? Definitely scissors!
8. Are you a full time crafter/designer? No, I have a day job as a higher education lobbyist.
9. Do you have a craft crush? (A designer or indie/craft business that you admire.)
I have so many crushes! Gerbera Designs, Supermaggie, Sommer Designs, Mohop...to name a few.
10. What is your favorite current indie/DIY trend?
I find myself very attracted to charm bracelets of all kinds lately.
11. What was the best compliment a customer ever gave you?
That I had an excellent eye for color and design! It was wonderful.
12. What craft would you like to try or learn?
I am dying to learn how to make furniture, but I am terrified of power tools.
~~~
Erika Brent Hollen: Jackson Sage, LLC
1. How did you get started with your business?
I woke up one morning and thought to myself "Self let's go into business." A month later Jackson Sage was up and running but it took almost a year before I began to see the true vision and style of Jackson Sage.
In reality the creation of Jackson Sage took almost 15 years. Jackson Sage was first born when I began studying herbs when I was 15. I then studied art: painting and fibers, While in art school, I struggled with the concept of how to make art interact with the viewer on a small scale and personal level. After graduate school I began to be influenced by romance comics of the 1970s, as well as the concept of beauty and commodity. I also was/am very influenced by fashion catalogs.
When I woke up a year ago I thought the best way to combine my sketches and art with everyday life was skin care and soaps. Since I had been studying herbs for 15 years and art just as long, I was amazing it took me this long to put the two together.
2. What is your favorite tool to work with? Earth
3. What/who inspires you? Nature, Beauty, Art
4. Man-bag or murse? The Bro
5. Where do you see your business in 3 yrs? Hopefully growing
6. If you only had one thing to tell someone starting a craft/indie business what would it be?
Don't under estimate the time, money, overall amount of work, and the sacrifices.
7. Rock, paper or scissors? Paper
8. Are you a full time crafter/designer? Currently Jackson Sage is part time.
9. Do you have a craft crush? (A designer or indie/craft business that you admire.)
Ryan Adams.... Ok, he is not "craft" but music is a craft, right?
10. What is your favorite current indie/DIY trend?
I like the idea of supporting local and small businesses.
11. What was the best compliment a customer ever gave you?
That they had tried every chemical and product there was and my cleanser helped their skin. It was nice to know that I made something that helped someone.
12. What craft would you like to try or learn? The Bedazzler
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