Friday Finds... jarg0n
Interview # 49
I absolutely love to knit and crochet as you've probably guessed before and am totally besotted with anything that is remotely cute and geeky. I have always been like that in many ways, and was pretty well known in my teenage years for being the one that still thought cartoons were cool (still do.... ahem). Nowadays I am very much inspired by my kids, amigurumi styling and my inner "girl" (I'm a bit of a tomboy nowadays).
Jarg0n on Etsy is an artist that I feel an affinity with in this respect as their work reminds me of a child-like mentality, and the ability to enjoy creations without formality! The work is super cute, fun and bright and I am really pleased that I can share this fab interview with you today :)
(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)
-- Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) My name is Dawn or D4wn1e, I'm 41 years old and live in Rotherham UK with my partner Mick, son Jack and two cats Beta and Pixel. I grew up in a deprived area of England and was heavily into the punk scene while I was growing up. I spent much of my free time back then going to jumble sales and charity shops to buy clothing that I could redesign. I once stole the cricket net and Blackout curtains from school to make a skirt.
-- What is your business about then? Revisiting old skills that I've had an absolute passion for when I was younger. Arts and crafts were always my thing but before I knew it years had flown by and I had spent the time fitting in and being a responsible member of society (House, job, child, relationship). My son often tells me I should do more things that I really enjoy, so I guess my business is about that, rekindling old passions :)
-- How did Etsy come into your life? I had started creating craft items to sell for a charity and raised a decent sum of money. Mick told me about etsy and suggested I should open a shop and see what happens. I was suprised how cheap etsy was to list so thought what the hell.
-- Are you working a day job too? Not a conventional job but for the last two years I have been home educating my son who has Asperger's syndrome and social anxiety disorder due to extreme bullying at school. Although I don't work a regular 9 till 5 job I do put in a lot more hours but it means I can be flexible which works perfectly for the running of my etsy store.
-- How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? The artist me has always been there, she's just been hiding while the other me's were doing the regular stuff. I was taught knitting, embroidery and lots of other crafts from a very early age by my mother who coincidently creates all the crochet items in my shop. My shop has been open for two months now and the artistic me is back with a vengeance!
-- What has been the inspiration behind your business? Mick and Jack are the inspiration for my business. As an artist I find myself very critical of my own work as I imagine a lot of other artists are. The boys give me the confidence to say "Hey my work's good enough to be out there!"
-- If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? Unique, cute and geeky.
-- What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? Sometimes I get up with Mick when he's getting up for work about 5am, after a cup of tea and a check of my shop I can get a couple of hours crafting in before I wake Jack. The rest of the day is cooking meals, sorting Jack with school work, cleaning, washing, making lots of phone calls and arranging meetings for Jacks ongoing therapy and education. When Mick gets home from work and school, dinner and washing up are done I catch up with my shop and blog, taking and editing photographs, writing item descriptions and gaining publicity on various internet forums, this takes me to 9pm when I will wind down for the evening in front of the tv with a glass of wine but even then I will be crafting.
-- What's your favourite material and techniques to work with? I really love knitting and have recently tried hand felting for the first time which I absolutely love, I'm really proud of my traditional shrunken head bag as I have never seen the technique of tacking in the features pre felting done before and then hand felting the bag and having the features appear in 3D just as I imagined they would look. I should probably point out here for those that don't felt that the pre felted item is a lot bigger than the felted item and so getting the features to appear as they should is kind of tricky.
-- What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? My ideal vision for my work is that People enjoy my creations and hopefully I build up a customer base so that my sales increase, I would love for Mick to go part time and be able to spend more time at home.
-- Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? I love to game, especially co-op gaming, Micks the family techie so we have a big gaming network at home . We like to kill virtual zombies together (left 4 Dead). We also love to cook and experiment with recipes, we hot and cold smoke food and make our own cheese and of course tv and a glass of wine :)
-- What are you likely to search for on Etsy? Unique one of a kind items with possibly a gothic/horror twist.
-- Any last words? Do what you have a passion for, do it well but most of all enjoy it.
