Lessons

Lesson Info

Craft Show: Jen-Na

I am excited to see more of the hard work we've seen a little bit of it so far, so why don't you remind us who we are, who you are, who we are reminded of who you are, where we could find you online, and then I'd love to talk to you more about the work that you've got on the table. Okay, I'm sahar I own jenna dot com, jenna dot com j n dash and a dot com and I do fashion designer textile painting, jewelry making and book buying. I'm pointing everything up. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of stuff. Yes. What one product that we haven't talked a lot about during the you know, the whole creative live workshop is your book necklaces. So can you tell me a little bit about this product and what this product means to you? Um, I talk a lot, and I really think it's funny that I sell empty notebooks, and I just feel like I have a lot to say. I feel like a lot of people have a lot to say the people and I just I noticed that card's gets thrown away and I noticed me I just collect cars and put them in a...

file and it's just not fun, and I don't like get teo so this you get to wear it on your neck and you get it from a loved one they're sharing something with you you know and they can write little tiny like I'm challenging people it's more like a game teo like and that's definitely my cellar like my the thing that people go teo and I notice it's because they love everything else but because it's so expensive they go to the cheapest and I mean it's not that cheap but um but and then I start I started more like doing more things with it like this one I start I started in bossing the front part have a camera or whatever and on then and then I put, um burning men camp on ok titles and so there's my burner books I'm just trying to like because that is the kind of loving thing that I'm trying to show and you know, you mentioned that the book necklaces or your big tell me of any kind of customer story that goes along with this somebody an experience that they had with the jewelry or maybe just, you know, a testimonial that they sent you back that they were excited about the necklace or where they warrant even um I have a lot of my friends have it and I love it because when I they don't say anything, but when I see them on facebook I see the little book oh and they don't they don't know that and and I love that obviously, um I've had people buy books for me and then write me like write me like like letters right and then give me the book back oh interested and I don't want this book but I love the thing inside of it so um and then actually this is a funny story I was selling at this treasure island flee and these a lot of kids come come to it and a lot of kids really mommy mommy you know and they don't notice what they're doing they're like come on come on and there was this one time where there was three kids and there's ran and they were touching everything and I'm kind of panicking but then they ran off with it and I was actually very flattered by it and I just love that just made them so happy that they had to take it well, I hope that doesn't happen too often to you but just one more question and I think we might have a shopper who's interested in taking a look here but I'd love to know more about the process behind the scarves how you know what is the dying process that you're using and and why is that process kind of what you've chosen okay, so all these scarves, air silks and these one these scar this specific scarf is my favorite my favorite kind of scarf which are these and these and it's called silk organza and silk organza is actually really rough and so I do this process called de gumming where I soften parts of it so I clamp it and I do designs to it and then I put it in that process and then when I take it out um I diet into multiple batches of whatever it is it's a long process so how long might it take two to make just one scarf? This specific one took me about three hours to prepare it and then about four hours to die and become it that half and on dh then I actually did hand stitching so I was watching a bunch of movies that day so there were at least three movies worth of work on that. Um yeah way. Well, I think we've got a shopper lines up who's coming in and I'll let you talk to her about your work and then we'll take it from there. Thanks so much. I hurried doing good so I saw these little books before. So have you ever gone to burning him before? No no is there some significant as when you walk into burning man they have they have these catalogs and they give it to you and it has all the events that are happening uh it's there whatever and then there's funny funny camp names I love this one like, uh, camp tough blow that's so funny and you know, do you have one that says bumble bee no, but there is there is one that's a b camp thing and I can I can totally make that for you and yeah, one of my best friends she's in the bumble bee camp every year. Oh, and I would love to get her one of the eyes a little memento that would be if you want teo. I mean, I just did this guy just put it down because I totally cool. What a neat idea. How much are they? Uh, these books are sixty bucks, okay? And the ones that don't have the title on them the same. These ones are fifty five and the smaller ones are fifty. Cool. And what are these, like? Like recycled materials are no, they're not recycled material goods just whatever, like, makes my heart beat. You know, uh, this makes you feel like this or whatever get inspired, onedin. Hey, cool. And then what are these air just like notebooks. Yeah, this was inspired by the hipsters in san francisco. Okay, so that's, why there's a bike wow, actually, this this form of binding eyes, a traditional egyptian from like a very very old form of finding and I just love the way it looks that's why a lot of my books has to show that oh that's so cool and you do these all by hand? Yep. Oh, wow. Awesome cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for stopping in. So s o r one thing that I might suggest is that instead of you know, asking have you been to burning man you know and explaining sort of where these names come from? I would explain what burning man means to you because remember we're always going back to this meeting piece and in that case meaning also allows you to talk about the values that you have and you've got a bunch and I think they really show up in your work and so that's an opportunity to take on instance where, you know, not everyone's been to burning man a lot of places, a lot of most people haven't right, but many more people do share the values that go along with that. And so you could create an immediate connection with a customer who's even not been to burning man around that so they might choose a word or an idea here that maybe means something to them that has nothing to do with burning man just because you've created a values aligning the alignment are a meaning alignment there so that's great another thing that I suggest about this product in particular since that's what are awesome customer was taking a look at that I would find a way to display these that makes it really easy for people to try on because just like linda is wooden necklace is this is an unusual material for a necklace, right? And people want to get a feel not only for how it looks but literally how it feels on their neck eyes it going feel bulky isn't gonna poke me anywhere people really want to touch you? How does she was kind of going in like this? I think designing a display or finding a display that works to allow people to really get in there without feeling too much like they're going to mess this yeah, stuff up will really help with how people interact with your product. Speaking of that, I just want to point out your display for the scarves here I love the clear plastic packaging in terms of allowing people to see what it is, but I really think you need to work on a display also that allows people to try things on so I I want to see it leased for five scarves out of the packaging with a please touch me sign on them essentially, you know, try me on maybe even show it you've got these great manikins here you could show it on a manic and tied in a certain way and then encouraged people to pick up a scarf and do the same thing themselves that way there's there's actually a learning x spirits and yours is actually the first time of them and this week the waters that there's like a lot of them I normally have them all displayed in everybody touches them. Yeah, and they just individual ones get really, really lost, but here you can actually see the design of every yeah, eso I would both stick with this and incorporate away. Yeah, I just scaled down. No, I totally understand that. Yeah, but for people at home and just want to make sure that we're hitting the point trying things on this super important more we touch something, the more we play with it, more likely people are tio purchase an item I think it's really interesting that people are saying triscuit and virginia, they love your tiny books of their gorgeous but they also thought it was interesting that you could use that more of a theme because they've heard you talk about wanting to build a community. And so just like we talked about sort of the braille being the story again having those books a story it's something that they're recommending the scarves or nice books comfort community that they all go together some folks are relating to the fact that you have many, many, many different products here that's the question for you terra from yellow. So how is a skilled artist with so many talents in the ability to master the craft? I have a vision. How does how does one present all of their crowd? Yeah, well, you know what? This is the time when business sarah gets terrain on the artist's parade that's what you're here for that is what I'm here for sahar anyone out there watching, I would say it's, getting to be time to edit down this line, you know, yesterday after after hours, we kind of had a really good conversation about the book binding and how you could take this product and really elevated both to a new price point bringing in new customers and make it a signature product for you and jumping off those awesome ideas from triscuit and virginia about community building with this, I think this is a product that you should be leading with, then I would think, what are the values that you could kind of tie into b textile design so that you could create a story about these two parts of your line so that when you're in a show like this, you're booth is much more focused now, that doesn't mean that you can't also still be x flooring maybe a gallery type setting for this kind of work or more of a couture typesetting for this type of working but in an environment like this where you really need to present a you know focused image of who you are and what you do and the products that you have available I would really look toe editing down your line I think the same thing goes for people's at stores or other online stores when you've got so much going on, customers get confused and uncomfortable and then confused in uncomfortable customers don't buy and I think that's exactly what could be going on here too so edit it down focus, focus, focus and just find other outlets for other things and you know the other thing they're too and I'm not saying that's necessarily applies to you, but I think people forget the value of hobbies when their hobby becomes a business and so there might be things that you really want to focus on the business side of what ugo and other things that you really want to focus more on just doing it because you love it and less because it's feeding the business that you have exxon has one question actually, so I know this is the the one that I sell the most of it and I'm just wondering like with more than one genre what would be my upscale like you're afraid I mean upsell do you think about that when you're shopping? You're thinking ok that's probably the one that sells the most what do you think I don't necessarily when I'm in shopping mode and not in like business critique mode? I'm not necessarily thinking about that, but for you the upsell for for a necklace is almost always going to be a pair of earrings so you've got that already and I would love to see again this displayed in a way that really shows off with this product is being in the box you can't see how fantastic that hearing it it's really bad it's just so small so hard tio maybe it underneath a magnifying glass and you know and you could tie that in almost two a library scene I think that could be really fun actually so yeah, I would work on some more hearings to display with the books and you could then also talk to people about mixing and matching because you know they're gonna wonder what can I do a golden red book with a black and green book and you might say, oh my gosh, yes, let me push you on the color front where you might be able to say, you know what? I know that that could be a little crazy for some people, so hey, I've got some golden red earrings I've got red and gold earrings over here let me let me give those to you so you can try those. Yeah, okay, awesome. Thank you so much. I've loved seeing more of your work, especially all together like this, and I'm looking forward to seeing where your business head. Thank you.