Thursday Feature

A sincere apology for not posting my interview yesterday. I may shoot for Wednesday of next week. Sometimes life just seems to creep up on you. In lieu of that, today I am bringing to you Joy from Joyuna.etsy.com. As you can see, Joy is a yarn artist, and quite talented at that!

Passioin for Purple Handspun Merina Striping Yarn 86 yds Sport wt

Joy has a clear love for fibers. Who doesn't? However, she does have a hidden love for handmade soaps and would love to venture down that road someday. The scent mixing process sounds very appealing to her, it's just the chemistry part she has to get through. Perhaps she could mix handmade soaps in hand knitted bags from fibers she has spun and dyed! Hmm...keep an eye on her shop as you never know what you might see!

With the many ways she works her fibers, Joy has a hard time getting in a creative rut. The variety of techniques she does, between spinning, dying, knitting, she finds that if she gets in a creative rut in one area, she can move onto another and focus on that for a while. As far as evolution of her craft, she has begun designing patterns in which she offers for sale in her shop. This might prove to be a good idea to keep several options available for you to pursue should the creative-brick wall show up on you!

Three Sachets - PDF Digital Knitting Pattern

As far as organizing her ideas, Joy finds a solution in two mediums: her computer and a sketchbook. Much of her ideas are stored on her computer in text files for easy access. She also keeps a notebook within reach to record ideas as seeing them down on paper helps her to think better. Sketches are very useful to Joy to play around with design ideas. When she is working on very complicated things, such as designing patterns, she doesn't allow for any distractions. However, Hulu.com is her favorite background noise when she is working on something a little easier, such as spinning, dying or knitting. Joy feels that this little bit of distraction takes the pressure of her mind when working on tedious things, also.

Beach Surf luxury fingering weight cashmere sock yarn

Joy has acquired a whole new appreciation for the handmade business. She is finding that running her business is a lot of work with many rewards. In fact, her most memorable accomplishment is starting her business in the first place! She is thrilled with the fact that she has a business and is very pleased that she is selling things that she has made by herself and hopes to devote much more time over the summer to create some more wow-factor for her shop. Joy currently sells online on Etsy, but will be venturing out into the craft-show circuit this summer and fall. She has gotten together with a couple handmade buddies who will be serving as support for each other in this direct to the public selling venture. Perhaps we can get her to post her schedule on her blog so week can keep an eye out for her!

The work, although she finds time-consuming, to Joy it is very rewarding as well as challenging. In running a business, you have a lot of hats to wear and a lot of skills to learn, but Joy is finding that every one of those hats fits and the ability to learn all the skills she needs to learn to make her business successful. She feels her most effective marketing technique is HER BLOG which gives her the ability to build relationships with her clients and fellow artisans. She shares with her public everything from what she is making, what is going on in her shop to what is going on in her daily life and what she's currently pursuing as a hobby. Be sure to stop by her blog and see the socks she has been knitting!

Joy has learned so much about from her business and offers this little gem of advice:
"...remember that [you're] getting paid to do what [you] love, and [you] should never forget to enjoy it. Running a shop is hard, being a new seller can be discouraging, and it's hard to get sales sometimes - but you should never forget why you started it in the first place, to do what you enjoy"

I don't know if you have ever tried spinning. I tried last summer with a drop spindle, so seeing the work that Joy puts out gives me a whole new appreciation for it. Believe me, it takes alot of patience to spin, at least until you get the hang of it. I was one of the many who gave up! Joy does offer us a beautiful and affordable solution to our fibers needs. Drop by her shop and shout a convo to her. I'm sure she would welcome the chat!