Shop Local in Bellevue May 13, 2017 with Handmade​ Nashville

The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts and Crafts Show is May 13 at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN. All of the items you will see there are made in America; in fact everything we offer is made in or near Nashville by mompreneurs and other motivated small business owners from this area!

Our 76 vendors are excited to share their wares with you. Between us we have a huge variety of handmade products for gifts (Mother's Day is May 14th hint, hint!) and home decor.

Here is a little background on a few of the friendly people you will meet on May 13 in part three of our Meet the Makers series.

There have always been crazy little ideas running through Jennifer Cater's head...wanting something but not finding it available out in the real world lead to the beginning of The J.Cater Shop.

Always crafty and resourceful, Jennifer now shares her creations with everyone. What kickstarted as a small business dedicated to fabric covered button earrings and jewelry, has now expanded to an eclectic mix of modern, vintage and upcycled jewelry, accessories and decor. 

Pieces are wacky, versatile, weird, person-centered but most of all FUN! Some items reach to your childhood or touch your soul, representing a piece of yourself maybe once lost or one never left behind.

There's something for almost all tastes! And if there isn't, Jennifer will do her best to create it!

Amanda Merry runs Inner Sun Soap. Her business started after Doctors could not find an effective treatment for her youngest son’s eczema. After a lot of experimenting and studying, everyone in the family began to have noticeably nicer skin. 

It was clear that she had a business when friends started buying her products from her. In an effort to be both ethical and cost-effective, she only purchases sustainable and organic products from reputable sources.

When you support Inner Sun Soap, you are helping a family buy baseball gear for their sons, and encouraging an entrepreneur to continue studying herbology, You’re helping a community of handcrafters and small businesses buy from each other. You’re helping to feed your skin with wholesome ingredients with the latest knowledge about skin care. And you're helping the homeless since a portion of the profits is donated to Open Table Nashville.

 FairyMeMore was a childhood passion passed on by Angie Wanke Ragan, known as Oni, by her nieces and nephews originally and now by those that know her best for her whimsy and eccentric personality. Angie has a flair for the newest trends with her own personal touch and Boho Chic and European treasures have always been her own personal style preference. She now has the time to embrace her creativity to share with others the love for handmade fairy, pixie, gnome gardens, houses, terrariums, furniture and even tiny food for your little visitors that flutter in the twilight or hide in your garden or around the house. 

Angie makes crystal jewelry and shares her collection of fine Sterling Silver Wrapped Natural Gemstones. She also has an extensive knowledge of crystals and their benefits to our mind, body and spirit and she sells her finds to others that embrace a holistic approach to health and wellness. You will just love to see Angie's Fairy Houses that will be featured at her FairyMeMore booth.

We can't wait to meet you on May 13th!

Summer Arts & Crafts Show May 13, 2017: Meet the Makers Part 2

Come out and make friends with the people behind Handmade Nashville May 13 in person at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN. Join our Facebook event for details and the latest news!

We are dedicated to the handmade movement and to helping grow our local economy by sharing locally made products with shoppers in our community. We will host over 70 vendors offering a huge variety of handmade items, gifts and home decor on May 13. Read on to meet some of our makers.

Statement Peace Jewels offers handmade one of a kind eclectic and inspirational jewelry pieces. Owner and designer Karen Kirscht creates ready to wear necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. The designer's work is often described as funky, whimsical, and upbeat.

Ready to wear pieces range from classic conservative styles through more ornate trendy contemporary looks. Since each piece is unique to itself SPJ offers a wide range of styles and materials to be an "affordable splurge" making the wearer feel their personal best.

For those customers who want to take an active role in the design process, Karen offers style consultation and over 20 years of self-taught jewelry making techniques to construct pieces on the spot. Customers are welcome to shop from Statement Peace Jewel's always evolving (and growing) jewelry pendants and materials to achieve that special piece that strives to "make a statement without saying a word."

Jill Stone of Beautified Essentials makes art that has a function such as manicure sets, bottle stoppers, hair accessories, etc. She is primarily a polymer clay artist, which means she blends solid blocks of clay with gold and silver leaf to create beautiful mixes of color. She uses the patterned clay to decorate ~30 practical useful items (hence her business name "Beautified Essentials"). She decorates the highest quality products because she wants her art to be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Jill minored in art at Juniata College focusing primarily on ceramic pottery, but she took a variety of art studio, and art history classes as well. She first started working with polymer clay in 2010, but has made pressed flower art since she was a child (over 26 years). She makes polymer clay art because she gets tremendous enjoyment out of making it, and she loves sharing the process and products which bring beauty and joy to everyone else. She garners fulfillment out of knowing that she has enhanced ordinary useful products into unique pieces of art.

Jill is a proud stay at home mom with two little girls, taking a break from teaching middle school science. She has sold over 7,300 pieces of art since 2010.

Lauren of Lauren Antoinette designs became an accidental jewelry designer after breaking a necklace her father gave her. Thankfully two women in a jewelry design studio in Mobile, Alabama walked her through a quick fix, leading to a passion she never knew existed. The spirit behind the local shops is something that stuck with her and has been a driving influence as she opened Lauren Antoinette Designs.

Lauren uses only 14k gold-filled or sterling silver materials to ensure the longevity of the timeless pieces. They are hand-made to order using the simplest tools – her hands and a hammer. By personally molding and hammering the quality wire, each piece is an individual and can be client customized.

The pieces are referred to as “Little Happies." Growing up, Lauren’s mother would randomly give a small gift to someone and say, “She just needed a little happy!" The phrase stuck - a collection of unique little happies to share with the world. As she reminisced, another "happy" came to mind - music. Whether it be an exciting moment or an upsetting one, there was a gravitation towards music in order to express those feelings. If she couldn’t find the words to express her feelings, Lauren knew EXACTLY which song did. That's why you will find some hidden musical inspiration in the products. The songs or lyrics they are inspired by hold a story in her heart. As Lauren shares her happies with you, she hopes you will share a little happy with someone you love.



Come back to meet more of our makers next week and if you missed part 1 you can read it here.

Look out for Karen, Lauren and Jill May 13th at the Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

Summer Arts & Crafts Show May 13, 2017: Meet the Makers Part I

The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show is May 13th at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue. It is a great venue for families with a playground on site and it's in an easy to find, high traffic area of Bellevue with fast access to I-40, just about 20 minutes drive from downtown Nashville. Visit our event page to get updates plus driving directions.

All of our events feature only handmade items with a wide variety of locally made crafts including jewelry, natural bath and body products, clothing, bags, accessories, home decor, personalized gifts and much more!

We are excited to introduce you to some of our 60+ vendors. Read on for part one of a three part blog series to get to know some of the people and crafts that will be with us on May 13th.

Original Organics Herbals

Grown from a love of plants and herbs, Rachel’s line of small batch products feature primarily organic and wildcrafted ingredients. Raised in Nashville, she is happy to be back in the rolling hills of Tennessee after growing her love for natural living in the woods of Wisconsin for many years.

On walks through her garden, and sometimes in unexpected areas like the city or the forest, Rachel collects beneficial and healing plants, which she combines with organic essential oils, mineral-rich salts, and vegetable-based oils and butters. These mixtures eventually emerge as nutrient-dense moisturizing balms, detoxifying bath salts, non-toxic deodorants, and skin-soothing serums.

All of her products are feel-good in more than one way: the nourishing benefits of plants and herbs front and center, with Rachel’s deep connection to the earth driving environmentally-aware and sustainable processes throughout production.

Find out more on Facebook!

Wise Butter LLC

"Don't deny what you know to be true: everything's better with butter."

Wise Butter is small-batch, blended butter made lovingly by hand in Nashville, TN. Their butter allows you to have a spiritual experience with toast. Or it can make that sad little recipe you're working with sing. The flavors change with the seasons (and our whims) and they work meticulously to highlight local produce and other regional specialties. Their butters span the spectrum from familiar to unexpected, so both a gourmand and a 5-year-old could easily be pleased with something Wise Butter has to offer.

Wise Butter offers five flavors, two of which are seasonal and rotate often. They always stock Roasted Garlic Basil, Chipotle, and Vegan with Smoked Salt. Their current winter flavors are Pumpkin Spice and Maple Cranberry. Be sure to follow them on social media for the latest roster.

Sally Hodges Bags

Sally of Sally Hodges Bags loves color, textiles and fabric of all kinds and it shows in her work! This small sewing business is committed to repurposing, recycling and reusing; and Sally makes bags and other small items from felted sweaters, vintage fabric, home decor, used clothing and other found objects.

With sustainability in mind, each piece is made using around 90% second hand contents.

Sally has sewn for most of her life and she has been a quilter since 1974. For the past ten years she has enjoyed working with repurposed fabrics which has given her the freedom to be improvisational and creative.

Beckitybootique

Beckitybootique specializes in handmade clothing for children and dolls as well as writing services for small businesses. Although it started as a sewing hobby business and a way for a new stay-at-home-mom to make some "fun money" for the family, after a few years writing began to take a forefront, especially after a third baby came along. Beckitybootique now offers writing services on Etsy and also under the name "Beckityboo" on Fiverr.com.

Popular products include Halloween and Christmas dresses on the sewing side and Etsy "About page" biographies and product descriptions on the writing side.

Writing for small businesses helps owner Becky feel connected to the handmade world even at times when she is not able to be physically creative and she takes great pride in being able to help other small businesses be more successful.

Look out for more information on our event coming soon and don't forget to make plans to be at our May 13th Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

How to Have a Stress- Free Craft Show with Handmade Nashville

Handmade Nashville is made up of over 900 local people who make and sell all kinds of different handmade items from jewelry and furniture to clothing and artwork...our purpose is to  support every single one of our members, regardless how far along they are in their skill or their business!

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Our philosophy is, by lifting everyone up, everyone has an equal chance to succeed and get their work in front of interested buyers in the Middle Tennessee area (and beyond!). So with this in mind, we have come up with a couple of new ways to help new or inexperienced sellers get started and for experienced vendors to get their items into a stress-free craft show!

• You don't need a ton of supplies or sales experience!
• You don't need to be at the show all day!

Option 1: Handmade Nashville COMMUNITY BOOTH

Perhaps you have another event on May 13 or can't get a babysitter? Maybe you're just shy about selling your handmade items directly to the public? No worries!

The Community Booth will be prominently placed at our show and staffed by Handmade Nashville admins. We offer this option for new sellers or experienced vendors who just flat out don't have the time or supplies to run their own booth.

You simply bring us your items before the start of the show and we'll present them alongside our own and others like you. For an idea of what this looks like, take a look at this picture from our last show!

At the end of the day, you come back to pick up any unsold items and we will transfer the proceeds from your sold items to you via PayPal within one week of the show date.

You can sell around ten items this way (depending on size) and the cost is just a flat $25.

For more information, check out our vendor app:

Option 2: Participate in our SWAG BAGS and BUSINESS CARD DISPLAY

At our Summer Arts and Crafts Show on May 13th, like all shows we do, we will hand out free swag bags to the first 25 customers. Everyone loves free stuff and it encourages foot traffic. Inside our swag bags are items from our members who are at the show.

Some members add a freebie or a sample, others add a coupon to their online store and others add brochures or business cards that explain their business. Being a part of this promotional bag is beneficial to get your product and your business noticed.

For only $5 we are offering ALL of our members the opportunity to be a part of our swag bag program (members who will have a booth at our Summer Arts and Crafts show or who are a part of Our Community Booth need not apply as this is provided with your booth fee.). In addition to being able to put your card or sample into the swag bags, you will also have your business card displayed in our Community Booth in a prominent location, for the taking by the thousands of customers we are expecting to see at our show.

This is a great way to help spread the word about your business for a very little investment. If you're interested in being a part of our swag bags and having your business cards on display at our show at Bellevue Park, please fill out this application, pay five bucks and get your sample items to us. Our hope is to have our swag bags overflowing with handmade goodies and our community table brimming with cards / information on hundreds of our talented members!

If you'd just like to come along and shop at our event, we'd love to see you! Join our event page on Facebook for up to date information and directions to the show on May 13, 2017!

Attention Handmade Arts & Crafts Makers in Middle Tennessee!

We are looking for HANDMADE arts and crafts vendors to join our SUMMER ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW May 13 in Bellevue!

What is Handmade Nashville?

Handmade Nashville is an active Facebook group with almost 1,000 members. We have been supporting each other and our small handmade businesses since 2014 and we have hosted several craft shows for our members in Nashville in recent years. We have an active Facebook page with 1,700 followers.

All About This Event!

For our latest event we are relocating to a larger venue in Bellevue, TN! We will be set up at the Red Caboose Park (aka Bellevue Park) on Colice Jeanne Road/Highway 70. This is a great venue in a high traffic part of Bellevue and is highly visible from the highway. It is family friendly and pet friendly and is located right next to the playground and public library.

What to Expect:

Our events are 100% handmade vendors...we don't accept any resale or Direct Sales vendors. We advertise our events on Facebook as well as locally.

Our admin team is made up of volunteers so all of the profits from our shows go right back into the next event and this helps us keep our costs reasonable. We are all handmade vendors ourselves with craft show experience and we put a lot of effort into vendor communications and making sure someone is available to help vendors at all times during our shows.

More Information:

For more info, you can request to join our Facebook group or follow our event page on Facebook.

Vendor Application:

Or sign up right now using our online vendor application!

Summer is coming soon (ish) and so is the Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

Mark your calendars because we're gearing up for our next craft show!

When? Saturday May 13, 2017

Where? The Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN

What is it?  The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Craft Show featuring 60+ local vendors selling locally made handmade products

What's different about this event? We only sell HANDMADE items at our events, so you won't find anything mass produced or offered through a direct sales format. All of our items are 100% handmade locally in the Nashville area!

Our event is family- and pet-friendly! We'll have food trucks there too!

FIND OUT MORE and keep up to date with important event-related updates by clicking on the "GOING" or "INTERESTED" tab near the top of the event page which you can find at the link below:
Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Craft Show EVENT PAGE!

We'll see you there!

Pop IN to our Pop UP and Help Handmade Nashville Celebrate our One Year Anniversary: September 12, 2015 at Curvy Yoga

Handmade Nashville has come a long way in one year!  We’ve gone from a small Facebook group with just a few members to a thriving community of over 1,000 local artists and crafters. 

We consider our Facebook group to be our home, but in this past year we have branched out with a public Facebook page as well as an established presence on other social media like Twitter, Pinterest and of course, right here on our blog and also in the "real world" with our artisan events!

In a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating one year since our founding member and “fearless leader” Dee Cheek invited a few of us to start the group.  To celebrate, we’ll be hosting a Pop Up Boutique Style Artisan Market in our regular spot at Curvy Yoga in East Nashville. 

Amazing painted dresser by Boho Status Quo

If you haven’t been to one of our events before, you definitely don’t want to miss this one!  We’ll have more vendors than ever before (twenty seven and counting!) plus giveaways and food; and don’t forget amazing handmade artisanal crafts made by our wonderful vendors from all around the Nashville area.  Among the vendors this time we’ll have jewelry, quilts, furniture, soaps, soft toys and more.  We’re also going to have a special consignment booth with a little bit of everything from some of our members who want to participate, but aren’t able to be there in person all day

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We're once again proud to be part of the East Side Art Stumble, so if you're already planning on doing a bit of cultural tourism on the east side of town the evening of September 12th, don't forget to pop in and see us at Curvy Yoga from 3-8pm!  

Our Vendor Line-Up for This Event:

Betty Lou's Biskits 

Boho Status Quo 

Boutique Babies 

Create in Me 

Cupcake Sensation

Cute Fluffin' Stitch 

Cyndy's Art in Glass 

Great Bear Forge 

Inner Sun Soap 

Marble Art by Rachel

Music City Mercantile

Angelkiss Crafts 

Statement Peace Jewels 

Goddess Awakened

Made by Paygee 

LuSu Creations Boutique 

Snug a Bug Threads 

Adorable stuffed animals from Cute Fluffin Stitch

And at our Handmade Nashville consignment booth:

Cheek Arts 

A Little This A Little Tat

Beckitybootique 

Seams Sew Wright 

Chandler's Dezigns 

By JenJen 

Twisted Kross 

Frannyv 

Handmade Nashville Blog Link Up 8/13/15

What to do:

1. Go to the link "Click Here to Enter"
2. Type in or copy/paste the link to the blog post you want to share
3. Follow the instructions on the linky form
4. Visit some of the other blogs on the list and read/comment/add them to your G+ circles if you'd like
5. Sit back and feel love bestowed upon your blog by other bloggers!
6. DONE!

If you really want to, you can link back to this post in your blog ;)

Member Bio: Venuto Woodwork

Hi Nashville and the world!  Today we’re introducing you to Caleb Venuto of Venuto Woodwork.

Caleb and his wife live in live in beautiful East Tennessee among the endless rolling hills and green pastures.  He’s a carpenter, originally from Big Bear Lake, California.  Caleb and his wife have endless hours of fun and antics with their three cats/furbabies.

Caleb’s love of creating custom high quality wood pieces originates from a little wood rocking chair that was handed down to him as a child. Together the family fixed slats on that little rocking chair and repainted it several times over the years so that each grandchild and great grandchild could experience rocking in that little wooden chair, making it a family heirloom.

He later explored woodworking at Big Bear High School and developed a greater love for creating beautiful pieces out of wood.   For his high school final he made a large 5 shelf cabinet with a glass door for his mother that she still uses and loves.  At the same time during high school, he started a job at a custom door company.  Working with wood runs in the family and Caleb’s grandfather is also a big influence as he is a very talented woodworker and used to have a great workshop. Caleb eventually perfected his skills in Torrance California, creating custom cabinets and wood products for high-end customers and he now has his own custom carpentry business in Tennessee.

In October 2014 Caleb opened an Etsy shop to display his exotic wood tie creations.  He was inspired to start making wood ties after purchasing a simple wood tie several years ago; it was not made to last and lacked quality workmanship, but it was an idea that intrigued him.  He worked on creating a unique exotic wood tie collection that was both beautiful and extremely high quality. His success in making the wood ties lead to him starting to make exotic wood jewelry, children's ties and tie bars.  He eventually started customizing and engraving initials and custom symbols on his tie, tie bar, and necklace collection.   He also makes custom wood signs and decor. 

“I love to see people's expressions when they see a completed project.”

Caleb enjoys creating and designing items with the help of his mother and wife.  Their input and help is crucial in making Venuto Woodwork into a successful business.  His mother (who still lives in Bear Lake, CA) has a marketing/graphic artist background and is his partner in social media and shop updates along with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) updates.  They enjoy working together and discuss weekly, sometimes daily, how to improve products, customer satisfaction, quality, and outreach. 

Originally Caleb made all of his wood ties by hand, but that was not suitable for smaller projects like necklaces and bracelets so, in due course, he purchased a CNC machine to cut out his designs.  He uses specialized programs to design his art and his mom designs vector art in Adobe Illustrator.   Caleb’s goal is to eventually get a laser cutter to expand the jewelry line with more intricate pieces.  He also hopes to eventually work with acrylics and metal. 

Caleb loves working with exotic woods, he says “Zebra wood is my favorite but my Heartwoods are fun to work with especially because purple is my favorite color.  I put a lot of time and patience into each product I create, by hand, for people to enjoy hopefully for many years to come.” 

Inspiration comes from shapes and animals and his wife and mother love continually coming up with new ideas.  Venuto Woodwork also hosted a design contest to get ideas from the community and some of those designs ended up in the Etsy shop.  He finds that his Instagram users are also very supportive.

If you’re looking to meet Caleb in person, he is a regular vendor at Border Bash and a new event at Wolfhills Brewing Company.  He offers all his jewelry, ties and fun signs at these local events. 

In looking to the future, he hopes to eventually expand his woodworking business into a full-time venture.  He enjoys the work and meeting new customers he encounters along the way.

Caleb’s favorite quote is from Marc Jacobs, "I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect - they are much more interesting."

 

Thank you for taking the time to get to know Caleb and Venuto Woodwork and hopefully you will enjoy owning one of his handcrafted custom products soon.

If you’d like to learn more, Venuto Woodwork can be found online here:

http://www.venutowoodwork.etsy.com

https://www.facebook.com/venuto_wood_work

http://www.facebook.com/venutowoodwork

http://twitter.com/venuto_woodwork

http://www.pinterest.com/VenutoWoodwork

Member Bio: Cute Fluffin Stitch

Let’s meet with another of our lovely Handmade Nashville members;  Ashley Gomez of Cute Fluffin Stitch.

 

Ashley and the love of her life/husband of almost five years are both originally from Alabama, but have lived in Tennessee for the past seven years. They have a miniature dachshund, but no kids yet.

She dabbles in a lot of different crafts and loves making unique items that help people stay organized and still look nice. She also likes making cute items for kids to love.   She has been sewing and quilting over the past four years after having learned the basics from her mother in law and like many of us modern crafters, she expanded upon that through YouTube tutorials. :)

Originally she got into sewing when she saw the quilts that her mother in law made and she wanted to transform the quilts into something else. Now Ashley enjoys coming up with ways to expand her basic crafting skills and make something completely new.

Her handmade items are mostly made using 100% cotton fabrics and occasionally flannel.  She sees patterns and designs everywhere, and finds that doodling really helps her wrangle in her ideas.

 Ashley’s shop got started when she began making things and found that people wanted to buy them! :)  Her shop is evidence that she doesn’t favor any one particular color over the others; it looks like a beautiful rainbow! :D  She has mostly been selling through Etsy thus far, but she had her first foray into craft shows at one of our recent Curvy Yoga events.

She mostly works on her own, but her husband helps with questions about how to make things and their dog supervises operations!

When looking to the future and the possibility of having a physical store, she says “As fun as it would be to own my own business, make my own hours, all that, I don't want my hobby to become my burden.” She doesn’t currently offer any type of learning for other crafters, but she is working on developing some quilt blocks and she’s always looking to expand upon what she already knows.

Ashley’s favorite quote:

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

 

You can find Ashley here:

cutefluffinstitch.etsy.com

Facebook.com/cutefluffinstitch

cutefluffinstitch.WordPress.com 

Twitter @cutefluffstitch


Coming soon from Handmade Nashville....

 

 

It's (almost) Time for Another Craft Show! Join Us at Curvy Yoga Nashville July 11, 2015 4pm - 9pm

We're busy getting all of our ducks in a row for our next Arts & Craft Show at Curvy Yoga in East Nashville's Trendy Five Points area.

If you haven't yet been to one of our shows, here are a couple of reasons why you should swing by:

• Awesome crafts!  All of it 100% handmade in the local Nashville area.

• Great atmosphere!  We're set up at the Curvy Yoga house on South 11th St which is not only a gorgeous historic neighborhood full of character, it's right up in the heart of East Nashville, just a picturesque stroll away from a ton of fun places to eat and hang out on a warm summer's evening!

• No, seriously, GREAT CRAFTS!  Our Handmade Nashville members are super talented, see below for some examples.

• FREE STUFF...this one is a surprise, but (while supplies last) we have scored some sweet freebies for our first 60-ish buyers.

• Lovely people!  Our members are a friendly bunch, come down and say hi and stop to shop and chat.

• East Side Art Stumble happens every second Saturday and we're proud to be part of it.  Find out more here

• Kettle Corn and Fruit Tea from B & Kids Concessions!!!

So make plans to come on down to see us on Saturday!  It's going to be a fantastically fun evening of crafts and new friendships!   Join our event page to get all the details and latest updates!

Our artisans for this event:
Donna Rioux, 3 D's Quilts & More
Tina Diaz, Angelkiss Crafts
Bari Miley, Ashwood Estates Apothecary  ...
Bonita Blue, B & Kids Concessions
Chandler Cartozzo, Chandler's Dezigns
Dee Cheek, Cheek Arts
Ashley Gomez, Cute Fluffin' Stitch
Laura Marron, eSCENTially Yours
Stephanie Dotson, Great Bear Forge
Jani Kendy, In Stillness
Andrea Tarpley, LocsandStitches
Marie Dykes, LUMI
Karin Moolman, Mooliemarket
Christina Johnson, Rustic Naturals
Kristi Bennett, Step On It Art
Christine Jacobs, Teena's Doll Fashions
Valentina Ramos, Valentina Ramos
Jessica Mullins, With Love Accessories
Mallory Moore, Wittlemimi's

Examples of items that will be available at the arts & crafts show this Saturday

 

Handmade Nashville Member Biographies: Lokker of Love

Today we’re chatting with one of Handmade Nashville’s lovely newer members Joyann Lokker of Lokker of Love.  Joyann stands out from the usual crafter in that she’s not just crafting for the love of making beautiful things, she’s also crafting for a cause. ..Let’s meet her!

 

Background and Crafty Beginnings

Joyann is 24 years old and has been married for (almost) four years.  She has a beautiful daughter who is about to turn two!  She and her husband are anxious to expand to a family of four and are currently in the process to adopt domestically.   100% of every purchase of Joyann’s crafted items goes to help fund the family’s adoption journey.

 

 Originally from California, Joyann has moved around a lot since being married, but she is now happily settled in Nashville.  She feels blessed with the wonderful job of staying at home with her beautiful daughter, but loves her side projects of sewing and crocheting.

Her favorite projects are inspired by quality time with family. The idea of sewing baby doll slings came as she watched her daughter play mom to her stuffed animals. Watching her daughter and husband play tag and run the hallways of their house brought superhero capes to mind.   Her latest project of matching mom and daughter aprons makes her reminiscence on all the times that her daughter “helps” cook (and make a mess) in the kitchen.  Her crafts may not be completely unique in the marketplace, but each one is made with love to raise funds for their adoption and her hope is that they bring as much laughter into someone else's home as they do into her own.

 

Her Return to Crafting

Sewing was a special time with mom and grandma when Joyann was young. Although it had been a while since she had sat at a sewing machine, the memories of it made her excited to dig into it again. Since she now lives across the country from her family, Pinterest helped her re-learn the basic skills.

Joyann wants every item to be treasured by the buyers and, as previously mentioned; one of the motivations behind her art/crafts is to make items that promote "quality time" with family. Her favorite part is reminiscing on past memories and day dreaming of “how to use each project with my own family to create new memories” and she hopes other families can enjoy similar times and make memories with their own children too.

                    

Inspiration and Favorites

All of her current items are sewn, although come winter, she will begin crocheting again. While each item is unique to just boys or just girls, she tries to make an equal amount of boys and girls items. Her own daughter loves pink, so she tends to be drawn to this color, although she makes sure to even it out with other colors.  Joyann makes all of her sewing and crafting projects, but her husband is a huge helper and encourages every new idea.

 

 Quality time with family and memories with her daughter inspire each item. Seeing her creative toddler’s imagination at work leads to ideas for future projects. Nothing brings Joyann more joy than seeing her daughter and other small children having fun playing with her sewing creations…and the most wonderful part is that it’s all fundraising for the next child to join their family.

 

From Hobby to Fundraiser… Craft Shows and Beyond!

All of her projects so far have been created as a way to raise money for the adoption; however she is currently trying to expand her crafting line into more than just a short-term fundraiser. She has recently increased the amount of items for sale, and she is working to reach out to more avenues for selling (Facebook, craft fairs, etc).

Joyann began selling at a couple of craft fairs last fall. At the time she was only selling head wraps though and she’s eager to bring some of her new products to market at craft fairs.

For now, her goal is to bring their adopted child home and not have a penny of debt.  She hopes to continue to make new items after the adoption is final as a way to continue to bring in income to the family and she’d love to expand her sewing skills to work towards that goal.

 Joyann’s favorite quote:  "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23)

 

You can find Joyann online here:

www.etsy.com/shop/lokkeroflove

 www.facebook.com/lokkeroflove

www.lokkerfamily.webs.com (Note: the purpose of this blog is an update for her adoption journey, but the "Current Fundraisers" tab is up to date on all of Joyann’s  homemade projects)