Today's featured Etsy shop is Roots of Bayer. The artists behind it, Jessica and Lauren, specialize in one of a kind hair bows and accessories. Most of their items are rare limed vintage and up cycled fabrics/materials and one of a kind original designs.
My name is Jessica Ludwick and my cousin's name is Lauren Broshious and we for now create accessories. I am a lover of vintage clothes, love the elderly feeling like I was born in the wrong time. I work many jobs to do what I love. I am also at 2d surrealist pop/expressionist artist and love to teach others what I learn. I have a huge love of Japan culture and get stuck in my own fantasy world of Lolita.
Lauren is currently finishing her bachelors in exercise science and hoping to get into grad school for physical therapy. She has a love for travel and the sea and works really hard managing work and school.We were attached to each others limbs since her birth so we have a very at ease business relationship.
Lauren working in school rapidly, I take care the craft show sign ups 98% of the designs and send out all the orders and take the pictures and major decisions and company purchases. I created this business with her in mind for a way that Lauren can make money for college and so that we have something we can do together and bond that's why I taught her to make bows.
We offer made to order plain bows made of either vintage material or new material for a good price or we have original hair bows or accessories that use many different mediums, but we like to think of our items higher class since they take hours and use rare materials that we can't find again. We are working on broadening or range because we know not everyone wears bows. The thing is we have so much material that we got to get rid of it first before moving forward.
Bayer is Lauren and I's mothers maiden name. Since lauren and I are the next generation of the family we are the roots.
Lauren was the creative one in the family. She was always making stuff from clay. When we first started her job was to make cay middle pieces. She gets frustrated because of her perfectionism and wanted to make bows.
I started off as a Tomboy. I was really athletic strong I wanted to be an Olympian. When I was 12 my brain did a 360 and I was diagnosed with bipolar. My lack of creativity boosted dramatically and my athleticism when downhill. I wouldn't change my illness for anything even though it's tough because I was gifted with amazing original ideas for art and design. After watching adult swim I decided to start drawing anime and then switching to surrealism and expressionism. When I was living with my ex I didn't have a job and I decided I wanted to make bows. I thought it would be a good start until I started making dresses and other items. My friend Dominque Robinson (That1girl) is a very talented crafter and pushed me to start crafting because she is so amazing.
My inspiration started off with Lolita Fashion. Our Business will be make clothing, more jewelry and accessories. Our grandma Ellie always comes home with old items from estate sale and she started bringing me crafting supplies. My obsession with the 50s and Victorian ages combines vintage and Lolita/Japanese designs. With that in mind I started buying vintage clothes and will start selling them on our site if they go with the theme of the shop because I am really lucky. I used to go with my grandma and she has passed down the thrill of the hunt to me. I also started bringing my surrealism from 2d to 3d form in creating original art hair designs and odd pieces. I am a little bit of everything. Sweet and sour. I like to design for girls who dress like princesses and talk like sailors or girls and women who dress in blood and skulls and are the sweetest people you will ever meet.Bold strong beautiful women no matter what they look like. I stay true to myself and look up to the mentally ill who don't let their illness keep them down. Those lost kids keep me going and when I upload our original art line part of the payments will go to the mentally ill.
Lauren says "I just make what I like.. usually i find a fabric or ribbon or bead that in a way ties back to something that's meaningful to me i guess. or i just think something is cute”
If you have something really unique or no business experience don't expect things to come over night. It took 2 years until I started selling. First your pictures will be bad, you won't know about tags or teams and sometimes you might give up or take a break, but it takes a lot of effort to get where you want to be.You have to rely on social sites and building a friend and fan base with other products to get your things seen. I wouldn't waste your money on npaid advertising. People will call you about getting your page on google but if you have good tags and good views you can get your page seen without paying. Teams are really the key to get you started. The more favorites you and views you have the more likely your items will show up. If you are in a category that's really competitive like hair bows or jewelry check the leading selling tags for ideas, and make something really unique that is collectable. Don't think you need to sell yourself short to sell. My hair bows can take 6 plus hours and my materials are rare and most of them are original so they might not sell fast but it will be worth it when they will. It only took one item and good picture to get my site selling more. If it wasn't for it blowing up on a social site I may still be not selling.
I like to support other Etsy users on sites like pinterest, draw, volunteer for the museum. I also have a fashion blog where I find vintage or new clothes for good deals and show how to wear them.http://jester-thesecondhandsistaz.blogspot.com/ . I also show what I am working on and other inspirations. I am usually thrifting in the summer and entering art contests. Dancing is also a big part of my life and it keeps me level headed. Cooking and baking is another thing I like iI make a killer cheesecake. iI am also really interactive with our facebook page and relate to our fans as a regular open person. We tell them what we are working on ask their opinions share the stories and upload our items there first before the store.
Lauren loves to travel. She loves Mexico and California and likes going to concerts. She's obsessed with the Foo fighters and likes to go to local events and try new things. She's a huge reality tv fan and likes to do races and lounge. She's often out with friends but has little free time so sometime the girl has just got to sleep in.
I have changed the way the shop works and almost done with completion. Each item has an honest description (a list) of the items used, the rarity of materials and how it will be shipped etc. Items and originality, time have a big influence on the price. A lot of our bows and items are works of art and we are proud to say there aren't really many bow makers like us. That's why we are excited to be broadening into clothing and more accessories. Each of our items comes with an original story about the bow or item. They have to do with a girl relating to the bow who has to overcome an obstacle and seeing the light. We want to reach out to everyone. We aren't biased against age, race, orientation, religion ,species and like to make a story about everyone. We like to reach to an international level and it's not really about the money. We think it's awesome there are girls all over wearing our products.
We love to be sponsored on blogs and will send our product free of charge for girls/women with fashion blogs to model and talk about our products no matter where they live.
Our envelopes or boxes are stacked because they have a personal business appreciation letter with a coupon , high quality business cards a free gift , and the story. Our better quality bows come with gift boxes and we very much care about the customers satisfaction. We are still kind of new to selling and shipping and will do our best to meet customers needs and will even send new bows for free if there is something wrong with it. Our pictures are unlike any I've seen for hair bows and we will be selling some prints for girls that love bows and fashion. We are excited about the future and what lies ahead for Roots of Bayer.
