We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tasha Bundy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tasha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

We began as friends, all of us makers, two jewelers, a leather- smith, and a ceramicist. We began planning our business in October of 2010 and opened our store, MAST, 3 whirlwind months later, in December. It was a wild few months, and was pretty all consuming. We found the space, a beautiful, albeit funky old warehouse in a furniture and design oriented shopping district near downtown Tucson.

We all scraped together a little, and i do mean a very little money to get the ball rolling, We eventually figured out a sales model for our very specific situation, since we were all makers and would be bringing in the majority of the stock ourselves.

We did not write a business plan, we did not have a lawyer help us. We filed our LLC with the city and did all of the paper work needed and began our process of trying to curate for MAST, beyond our own pieces. We had no capital, which made some things more difficult, of course, but also gave us more freedom to really find our path forward without creative restrictions.

We didnt have much to start with, except our individual and collective creativity and hard work.

We had the support of other Tucson businesses, who helped us with display pieces, and stood behind our vision enthusiastically.

We scoured thrift stores for fun collections of small things, such as vintage belt buckles, bottle openers and other useful and well made pieces, which we brought in to fill shelves. We also picked up beautifully shaped furniture at antique shops, thrift stores and yard sales, which we reupholtered with recycled coffee bean bags. We reached out to friends and even friends of friends with businesses who might want to consign pieces that we thought would be well received. My father was a beekeeper, and he donated a whole season of honey to sell in the store.

Amidst all of this we made as much stock of our personal lines as we could. We worked well together. each of us with our strengths, and all of us working our butts off to make this very recent and unplanned vision a reality.

We planned our grand opening for December 10th, featuring two of our favorite local visual artists, as well as a fun local band. WIth the date on the books, there was no looking back. It was a wild, unwieldy, lovely adventure, that was often stressful, but our opening was one for the books! It was so well attended, incredibly successful and gained us an immediate and loyal clientele. We are now 14.5 year in, and while the beginning was absolutely unorthodox, we have grown and refined the business, and continue to refine and grow, with many of the same clientele that we began with.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

MAST is essentially a collective of three primary makers and co-founders; Mellow Dawn Lund, makes beautiful leather bags, belts and small leather goods that are thoughtfully and skillfully crafted for form and function, she is also our CFO.

Sofie is a fine jeweler, making modern heirlooms in gold, silver, vermeil and brass. She creates custom pieces, and beautifully made, distinctive jewelry, she is also our Creative Director.

Tasha Bundy is a jewelry designer and fabricator, working in Silver, Vermeil, and other metals, creating beautiful and attainable pieces. She is our Media & PR Director.

Our 4th, Alison, who was the ceramicist, ended up leaving the business after a few months, which made us a trio.

We all have varying stories of how we began our individual craft, but we all had been in the creative field for decades, in some form or another, music, jewelry and sewing mostly.

Because there is thread in our collective creativity, and our general styles, we had/have a shared vision for a space where clients could find gifts, and functional pieces made in Tucson. Because we manned the store ourselves for years, we also put a face to the product. We made these things, and people responded so well to meeting the maker from the get go. It gives each item a story, which adds intrinsic value.

Our vision and mission was to create a truly inspiring and beautiful lifestyle boutique, where form and function would coexist, where our clients would feel a sense of excitement each time they visited, finding new things for themselves, their homes and their loved ones. We sought out other local makers, who’s wares embraced our vision of form and function.

Detail oriented, we carefully and thoughtfully curate our own lines as well as anything else we bring in to the store. This has been a strong suit for us, and as we jury any outside stock, we have built up a beautifully diverse range of vendors. These are mostly small makers, creating things that embrace both form and function. Initially we were trying to offer things that we knew were missing in our local market, things that we loved and wanted to share with our community. While the business has grown and we are still locally focused, we do carry a number of brands that are not from Tucson. We consider ourselves an attainable luxury brand.. We believe that things should last more than a season, and that is reflected in both our own products and our curated brands.

Customer service and community engagement are incredibly important to us, and we do our best to be stewards of our community, as well as create long standing relationships with our customers and vendors.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being the face(s) of the business and the products that we offer has shown to have a huge impact for us in building a positive reputation within our market. Creating a visually exciting and beautiful space, both within the physical store and on our website has long been a key motivation for us. We frequently work in updates in the shop, to keep the creative vision fresh and fun.

Carefully vetting and jurying anything we offer is another key operating standard for us. Discovering beautiful things, useful things, magical little pieces that create a little happiness or solve a problem for our customers keeps us motivated and engaged.

We pride ourselves on thorough, kind and informative customer service, as well. We like to build relationships with customers, and build their faith in us and what we offer them. Offering thoughtful customer service, including long term care guidelines and repair of our wares is standard fare at MAST. and we always stand behind our products.

Word of mouth and good reviews, as well as mentions in media, (newspapers, magazines, etc.) have helped tremendously as well. We are a destination for visitors from other cities and countries, often visiting multiple times, and shopping online.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Word of Mouth. Bar none.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ilovemast.com
• Instagram: @ilovemast
• Twitter: ilovemast

Image Credits

First Image ( of the 3 MAST ladies) by Puspa Lohmeyer

All additional images by Julius Schlosburg