We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Keltner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Well, this is a loaded question. I have started 2 businesses in the past 2 years, one, opening my own hair salon studio, has been extremely successful and the other, my artistic/creative business, while not at the level of my salon yet is also becoming more and more successful. Here’s the story of opening my own salon, Flora Luna Hair Studio. My career in the hair industry started in 2004 while still living in the Pittsburgh, PA area. I had a successful job at a large chain managing a couple of different locations but it was lacking the creativity that I was desiring. I then got a job as a senior hairstylist/manager at an Aveda salon and realized all of the things that I was missing in my career. After 8 years of a career in hair in Pittsburgh, I then relocated to Lexington, KY for a life change. I took a hiatus from hair and worked for Amazon.com for a while. As chance would have it I met, who would become my now husband, there. After a while we left KY and moved to Nashville. I got back into the salon industry working for a large local Aveda salon. I was able to build up a great clientele pretty quickly. However, the working conditions of this place meant long hours and no time to be creative outside of the salon as well as with family and friends. Fast forward 5 years and the pandemic hit. I was quarantined in my house, not working, for 2 months. I decided at that time to stock up on painting supplies (canvases, acrylic paints, brushes and the like) and started to teach myself to paint again after many years. Did I mention that I went to Art school prior to becoming a hairstylist? So in 2020 after going back to work, I realized fairly quickly that I loved having extra time to be creative and spend time with my husband and our 2 furbabies (dogs). I started looking for other places to work and then talked a friend about her experience opening her studio and was SOLD immediately. I then, within about a month and a half, was opening up my own salon! I was able to then make my own schedule, had more time at home and was immediately HAPPIER! I was able to work on my creative side outside of the salon and was inspired to be able to do the further education for hair as well. Then, right before my husband and I took a road trip down the coast of New England I developed a really bad tennis elbow. Who knew that painting and hair were so similar in movement. On our trip we made a stop in Salem, MA where we took a class in making witch brooms. I loved it. Immediately. In fact when we got back home I started gathering supplies to make that a new hobby. I was able to rest my arm enough during our trip that it healed up pretty well. I put down the paint brush and started rolling brooms, making preserved floral wreaths and evolved into bone art (ethically sourced of course) and ended up getting into the craft and art markets around town. I fell in love with the scene quickly. I am still doing hair as well.
I wish that I had the time to start my creative journey sooner. I think though, if I tried, I wouldn’t have had the time or energy to really dive into it the way I have this past year. I believe that everything is meant to happen when it does for some reason or another. Waiting to open my salon after the major quarantine was the exact right and scariest decision I have ever made. Who knew what the future for the industry was going to look like. But, with a loyal clientele and a drive to do things for myself and family paid off. So, I think the timing was right.
Amanda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I never in my life thought that I would do hair, let alone own my own studio, when I was young. In fact I went to school for art, graphic design and multimedia technologies. There were close to zero real jobs in that field at the time. 2001 was not quite as advanced as people thought it was, at least not where I’m from. As a 20 year old kid, I was not ready to move across the country to look for work. And that’s how I ended up in beauty school a couple of years later.
At the salon I offer hair coloring and cutting services as well as Brazilian Blowout and Keratin Smoothing treatments. I use Wella and Pulp Riot color lines and offer Amika, Talyoni and Olaplex homecare. Flora Luna Hair Studio is a safe, private place for people of all backgrounds, pronouns without judgement and with love. Appointments can be made online through Floraluna.glossgenius.com
The Fabled Raven is my creative/art business. I hand-make all preserved flower/crystal wreaths and besom brooms, ethically sourced and vetted bone/skull, intention jars, decorated selenite and other crystals and many other witchy trinkets. The genera vibe and decor is in the cottagecore and witchy vibe description. I do a lot of live vendor events in and around the greater Nashville, TN area as well as online at www.fabledraven.com. On my website you will find items for sale, my calendar of events about me and the company and subscription to newsletter and blog updates. The site is still new and a work in progress, at least with the blogging. I only use real preserved flowers, crystals and bones. That means that I grow and preserve some of my own flowers as well as sourcing through other small businesses for what I cannot grow in this climate/zone. I vet and source my bones from Native American Reservations, taxidermists and found items from friends as well as strolls in the forests, this means they are all either found dead or the cast offs from sanctioned population control hunts.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
One of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is the freedom of mind. By that I mean that as a left brain person, letting all of that weird out is very freeing. On top of that is watching and seeing people’s reactions to my art. As you can imagine, what I make is not for everyone. At first, it was terrifying to sell my art to the public. Watching people turn their nose up and looking at the faces some people were making was sometimes disheartening. However, finding your niche fans and shoppers makes it all worth it. When I see people walk into my booth and just watching their faces in awe is one of the best feelings. The same goes with when I do someones hair and they go nuts for it!!!
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
So, my long term goal at this point is to grow The Fabled Raven business into something that is lucrative and full time. My mission for that is to provide things that stand out from the crowd and stand apart from other similar artists. There are plenty of bone/taxidermy artists out there. The thing that sets me apart from others are my uses of bright colors over styling things much more macabre. I want to bring out the beauty in the circle of life and honor the life and death in all living beings. I have been doing hair now for over 18 years and it’s been really rough on my body in a way I didn’t get until these recent years. Eventually, my husband and I plan to move to the New England area and I would love for my art to be lucrative enough to help support us as well as allow me to still have work that I am passionate about. Witch art in New England? YES please!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fabledraven.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/the.fabled.raven
- Facebook: facebook.com/ravenfabled
- Other: floraluna.glossgenius.com instagram.com/floralunahair https://www.tiktok.com/@thefabledraven?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
Amanda Keltner Jared Keltner