We were lucky to catch up with Dayna Guinn recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dayna , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My husband and I got the beautiful opportunity to get station in Germany for two years. During that time, I started looking for crafty ideas to do with my free time. I ordered a tie dye kit from amazon to try with friend. I remember setting it all up in the sunroom with her. Laying down a sheet to prevent from making a mess. We were both excited to see what we could create. Not really knowing much about tie dye at all, we just went for it! I was so excited I didn’t wait the full time to let the dye saturate into the fabric, so I just went for it and rinsed them out. I learned I should have waited a lot longer, the shirts ended up faded. I didn’t care that the shirts were faded, I had a blast creating them and was ready to learn more. Fast forward two years we have now moved back to the USA in Illinois. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law stayed with us for a few days, so I thought it would be fun for us to tie dye some shirts. Oh my gosh that was the most fun I have had creating in a long time! It is so fun to be around others who have the urge to create and just have fun. We all learned a lot and had a great time creating wearable works of art! Third times a charm apparently, so I got one more kit just for myself to have. That was the icing on cake! After that the light bulb came on and I decided to start my own tie dye business! I was not working at the time, so I decided this was the time to go for it and invest my time in myself. Tie dye truly changed my life for the better. Tie dye gave me the satisfaction and fulfillment I was missing. I feel my confidence growing stronger and finding who I truly am, on this journey I have created. I felt my life was at a standstill and I needed something to make it mine. It feels completely rewarding growing my business and creating wearable art for people to love. Tie dye was the best decision I could have made for my life.
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
I’m Dayna the small business owner, artist, creator, dreamer, and free spirit hippie behind Awaken Tie Dye Company. Welcome to my colorful corner of the world! I got into tie dye by trying out three DIY kits and then becoming hooked by the endless creativeness of all the different designs and color combinations my mind could imagine. I love how far my mind can expand to think of new things to create. It’s so fun to experiment with art and feel that inner child spirit come back. I provide vibrant wearable art for people and pets to wear! I create t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, youth, big and tall, sweatshirts for those cozy days, tank tops, socks, and ladies’ dresses. Wait there is more, once I knew I could do t-shirts, I felt excited to try other garments out that would hold dye well. Among the above we also offer, aprons for kitchen/art smocks, tote bags, bandanas, bucket hats, beanies, sarongs, thigh highs, infinity scarves, and Christmas stockings. I love adding my light and vibe into each creation. I started Awaken Tie Dye Company in April of 2021 and since then it has blossomed into something truly spectacular. The name Awaken is about my healing journey of discovering who I am and paving that path with courage and strength on my side. I am grateful for new beginnings. One thing I can truly say at the age of 36 , is to go after your dreams. Don’t let fear hold you back. I enjoy seeing what I can come up with, more vibrant the better! My emotional and mental health has improved from going after a dream that may of once made me feel anxious to the point of not trying. It feels so awesome to wake up each day and pop on a vibrant tie dye shirt that I made!
I’m so proud of myself for taking the risk and opening a small business. It was exciting and a little nerve racking at times. I have shipped orders to 22 states and 2 countries Japan and Germany! Every order is hand dyed, washed, packaged, and shipped by me. I am so grateful to each person who has supported and shown love for our small business. I also, offer custom made orders with 70 colors to choose from. Designs can be selected from my creations on my website. Since opening, I have created over 120 custom creations for customers! If I didn’t say yes to my inner self and dreams, I wouldn’t have seen the potential of who I am now. I have had my fair share of mistakes and fails but I take those in stride as I learn. I feel successful and rewarded on this journey of owning a small business.
We create hand tied and hand dyed one of a kind wearable works of vibrant tie dye art! All my creations are dyed using either melting ice or irrigating with hot water on powder dye on top of the fabric. The entire process is a joy, and the reward is seeing the awesome flow of the color splits and finished product. It’s truly magical to my eyes! We are not afraid of taking a chance or experimenting. Art is meant to be fun and imaginative. I love of seeing others happy with something I created. Having a happy customer is the greatest reward and always brings me joy and keeps the creative motivation flowing. I am extremely grateful for all my customers. Awaken started in my spare bedroom and now it’s about to be hitting the road. Traveling the USA to share my one-of-a-kind wearable arts across the country is another dream that we will soon be embarking on!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Having the resilience to accept change, change my attitude and keep everything in perspective has allowed to me overcome challenges from the start of my business to what it has grown too now. Accepting and learning for changes and unexpecting outcomes, has helped grow my confidence and my business. Trying something brand new that I taught myself was exciting yet hard. I had to change the way I thought about it, I had to make it fun, or it would be just another thing I forced myself to do. I did not want that. Knowing that sometimes I will create and make mistakes, to find the courage to not give up and say hey, I messed up on this part so let’s try again. It gave me motivation to want to try again. I learned I needed to change the way I thought about creating, to just let all my anxious thoughts go away. Creating for me is about the joy of having fun! Change of attitude, I struggled with the idea of new complicated designs, and it would force me to put that fear to the side and go for it. I failed many times creating a heart tie dye shirt. Drawing on fabric with a washable marker then using “sinew” a wax string for tying lines and keeping things held tightly in place, is what I use to create a heart. After multiple failed attempts and frustration, I finally nailed it! It was such a rush to see my failures turn to success and the beautiful heart shirt I created. The accomplishment I got from finally overcoming the tougher design has inspired and motivated try other designs and continues progressing my skills. To keep everything in perspective, I had to broaden my views and know that I am the holder of my dreams. I must be the one in charge to take the challenging step. Life will always throw us a curve ball; it is how we handle it mindfully and emotionally. Having courage and strength by my side helps me continue to strive working on goals that are may be challenging but end up so worth it in the end!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media can be a taunting, scary place to share your works of art to random viewers and those who know you. I was scared if I am honest, not sure of what to expect or what I would gain. I started slow and just shared at my pace which for me social media can be encouraging, or it can be comparative. I had to remind myself of why I started and to know that social media will always have its pros and cons. It’s how I choose to go about it and embrace it all. I started with just 12 followers when I first started sharing back in March of 2021 and now, we have over 1,065 followers in that time. I am still in shock that over a 1,000 people want to see my tie dye art. If I could share one tip to anyone starting on social media, it would be to remember to be yourself and show off your brand of what you’re creating. To find your voice and to accept that social media is what you make of it, is key. I have received so much positive support from tie dye community. Social media can be negative also, if you go down the rabbit hold of comparing yourself to other artists. Art is what we choose to make it and all artists grow and develop and different speed. I love seeing so many people out there creating tie dye and just going for it. We are all here to bring something into this world we live in and if that doesn’t inspire you to try, then I’m not sure what will. Last thing is to make it fun! I try not to get myself to hyped up on the followers going up but to keep creating magical works of wearable art to share with everyone! I know the number isn’t the goal for me, but it is awesome to see how many do want to view my tie dyes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.awakentiedyecompany.com
- Instagram: awakentiedyecompany
- Youtube: Dayna Guinn – Awaken Tie Dye Company
- Other: Pinterest – Awaken Tie Dye Company Email – [email protected]
Image Credits
My husband Luke Guinn does help me with the product photography.