We recently connected with Rich Najuch and have shared our conversation below.
Rich, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
My sewing and embroidery skills really took a giant leap forward once I decided to invest in a high-end machine from a Brother dealer. Not just because of the machine – though the difference between a discount store sewing machine and one with far more functionality from a machine dealer is huge. The main reason that my skills improved so rapidly was because of the other people in the community of the dealer’s shop. The machine dealer offered free classes on learning the functions of the machine, and then beyond that offered classes on how to do various projects with the machines.
Though most of the projects for class were things that I had zero interest in making – placemats, embroidered door tags, fancy coin purses – every class had a skill that I learned and could use to create something that I did like. Through the dealer’s classes I realized that I could use my embroidery machine to “draw” patterns of bigger pieces that would be stitched together, could layer colors and fabrics to make a mosaic, and all of the various idiosyncrasies of how different fabrics and materials work together. I made mistakes. I had failures. I had successes. I had problems with the machine. I learned how to fix those problems and why they happened. I had the opportunity to explore and to grow in a safe environment.
It wasn’t until I again upgraded to a commercial embroidery machine that I realized just how much I had learned from the dealer and relationships I had made with “home hobbyists.” I had reached a point where the projects in my mind exceeded the capabilities and size restraints of my home machine, so I researched and purchased a larger, 15-needle machine. The type that you find by the dozens in a factory churning out hundreds of items a week.
When I attended the training class for my new machine I quickly realized that I was the only one in the room who had ever embroidered anything in my life. The seven other people who were getting their machines that day had no idea how embroidery worked at all, most of them had never even touched a sewing machine.
Training consisted of learning how to turn on the machine, how to load a design, how to thread the needle (one of the fifteen), and how to press start. Beyond that, nothing. Nothing about the technical aspects of how different fabrics and materials take stitches, or how to prepare them for embroidery. Nothing about the problems and issues that arise with the machine and how to prevent or fix them. Certainly nothing about the world of creative possibilities that having such an expansive machine opened up.
I am 100 percent certain that most of the people I met that day used the machine less than five times, then listed it for resale. They didn’t have the opportunity that the home dealer presented to explore, to make mistakes, or to grow their skills. They all had a machine that they were sold as something that would “print them money” in orders for hundreds of polos and hats, but they had no idea of how that even began to happen – and no creative vision.
I view my machines as tools to help me realize my visions – which is one of the first things that the teacher at the home dealership taught us. Without those classes and that perspective, I certainly would have been listing the industrial machine for resale within a week myself.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was always involved with theater both on and offstage from a very young age. Over the years I’ve been a performer, theater technician, designer, and producer. My sewing and embroidery is a direct off-shoot of this experience. Over time, I became interested in the clothing of different periods, and how it was made. This turned into creating costumes or cosplay items, which grew into learning about patterning and a discovery that I am pretty good with shapes and how they fit together. As the outfits that I created began to become more complicated and decorated, I started exploring machine embroidery – leading me to where I am today as an artist.
Through Stitched by Rich, I aim to create sewn/embroidered items to help bring beauty and joy into my clients lives. You may want a Halloween outfit representing your favorite character, or a towel set with an image or saying that makes you smile, a remembrance pillow of a family pet, a quilt made of out meaningful clothing to keep a loved one warm, or even something as simple as the logo for your new business on a baseball cap to share with the world. I’ve done all of these for clients – working with them to help realize and flesh out their visions.
My business is a healthy mix of custom pieces and logo/branded pieces. I honestly enjoy creating a custom quilt or costume as much as I enjoy creating 100 matching polos for your small business. You are proud of your business, and that you trust me to help create items to spread the word about it brings me joy. Using stitches to create or recreate an image you treasure on a jacket or hoodie is amazing, and I love being the person who helps create the joy and pride of something you have pride in.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
About nine years ago my husband and I had to make the difficult decision to close our small business – a dinner theater that we had spent the previous ten years building and running. Unfortunately, we had come to the point where the business model was not viable for survival in the area we were located, so we closed our last show in December of 2013. We had spent years building out the space, creating shows, building sets, designing lights and sound, working on music, and basically being a two person production company – along with a few dedicated employees and family members. Then, in Jan 2014 we were doing nothing. We lived in a space adjacent to the closed theater, and basically found ourselves in this large building – empty of people – needing to find a way to survive and thrive.
We gave ourselves about a month to wallow in despair at the “failure” of the business, then we sat down to discuss our future. For me, the most important thing about closing the theater was that we not punish ourselves for having made the attempt to start and run it in the first place. Though we were basically in financial ruin – over a hundred-thousand dollars in bank loans to be paid on a closed business – I didn’t want to live a life of continuous punishment (financially and emotionally) for having taken the risk, even though it failed. We needed a way to use our skills to pay off our debts and create a new, artistically fulfilling life for ourselves.
My husband’s talents lie in design, performance, and directing. For years he had been going into schools and performing one-man educational shows. A friend had suggested that he consider getting into narrating audiobooks – so we took space and equipment we had from the theater and set him up for his first audition, which he booked. He has been booked solid ever since; and has grown his career to having narrated over 400 audiobooks with multiple awards – even moving into teaching the craft of audiobook acting to narrators via a college-like online course.
My skills are more physically tangible. I’m the one who builds and works with his hands. In reflecting on what we had for resources at the time, we made the decision to convert the support spaces previously needed for the theater into spaces we could rent out and help pay our loans. My new ‘career’ for the time being became construction – using all of the skills I’d gained over the years in technical theater to convert our actor housing, rehearsal spaces, and shop spaces into loft apartments to rent. It was slow going, just me and my two parents doing all of the work to gut renovate a 100-year old, three-story building into new living spaces. With the help of a plumber and electrician friend, my parents and I became “apprentices,” doing all of the grunt work to save money. My mother became an expert tiler and drywaller – my father and I would hang the 12-foot sheets, and she would tape and mud them. Dad and I crawled through what felt like miles of ceilings and crawl spaces, running new electrical and plumbing lines throughout the three story space.
With funds from our limited income, and our slow-going skills, it took three years to refinish the spaces and begin renting them out. Just last year, eight years after making the decision to close the business, we were finally able to pay off the last of the loans with the income generated from the reused spaces. Certainly, one of the things that I am most proud of is that we were able to ‘repurpose’ our skills learned from years working in the arts to ultimately meet our businesses financial obligations.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Three words – YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. YouTube is AMAZING. It is incredible to me how much information to learn from is out there just on this one social site. AND IT’S FREE! Anything that I’ve wanted to learn to do, I just do a simple search and hundreds of videos come up. Even now, I’ll watch basic sewing and embroidery intro videos at times and almost always learn a new trick, or point of view. Living in a time when you can learn from experts and beginners from all over the world is truly a blessing. I wouldn’t be able to do ninety percent of the things I am able to without having learned them online, and I can’t even imagine how much more I would have learned earlier in life if I had been using this resource when younger.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stitchedbyrich.com
- Instagram: @stitchedbyrich
- Facebook: Rich Najuch