We recently connected with Arielle Zorger and have shared our conversation below.

Arielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Let me bring you back to where it all began. I’m currently living in Washington DC, working full time in a job I no longer felt passionate about, became a first time mom struggling with Post Partpartum Depression + Anxiety and knew it was time to do something in my life that is just ME and something that actually made me feel happy inside + out. One morning I got up and said, today I am going to find a new hobby – something that would distract me from all the negative thoughts in my head, and something that would bring me joy in all the darkness. So I remember driving to the local art shop and buying a few blank canvases and all the paint colors you could imagine to attempt “my new hobby”. 1 canvas turned into 2, 2 turned into 3, 3 turned into 50. I couldn’t stop. As soon as I would get a free moment – I painted. I painted whatever was in my head, whatever felt right, no rhyme or reason, just use all the colors and let the paintbrush go free. I started off painting Hamsas + Pomegranates. I was always looking for fun, colorful, modern Judaica for my daughter’s room and could never find any. So I decided to make my own.

So after our DC townhome was offically filled to the brim with all this “art”, my husband, said “Why don’t you post your art on Etsy, and see what happens”. and laughing I responded “why would any one buy my “art” I have zero clue what I am doing.”

In May 2019, I opened my Etsy Shop. The rest is really history. I have never stopped painting, creating + sharing my passion for being a Jewish Artist with the world.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Arielle, the owner + artist of Arielle Zorger Designs. I created a modern Jewish home decor brand in hopes to bring Judaism into your homes in a fun + colorful way!

I am best known for my glass trays that are used for Menorah Drip Trays on Hanukkah or a Shabbat Tray to display your Shabbat Candles + Challah each week for Shabbat. As well as finding creative and fun ways to bring the Jewish holidays to life from tea towels, challah covers, aprons, and table runners.

No matter how religious you are, or are not, we all come together to celebrate being Jewish in our own way.
There is no right way or wrong way, there is just your way and when you do what’s right for you and your family all the colors come to life.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I wouldn’t say I have a big audience on social media, but I have to say the community that I have found on Social Media has been an absolute blessing. I feel incredibly lucky to have found such a special community on Instagram that has supported my art journey since day one. It’s unbelievable to connect with so many other strong, women, mothers, and entrepreneurs who have similar goals + passions.

My best advice would be, if it doesn’t feel right in the beginning don’t do it. Don’t waste the time, the money, the samples, the head space, for anything that you know in your heart is not right.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I would say one of the things I never thought about when starting my business was all the million of hats you wear. From painting the artwork, to scanning the canvas, to creating products, to updating your website, to filling + packaging orders to shipping the orders. Not to mention, posting and creating on Social Media weekly to keep telling the world what you do, so they know what you do!

By far, though the hardest task was how to successfully manufacture my own products. Especially for a company who is set up as print on demand. All my products are made to order, there is no huge warehouse in the back. Finding the right vendor to produce my products was entirely a full time job as itself. Between finding the right quality, turnaround time, easy to communicate with, cost of products, not being big enough to qualify for wholesale prices, but big enough to have a constant flow of orders coming in. The endless amount of samples was exhausting and costly.

Finding the perfect vendor was a 4 year process, and it’s still ever evolving. As much as you want to give up, don’t. I keep telling myself as soon as this “job” is no longer fun I’ll stop. Today, I am forever grateful as I’m still loving what I do every single day.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ariellezorgerdesigns.com
• Instagram: @ariellezorgerdesigns

Image Credits
Courtesy of Arielle Zorger Designs