Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Lose
Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
SunnyDaze was started in 2019 as a hemp jewelry and macrame business, what started as a small time hobby developed into a huge passion! Keeping my attention to hobbies has proven to be difficult throughout my small business journey, after a few years of creating macrame I started to experiment with other forms of art. I started creating resin pendants, jewelry and artwork, and started creating smaller dreamcatchers and house decorations. Eventually those crafts lost my interest too, so I decided that I wanted to dedicate myself to the art or crocheting. I had been in a knitting club when I was in middle school, but the patience and the tedious work did not keep my 12 year old self engaged. I owned a variety of knit and crocheted garments and felt inspired to try and create my own clothing using crochet methods. In 2021 I started selling my crochet creations on my Etsy and Depop, and the love and admiration I got for my Freeform designs flourished amongst my friends, family, and social media followers! I felt so encouraged and motivated to keep creating crochet clothing and accessories, and the art form took over my life! SunnyDazeeeWithSam has been around for 6 years now, 4 of those years I have dedicated to the art of Freeform crochet, and I’ve never looked back! Crocheting unlocked this amazing world of creative freedom for me, I never knew yarn would hold such a big place of my heart but I really am grateful for the craft and art of crochet.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My business was not always the smoothest experience. I opened my business in 2019 on a whim, my husband recommended that I should sell my jewelry and artwork, so I created an Etsy. I had no business or marketing experience, and I operated through Etsy only, and used my personal instagram and Facebook pages to share my artwork. The struggle was that I didn’t know what I was doing on Etsy, I didn’t understand SEO, I didn’t understand tags etc, I saw other small businesses being successful on the platform but I didn’t understand where I was going wrong. At one point this took a huge toll on my inspiration to create art, and I was very unmotivated and filled with self doubt. I was tired of struggling online, as I knew my artwork was good, but I didn’t have the strategies or the knowledge to expand my business and I felt stuck. Outside of my small business, I worked full time at a long term care facility here in state college. I worked with a variety of patients, elderly people with dementia, Parkinson’s, or mental health diagnosis’s, and middle aged people with psychological and mental health problems, early diagnosis of life altering diseases etc. I never knew that this group of residents and patients would open my eyes to expanding my small business world until I met one resident. This resident and I had never met before our first encounter, and she had been an artist all of her life. Sadly this resident had lost her sight, and was legally blind, and from the day she had lost her sight she explained that her other senses heightened and there was some spiritual source that helped her get to know people. At the time I was in charge of doing recreation assessments for our residents and when I entered her room, before I could even say a word, she turned in my direction and said, “you are a talented artist, with great passion, but you need to get off of Etsy and all those nonsense website, create your own personalized website, show yourself off to the world as yourself, not as another small artist hiding behind a large corporation platform, and your business will take off and you will be humble with your art again”. My jaw dropped, I was shocked! There had been a rumor going around about this talented resident with “psychic” talents, but at the time I had never considered any of these rumors to be true until this moment. I took everything she said to heart and I started to develop my own personalized website and social media platforms targeted at my art and my business! My confidence went up and I felt like I could face any obstacle sent my way!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Freeform crochet artist, I love to make any and all types of clothing and accessories! My favorite pieces to make are cardigans and hats. My proudest Freeform creation is my Shaggy Cardigan collection, cardigan created entirely out of little loops of yarn. These pieces are so time consuming, but so worth it to create! They’re one of a kind and gorgeous! I love creating pieces that make my customers stand out, I love when people can recognize my work just by seeing something that someone is wearing. I feel like I stand out as an artist because every design is unique, and it is Freeform, I am constantly experimenting with different design ideas. Most of the time I have no plan when it comes to creating my artwork, I just pick up some yarn and a hook and as I crochet I create a design. Some of my designs I think to myself “this is such a failure of a piece” those pieces ALWAYS turn out to be my proudest master pieces! I have recently started writing crochet patterns, so that people can recreate my designs for themselves, I try to leave a lot of creative experimentation in my pieces so that my pattern purchasing customers can put their own twist on my designs. I love sharing my art, and my complicated designs with other crocheters and small businesses!
What matters most to you?
Happiness in my artwork is what matters most to me, I want to feel joy in what I create, I don’t want it to feel like work. Sometimes I get overwhelmed as a part time artist, with all of the trends and all of the other creators out there, I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day for everything that I want to do. I have learned how to step away from my business and my artwork, I’ve taught myself appropriate scheduling when it comes to creating. I take breaks from my business and I take the time to spend on other things like my husband, my critters, and my family. I want my business to be one thing in life, and that is my safe place, my happy place. Happiness is key in the small business world, and I hope to achieve that happiness full time while I’m operating SunnyDazeeeWithSam.
Pricing:
- Consider the time it takes you to create
- Consider the cost of your materials
- Consider what you would pay for an item
- Never listen to customers saying that your art is “too expensive”, it’s not, you pour your heart and soul into your work and deserve to be paid for that
- Don’t cut yourself short in pricing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sunnydazeeewithsam.com
- Instagram: @sunnydazeeecreations
- Facebook: SunnyDazeeeWithSam Crochet Creations
Image Credits
Samantha SunnyDazeeeWithSam
Cara Celestial Roots Creations
Kim PyxieDragon
Sabrina Pisces Vibrations
Kelly KellyAnne