We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aisha Lockridge a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aisha, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I think it begins with a love affair with jewelry and the stories create through them. Both my mother and grandmother had these grand, teak and brass jewelry boxes. They were filled with a wide variety of pieces from brightly colored costume jewelry, treasured jewelry deemed “too nice to wear,” and broken pieces with too much sentimental value to throw away. I played with this jewelry wearing it around the house in games of make believe. Probably what I liked most though were the stories theses women told about the life of a piece: when and where it was worn, how they acquired it, how it made them feel. As I became a teenager I spent all of my pocket money on two things: books and jewelry. Books helped me understand the world and jewelry adorned me for it.

Once I became a working professional, I decided I wanted a curated jewelry wardrobe that reflected my tastes, my passions, my culture, my research interests. (My monograph, Tipping on a Tightrope: Divas in African American literature, traces the trajectory of the diva figure in Black literature and popular culture.) I was looking for refined, eclectic, Afrobohemian jewelry to no avail. Certainly, there was African and African-inspired jewelry available, but much of it lacked the bohemian design aesthetic that fit my taste and style as a professor. I wanted pieces that could say a lot without doing a lot, to be distinctive while remaining wearable. And so I tried my hand at making my own. Over several years, I sourced authentic, African materials while curating and refining my work as my knowledge and skill developed. Aisha Likes It grew out of a problem and I decided if I had this problem, so did others like me.

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.

A Black jewelry artist and Communication and Media Studies professor, I am the maker/owner of Aisha Likes It. I create hand-crafted, African-inspired jewelry curated towards a bohemian aesthetic. Created with both ethically sourced materials from throughout the African Diaspora and traditional semi-precious stones, each piece is designed to make a statement. Largely, Aisha Likes It is a one-woman shop: design, procurement, social media, PR, you name it; I do it. I am lucky to be supported by my partner and mother who assist with technology, web design, packaging, and courier services. Almost every piece is created in my in-home studio, lovingly referred to as the Blue Room– a place filled with beads and books, overlooking my back yard, and painted a deep lapis color.

I create jewelry for people who are bold or want to be and who want their jewelry to come with a story. One of the best parts of sharing my work at in-person craft shows is having deep conversation with patrons about the history about the material I use. Pieces feature materials sourced throughout the African Diaspora. As such, curating, designing, and crafting demand equal weight in my art making process. Creating wearable pieces steeped in cultural richness is an essential part of Aisha Likes It.

Deeply committed to social justice, one of the things I am most proud of is Aisha Likes It’s commitment to tangibly supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities in the US and the Caribbean. This comes in many forms. We donate a percentage of sales throughout the year to non-profit organization like No More Secrets, an organization fighting period poverty in underserved communities of color. We host and participate in raffles donating 100 % of proceeds to schools and organizations like Holy Trinity Primary School in Barbuda, The Okra Project, The Southern Poverty Law Center and locally, to the Germantown Community fridges. We also provide in-kind donations that have supported organizations like: We Wield the Hammer, Metalsmiths for Change, My Sistah’s House.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

For my first craft show, I was woefully under-prepared. I was so excited to get in to a juried event, I didn’t spend enough time thinking through what an acceptance would mean. After all, I had beautiful jewelry and that seemed to be the most important fact but it doesn’t take a genius to realize it takes a LOT more than that to be successful on the craft show circuit- basic things like a tent canopy. Well, I set up my table sans tent and throughout the day the wind regularly blew my untethered displays over and the weather alternated between intense heat and repeated, quick but heavy downpours of rain. I thought I would pass out from the heat and at the same time got myself and all my jewelry wet. And to top it all off, I ended the day in a net-negative. I dusted myself off, took myself out to dinner that same night, and took a hard look at all the ways my actions contributed to the day’s failure. And the day after that, I bought a tent canopy. I was determined not to let one failed event dictate the course of my craft show life. Now craft shows are an essential part of my business model and I’m pretty good at them. I have check lists and preferred packing containers. I take pictures of my layouts and go to festivals to research other layouts. Now I look forward to craft show season knowing I’ll be prepared for sun, rain, or even snow.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The initial capital for my business was a gift from my partner which I supplemented with my salary as a professor. Members of his family decided to sell some parcels of land and he received a portion of the profits. These funds were, very much, unexpected and he told me to use as much of those funds as I needed to begin Aisha Likes It. I was super reticent to spend money on anything but raw materials at the outset until I realized that watching pennies meant I was losing dollars. By way of example, I refused to purchase a label maker and printed all address labels with the standard printer I already owned on plain copier paper. The more steps you have in a shipping system, the easier it is to make a mistake. After misdirecting orders a few times, I realized that there is cost to doing business and I needed to pay it. Although the initial investment was a gift, I was committed to earning enough to give it back. By the end of my third year, I was profitable enough to do just that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aishalikesit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aishalikesit/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aishalikesit/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/aishalikesit/

Image Credits
Pictures #1, #2, #4- Zen Elements Glamour Agency Pictures: #3, #5, #6- Birdie Busch Picture #7: Aisha Lockridge