We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bailey Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bailey, thanks for joining us 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.
I have always been an artist. Painting and drawing pretty much any chance I got. I eventually got bored with canvas and paper alone and wanted to try my hand at something new. That is when I found leather. I dabbled for a while and began learning the craft before ever starting my business. I tried tooling but it just was not for me so I decided to paint on it and it all clicked!
Fast forward a couple years and I was now married and living in a new city working as a groomer with a new beautiful corgi puppy. I knew I wanted to make her a leather collar and so I went and bought a hide from the local Tandy leather along with some leather paint and got to work. Soon friends and family were asking for collars for their dogs as well. I thought “well, I may actually be able to make something from this!” That is how Cardigan Leatherworks was born. We started as EV Leatherworks, named after my corgi girl Evelyn, and rebranded to Cardigan Leatherworks this past year when she had a litter of pups and we kept a sweet boy naming him Reddington.
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?
A love for art and creating has always been at my center along with an entrepreneurial spirit and that was the base of my motivation to get into the leather goods industry. I built off of that with the love I had for my dog, Evelyn, and my wanting to create one-of-a-kind handmade collars for her. That quickly grew into ,e creating luxury leather pieces for people, their pets, and the places they dwell.
The two things that truly set me apart are my love for the tradition of craftsmanship and painting original artwork on my pieces. The craftsmanship goes much father than an attention to detail. Many call me a little crazy but I hand stitch every single piece i make. Every last stitch is done by yours truly. I suppose you could say that I am the sewing machine. I truly love not using machines to create the bulk of my pieces, its a labor of love. Then you have the painting. the painting allows for me to honor that creative side of me that just loves creating art and beautiful imagery.
I am most proud of my dedication to the craft and bringing originality to my work and happiness to those who choose to incorporate my pieces into their lives.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I believe what has helped me build my reputation within my market is simply being genuine and present when it matters. I have made sure to stay true to myself and not create an alternate persona for the public. I think people can tell when you are genuine and authentic and when you are it is so much easier to make true connections with customers and other business owners alike. As far as being present, I have found that there is a strong maker community in the area I live in and I have made a strong effort to build business relationships and friendships within that community. It is so important to have people in your corner as a small business owner and when you can find your core group of people you know will have your back it helps on so many levels. It creates an environment where those people will be advocates for you and your work which can have a huge impact on who sees your work and who will eventually become customers.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I would say the biggest pivot in my business and life has happened very recently. September of this year to be exact, My husband and I had our first child on September 9th and the transition into motherhood and a business owner based from a home workshop has been drastic! Gone are the days of getting to work as long as I want and when I want. I have someone now that relies on me for everything so work has had to come second to that now. I love what I do so it was certainly a big adjustment. With this lifechanging event I have had to pivot and change how I work and what avenues I pursue to get my work in front of people. I have gone from attending as many in person markets and events to sell my work to now focusing on custom orders and trying to build a bigger web presence.
This is still something I am still trying to accomplish successfully and am determined to succeed in doing so. I know there will be many more pivots and changes as this business grows so I will take it in stride and adjust as needed while keeping true to what I create and how I create it.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Personal photo courtesy of Geise Pinto Photography