We recently connected with Chelsea Fleming and have shared our conversation below.

Chelsea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have always used art as a way to express myself or my emotions. Whether that be through writing poetry, painting, tie-dying, being crafty always felt soothing. I always had these huge dreams of creating art and making a business around it, but it honestly felt so far fetched, it wasn’t something I felt like I could pursue. My mental health became a bigger focus for me, so I started going to therapy and meditating. I became obsessed with the feeling of being grounded and connected to the world. I started to seek out new ways of finding this, which led me to things like reiki, sound healing, crystals, etc. As I began to incorporate these things into my life and practice them, I found myself really drawn to healing trauma stored in the body. In the “woo-woo” world, that’s known as “shadow work,” as you are bringing the things that hide in the shadows of ourselves into light. I became really confident in these practices, as well as reading tarot. I enjoyed the connection and understanding it brought me, so I started offering services to help bring that same feeling to others.
It became really tricky, very fast as this was around February 2020, and connection was difficult to navigate in general. I think it’s safe to say that 2020 put everyone in a weird place. The last day of 2020 finally rolls around and I received a call in the middle of the night that my family’s house burned down. It was particularly difficult because this was my family’s second house fire. The first house burned down from an electrical fire when I was in middle school, leaving me incredibly paranoid of everything catching on fire. The only way I was able to cope with my fear was knowing that it couldn’t happen again. I had rationalized it was incredibly unlikely, impossible even, for me to experience the same trauma.
This broke me. I became a shell of a person, unable to make decisions, carry on a conversation, get out of bed. My OCD became a monster that controlled me. I had to buy 5 pairs of the same shirt, pants, etc. because anything else would overstimulate me and send me into a panic attack. I had horrible night terrors every night and any moment that I was awake, I needed to have my hands busy. I began doing hand embroidery for several months, but I needed a different medium that I could always access. I bought an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil, and learned how to use Procreate. This became my “go to”. I would spend 40 hours creating a single design and then I could start completely over on something new.
I started doing research on how I could create products with my designs and was thrown into the world of Cricut. I was amazed with all of the different things you could create or the mediums that could be combined. Every chance I had, I was learning new techniques – and applying them to everything I owned. The more I learned, the more things I would make. I would take any opportunity to make a custom order, and drive myself crazy until it was perfect. But the feeling of seeing a physical product that I created, felt really freeing. It was the first time since I had lost myself that I was able to experience the feeling of connection again. Much like everything else, I took it to the extreme. At the time, I was working for the 988 lifeline, so my days would be spent in front of a computer with easy access to any crafts I wanted to work on in between calls.
By the time I decided to turn it into a business, my house was filled with products. It became almost necessary to make it into a business just from the amount of stock I had created.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I provide a wide range of products and services. If you’re shopping SWD at a popup market, you will find many handmade items created from my digital designs. You’ll also find oddities, like tarantula molt art or mossy mirrors covered in crystals. Shopping online, you’ll find most of my designs available in sticker form. I create all of my packaging and branding in-house as well as offer that service to other small businesses.
The way the business started is unique in that it wasn’t really my intention when I started making all of the designs and products. Yes, it had always been a dream of mine, but I didn’t think it was meant for me. I had spent years coping through creativity, and I had built a foundation for that dream, without even realizing it. I think I had always assumed I would have to wait until I “knew what I was doing,” so I told myself that I needed to wait to make a business until I could “figure it out.” This ended up creating much more chaos when I did try to start selling online or in person because I was so overwhelmed with product. I felt like having a few things wasn’t enough, I thought everything needed to be so perfect that you couldn’t tell it was handmade. I kept feeding on these lies to delay starting because I was scared. Sharing art is a vulnerable process and I had to force myself to open up so that I could understand why vulnerability is crucial and rewarding beyond my wildest dreams. I have been so fortunate in the connections this has been able to create. There have been so many moments where I felt crazy or that I was completely alone in the weird way I process my emotions. Creating this business has shown me a community that accepts and embraces all of the things I’ve been so afraid to show. I learned that putting off creating or sharing your creations doesn’t benefit anyone. If I would have continued to wait until I knew what I was doing, I would have never been able to start.
With this business, I have been able to combine all of my many passions/obsessions into creating a unique brand. From creating products using my designs, to cultivating reiki charged aura sprays and intentional “spell” kits. having variety has never been an issue. This has allowed me to continue to expanding and take on custom requests for a broad range of work. I am so grateful for the transition I have been able to make through this business. My brain has shifted from having so much self doubt and a need for perfection, to allowing myself grace to learn.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

The most chaotic, unprofessional, unorganized event ended up being my favorite one. I plan very strategically for every single event. My setup is always different, and I bring different products to each event depending on the crowd. All of the events I had done up to this point were within an hour of my house. For this event, we traveled to East Tennessee, about 4.5 hours away. I had mapped out every inch of my booth and had packed products accordingly. My booth setups are always intricate and full of options.
When we got to the venue, we were informed that they had rented out too many booths, so all the vendors had to reduce their booths by 2 feet. My first reaction was to panic. That was also my second and third reaction. My displays wouldn’t even fit in the new space, all of my other displays were hours away. While I’m panicking and confirming that this was a mess I wasn’t prepared for, my sweet support system assured me that we would figure it out. John goes to all of my events with me, and he took that moment to remind me that something happens at every event that we have to adapt our plan to. Every event is a learning process and teaches me something new. At this event, we had to pivot our entire plan and start from scratch.
The organizers of the event didn’t communicate with the vendors, and the people attending weren’t given direction. It turned into a lot of exhausted vendors and upset attendees who were stuck in long lines for hours.
It felt like anything that could go wrong, was going wrong. But it didn’t matter? We were packed in, but it was like a community quickly formed. Everyone was bonding over getting to meet their favorite characters or love of pop-culture. I was able to connect with people who loved and appreciated the art and products I make. I even got to meet the the Twilight babes and give them some of my Twilight themed products. It turned into such a wonderful experience, and it was all because the crowd and vendors decided it would be, despite the circumstances. I got to fangirl and make genuine connections with people, and it felt pretty amazing to have such a shift in perspective and experience by the end of the event.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I manufacture and package all of my products. There is so much trail and error in every single product/process. I don’t know if I’ve ever had something come out exactly as I wanted the first time creating it. Most of the time, I stumble upon an idea that sparks my interest, and that becomes the perfect excuse to dive into another area and learn as much as I can. I watch a lot of tutorials, read articles, books, and I frequent as many crafty online forums as possible. Learning a new process is part of the magic for me. I may begin with one idea, and by the time I’ve consumed information and inspiration, it turns into something else entirely. Finding friends that I can create with or collaborate with has been so rewarding. It is also pretty convenient to have a spouse that can build anything that I need for products or events. I’m very fortunate to have someone who can bring my jumbled ideas to life, and enjoys creating with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shadowwitchdesigns.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshadowwitch31
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshadowwitch31
• Other: tiktok.com/@theshadowwitch
  threads.net/@theshadowwitch31

Image Credits

n/a