We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jasmine Morrow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jasmine below.

Jasmine, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

My current creative work started in early 2021 when I opened an Etsy shop called Dreamware Co. to sell glassware with vinyl designs, along with drink lids and straws! I also began in October 2020 managing the social media accounts for a local boba tea shop called Tealicious, a favorite small business of mine! My glasses are also sold in the Tealicious boba shop.

I do wish I had started sooner but realistically it may not have turned out as well. It would have been a great creative outlet when I struggled with work & life. I’m currently taking courses through Google Coursera for UX Design to further my creative career. I just completed the Social Media Marketing course as well!

To go backwards a bit, I went to the University of Tennessee to major in Psychology and I realized I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it! Real-world experience at a “grown-up job” seemed like a good step for me to narrow down my path. I found a great opportunity working at CASA of the Tennessee Heartland, a non-profit focusing on advocating for children in abusive or neglectful environments with the child’s needs as a priority.

During my time there, I was able to transition from administrative work to some creative endeavors like social media management, content creation, and event planning. I left this position at the end of August 2021 to pursue more creative pursuits & have been working as a production assistant at Label Industries in Knoxville, a branding supply company.

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?

As a creative, I feel like I wear many hats, as do so many others! I focus most on my small business Dreamware Co to sells glassware with vinyl designs.

The types of glasses that I offer are beer can glasses, glass mugs, and plastic tumblers in a number of different designs to choose from. My first design was a set of clouds, which became really popular and also influenced the name of my business. Other designs range from floral to spooky and I also work with customers to create personalized designs for them.

This type of Etsy shop (glassware with vinyl designs) isn’t unique, but I strive to keep my creations true to myself and based upon my own interests so as to not intentionally take others’ designs and use them without credit.

While a large portion of this business is creating the glasses, I also create my own content that I share to get people interested! I shoot and edit product photos, create graphics, and post these to social media accounts and the Etsy shop.

I put a lot of love and care into my business, as I feel like my designs are a reflection of my interests.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Know the true value of creative work! It can sometimes be hard to wrap your head around how this product from a creative’s business could be more expensive/valuable than the same type of product that you can find cheap off Amazon. I also from time to time try to find a cheaper option to save money but in the end I’m disappointed. The beautiful handmade vase from an Etsy shop is gonna last longer because of the care the artist took to make that for you. If you’re able to, save up to get beautiful products from artists/creatives.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I didn’t understand how much burn out there is amongst creatives. It can take me months before I come up with a new design because it can be a lot of work. Creative block is totally real and when you have a creative job, that can be detrimental. Everyone can understand feeling burnt out but it’s just so upsetting not being able to create when that creative side job is supposed to be in part a way to cope with stress.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamwareCo
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamwarecoshop
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/dreamwareco