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

Jenn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started off learning how to make paper flowers for my own wedding. Let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend learning a new art or skill with that kind of pressure! The first set I made was awful and I just knew it would spoil the whole wedding. After some crying and a pep talk from my fiancée, I gave it another go. This second try helped me learn the lesson that would follow me through every part of my art and life.

Doing it wrong can be the key to doing it right.

The perfectionist in me hated this, but the more mistakes I made in my craft, the better my work became. I could see the potential for roadblocks and before they became an issue. It helped me look at my art like a scientist doing experiments: testing, adjusting, and trying again. With all of that practice and training, my skills got better and I got to incorporate new techniques that were so far beyond what I ever thought I could do.

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

Novel Blossoms Co started with my love of books and paper flowers and has continued with the curiosity to celebrate them in a whole new way. It is my mission to share this new way to love books with others through art pieces, bouquets, jewelry, and other keepsakes.

The story of Novel Blossoms Co began 9 years ago while I was preparing for my wedding. I wanted to have paper flowers since so many people in my family have allergy issues and I decided to take it a step farther and use pages from a book for the paper – since our wedding was unofficially themed as Pride & Prejudice. After a LOT of research, tests, late nights, and tears, I ended up with a beautiful bouquet and centerpieces that I still have decorating my home today. Each morning, I wake up and get to see my bouquet sitting on my dresser and it always brings a smile to my face.

After people raved over the flowers and started asking me to make some for them, I realized I had the opportunity to share my love of books and paper crafting with others so that they could have that same wonderful feeling I get to have with my wedding flowers.

From there, I learned new techniques and started making art pieces as well. The feedback I’ve gotten is fantastic and there are so many items and art pieces I would love to develop.

By far, my motivation comes from my family and the bookish community. My family has been so supportive of this dream of mine to have my own shop and I want to succeed for them and be able to use this gift as a way to make their lives better as well. And my friends in the book community have been a solid rock for me. Beyond the camaraderie of sharing my love of reading, they have also been so helpful in sharing ideas and giving me feedback on new products I’m testing out. They are my sweetest critics and biggest fans and I’m so grateful to have them in my life.

This far reaching dream of mine to share my love of books in a new way has me constantly looking for unique angles and fresh ideas for my craft. This is why I especially love working on custom orders. I’ve had clients turn their wedding vows into snowflake ornaments for their first Christmas tree, Marvel fandom art pieces, and nursery art using quilling techniques in book pages.

It’s often said that readers are so hard to buy presents for because any book you give them, they likely already have it. So, I’ve loved seeing the orders of people buying these pieces as gifts for the reader in their life. It makes me so happy that I get to be a part of other readers celebrations, weddings, holidays and more!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

With all that’s going on in our world today, I’ve had some tell me that they think art is pointless, it’s just pretty stuff, or it’s unnecessary. I think because of all that’s happening in our world, art is more necessary than ever. It’s easy to get lost in the hate and fear coming from so many directions that sometimes we forget to think for ourselves. We shut down and block out our own feelings.

That’s where art comes in.

Art is designed to help you feel again – some directly and some abstractly. It’s meant to make you think, to ponder the world outside your mind to see other perspectives. This creative thinking leads to creative problem solving. We are inspired and find new ways to tackle tough problems and find our way to empathy.

This is the part of books and art that set me free. Art helped me to let go of what I thought I knew and begin to become curious again.

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

Like many entrepreneurs, I have to work a second job to keep things afloat while I build my business. At the end of 2022, I was laid off from my admin job and needed to find another one fast. If you have seen the job market the last few years, you know that was an extreme long-shot.

That’s exactly what it was for me. A few months led to a year and beyond. I was submitting applications constantly, networking with others, taking classes, interviewing, and anything else I could think of. We were out of money and out of time.

Still, I persisted.

There were many nights I went to bed in tears and woke up broken. After almost a year and a half, over 1,000 applications, and dozens of interviews, I had no reason to believe that any day would be different than the day before.

But I needed tomorrow to be different, so I kept going.

After all that time and hard work, I got hired with a fantastic company. And even more than that, my creativity came back with a flourish. That time and struggle led me to fresh new ways to think about my business and to grow in surprising ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://novelblossomsco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novelblossomsco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/novelblossomsco

Image Credits

I took these photos myself. I have full rights to them.