Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I did learn a lot of basic embroidery and beadwork on my own. Either through experimentation and of course making mistakes. My first job in high school was actually assisting a custom seamstress. I picked out hems and helped with basic alterations, but I also got to bead few wedding gowns and that was what really made me happy. It inspired a lot of ideas and it probably was after college that I really worked on beading and embroidery as a hobby. I beaded a few tank tops in the early years. It really wasn’t until social media really took off that I could see other artist’s work and see all the ways you could work with thread and beads. I played around more and took some local classes. One big workshop I had my eye was learning tambour embroidery or luneville embroidery. Not many people taught it at all in the US, but a wonderful artist, Charlotte Appleby, traveled to NY and I took two of her weekend workshops. It was the best learning experience and since then I have been practicing and honing my skills.

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?

My work has evolved over time and I will always evolve. I think it comes from my background in apparel design and it’s ever changing landscape. I started doing more custom work and it has morphed into selling digital patterns, kits, thread packs and embroidery designs pre-printed on fabrics. Deep down I feel I am a consumer myself and so I seek to sell the things I would look to buy. I also try to find unique supplies such as hand dyed embroidery floss as I think it adds a special quality to the end pieces for me and my customer. I also love seeing other people create their own work using my patterns and kits. Everyone is so talented and it makes my happy to see people enjoy embroidery as much as I do.

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?

How many mistakes and trials you have to go through on just the creation of one piece. It comes down to every little detail and choice made from fabric selection, color selection, stitch choice and finishings. I change my mind and then some things don’t work out. The stitching of the piece also takes many hours while trying to balance work and home life. That is just for the finished work. There are also hours spent on filming, editing and creating content for social media so you can share your work, business admin tasks and all the little things that involve expanding the business. The biggest struggle is finding the time to be creative and not get overwhelmed with everything.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The biggest one that comes to mind is the The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine. The book is part entrepreneurial, but also how you can be many things, have many passions and make them work within your life. It really opened me up to more possibilities on how I could navigate my life with more creativity and use my strengths in multiple facets of my life. Besides that I really try to follow other artists and subscribe to their content and learn how they do their techniques, I read creative small business books and that is a big key as that the books really pinpoint the goals that I would like to accomplish without spending time reading books that are vague. My version of time management!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloomHeirloomCompany
• Instagram: @bloomheirloomcompany
• Other: TikTok – @bloomheirloomcompany Pinterest – @bloomheirloomcompany

Image Credits
I took all images.