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

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

I had known how to sew my whole life, but shortly after I got married my mom gave me my first personal sewing machine as a Christmas present. From that moment on, I sewed constantly and quickly realized my favorite things to make were bags and purses. I gave away some as gifts, but most of them just started accumulating in the closets of our tiny little apartment. In 2007, we adopted our first daughter and right after she came home, her baby gear started accumulating as well. As much as I loved spending all my time with her, I also soon realized that I needed a mental break from Sesame Street and playgrounds and building blocks, so as she would nap I would turn even more to sewing as a mental escape. You can guess what this did to the already cramped apartment! I needed a way to continue creating but to not have to personally keep all the products of my creation. I opened my Etsy shop at the end of 2007 just to see if I could sell a couple of my bags. A few days later, I got a ding from my email that a purse had sold. I will always remember that moment. Sure, I was glad that I made some money and I was glad I was emptying out my over-packed apartment. But even more, I got that little flutter in my chest of awe and of pride that someone saw what I made and appreciated it enough to buy it. From that moment on, I was hooked. I created more and more, and with every sale (even 15 years later!) I still get the same flutter of excitement! (And we eventually moved to a larger house and I invested in some storage bins, so problem solved!) In 2020, I added a new element to my business. I started to learn surface pattern design so that I could start creating bags with my own designs on the fabric, rather than just with pre-made fabrics. It quickly became an obsession for me. I absolutely loved spending an entire day doing nothing but surface pattern design. As an experiment, I opened a Redbubble shop to try to sell some of my designs on print-on-demand products. A few days later, I got that email ding that told me that someone purchased a skirt with my design on it. Again, that flutter of excitement was unforgettable. My heart was so full of joy that somebody saw my design and wanted to own it. I have now been selling my designs for almost a full year, and that joy in my heart continues to grow with each sale I make.

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

A big part of what I do is surface pattern design. I specialize in bold, bright, and colorful prints, usually with lots of florals. I also create patterns that are a bit quirky, featuring obscure animals like the blue spotted salamander, for example, or murder mysteries. I strive to create patterns that are happy and mood-boosting and bring people joy. One way I use my patterns is in my handmade shop on Etsy. I sell handmade bags and purses as well as home decor and fabric jewelry. While I started this part of my business using pre-made fabrics, I recently made the switch to create items using only designs I have created myself. This means that my items are completely unique and not something you will find anywhere else.
The second part of my business is my print-on-demand shops at Redbubble, Society6, and Tee Public. Buyers can purchase my hand drawn designs on hundreds of products like tee-shirts, pillows, shower curtains, phone cases, pet products, and more. Since I create my patterns myself, these products are unique and unlike mass-produced items in stores. They make great gifts since you know the recipient won’t already own something just like it!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I am a huge believer in buying handmade and supporting independent artists with our purchases. It is so easy to run to a mall or to go to an online superstore during the holidays to pick up all our gifts at once. But making a purchase at one of these big box stores just won’t have the impact that buying from an artist does! I literally do a happy dance when I make a sale, and that’s not something you see Walmart do when you purchase from them. We value the work of artists and creatives in our society, so we need to show that with how we spend our money.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I push myself to constantly improve. I am self-taught at all that I do, so I am always trying to keep learning and changing and improving on my old techniques. This improvement might not be something the customer will ever even notice (a straighter seam inside a bag, for example, or neater intersections of the lines on one of my patterns). But I like the challenge of getting better and better, and that push to do better is what motivates me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jenniferladd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferladdhandmade
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferladdhandmade
• Other: https://jennifereladd.redbubble.com https://society6.com/jennifereladd https://www.teepublic.com/user/jennifer-ladd