We recently connected with Jerri Penland-Yoffee and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jerri , thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

One thing I’ve enjoyed so much about having kids is being able to live vicariously through them. Every time I show them something that I loved when I was young it feels like I’m experiencing it for the first time all over again. The look of joy and wonder on their faces is such a gift.

In comes the creation of Raven Lane. My absolute favorite holiday is Halloween. I love dressing up, the weather, the smell of leaves, the decorations and the feel of mystery. So, of course, I have to indoctrinate my kids into the love as well. I had bought my eldest a black styrofoam vampire castle from Micheals in way too early September. As I watched him play with the little spooky characters an idea popped in my head. I instantly ran to my brother, Jay, and we began spinning ideas.

I’m the type of person that has some sort of halloweenish decorations up in my house all year. I.E. a witchy kitchen. As social media has grown I began to see that there were more and more people like me out there as well. People that loved to add a touch of quirk into their home decor. What we had hoped was that someone would want to add a needle felted raven to their chimney or a spooky dollhouse to their table to change with the seasons. A touch of whimsy to show their personality.

Jerri , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m really proud of the approach that On Raven Lane has taken this far; each piece is handcrafted and the product line is constantly evolving. It is very much a boutique artist business with our direction lead by not only inspiration but also requests from our customers. The conversations with our clients and customers are integral to understanding what is translating and what people are craving.

In the beginning I had gotten into sculpting with polymer clay because of my love of ‘ Nightmare before Christmas’. I was seven when it first came out in theaters and was just awe struck. Stop motion mixed with clay just took ahold of me. Along with story telling, my brother and I hoped to create an entire world, filled with characters and more. On Raven Lane isn’t just a home decor business but rather a universe where each piece has its own story.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My biggest pivot was actually sitting down and figuring out who our audience was going to be. Being such a niche business it took me several failed craft shows to realize that I couldn’t just apply to any. Even though the people that ran the shows were very excited about what we had to offer, the clientele on the other hand were not. We would sell some pieces, and those that purchased spent so much time just talking to us about each piece. Unfortunately, the majority walked past and when we looked around we found that we just didn’t seem to fit the “theme”.

Of course I felt unbelievably discouraged. There were moments where I definitely wanted to walk away BUT I had one customer tell me that there was a market, we just needed to look in the right place! Once we started aiming for the right venues we connected with our real audience.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My brother, who has aggravated me since birth, has always been the person that will jump off a bridge of creativity with me. He has always embraced every single crazy idea that myself or my husband has had. From music videos to dollhouses, the word ‘no’ was never in his vocabulary. The kookier the idea the better.

Best of all he is an unbelievable carpenter. I knew from the moment that we began throwing out ideas that he was going to create something perfect. Each house he has made with painstaking detail and craftsmanship. He was always the obvious choice for my partner in this venture.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://OnRavenLane.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onravenlane?igsh=OHEwb3R1cHhiaW41&utm_source=qr

Image Credits

All photos are done either by myself or my husband