We recently connected with Jocelyn Krodman and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jocelyn, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
Looking back, as lost as I felt at the time, I feel very thankful to have worked jobs in the service industry and a traditional 9-5 office job before veering off onto a path of self-employment. Even when things feel challenging or overwhelming, I’m able to compare how much better my quality of life feels to me versus the years I spent working prior to launching my creative career.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started my business, PetitFelts, in 2011 after making a move from Atlanta to the Northeast. My life in the South during that time didn’t feel like fertile ground for me. My 9-5 job had me jaded and in general, I felt unmoored. Knowing a huge shift was in order, I took a leap and moved to a small town in Connecticut. In order to meet people in my new town, I signed up for a local craft fair. I didn’t want to make jewelry for the show (that’s what my degree is in) so on a whim, I decided to make a bunch of felted animal ornaments. Needle felting was a craft I had begun to teach myself a few years prior and I was thrilled to pick it up again. I ended up selling out of the ornaments and began to get orders for more animals. Although I had not originally planned on starting a business, PetitFelts was born. Over a decade later, I offer DIY felting kits, mobiles, wall hangings, a fair trade line of felted ornaments and online, as well as in-person classes. I met my partner, ceramist Andrew Molleur, at a craft fair in 2014 and we ended up relocating to the Hudson Valley a couple of years later. We now work from our home studios in Kingston, NY and he’s taught me enough about mold making and slip casting over the years, that I finally started to create ceramic plaques for my wall hangings and a line of animal toothbrush holders. I hope these will be the first of many more PetitFelts ceramic offerings to come. Learning the ability to evolve and pivot when necessary, has been really valuable and I’m proud of having not given up on my business, even when I’ve gone through uncertain or slow times.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In the summer of 2018, my dad was diagnosed with ALS. He was incredibly dear to me and to say it was devastating would be an understatement. I was heartbroken. Not more than a couple of months passed before it was clear I needed to put my life in the Hudson Valley and my business on hold and relocate to Atlanta to help my mom caretake for him. We all wanted to keep him home, so caring for him became my full-time job. I was able to keep shipping kits out to stores, but anything that required more than putting some materials in a box at night and shipping them off was out of the question. I was unsure of whether my business would survive and to be honest, despite my concerns about how I was going to support myself, it was one of the last things on my mind at the time. I did know that at some point we would lose my dad and I would have to try to pick up the pieces of my life. As it turns out, we didn’t have much time. We lost him just seven months later. I gave myself about a month to pull myself together and make my way back to Kingston. I’ll never forget what it felt like to eventually go into my studio again to try and start working. I felt like a completely different person. Little by little my creativity and motivation returned and as usual, I found much solace in making my animals. All was not lost and I know that my dad would be so proud that I pushed myself back into making my work and putting it out into the world.
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 find that most people I come across are open minded and genuinely curious when I share what I do (despite the hilarious looks I sometimes get from people when I tell them I make wool animals for a living), but I am aware that I’ve made a few life choices that would likely be described as less than traditional and my career path is certainly one of them. I understand it can be difficult for some people that don’t consider themselves to be creative to wrap their heads around how or why someone would choose to make things for a living. It’s not for everyone, just as sitting in an office is not for everyone. I suppose I would want them to know that a creative career is still a career and in fact, I work harder now than I ever did before starting my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.petitfelts.com
- Instagram: @petitfelts
Image Credits
Portraits are stills from the short film “The Needle Felter” by Jamie Kennard, all other images by PetitFelts