We were lucky to catch up with Kayla Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Success is measured in so many different ways for so many different people. But for me, as a small business owner, over the last six years I’ve found that success doesn’t mean what most people think it does. It’s not always about getting a bunch of sales every month, it doesn’t mean reaching all of your goals, although those things are integral to it, it truly means being consistent. Learning from your mistakes, and being passionate in what you do. If I wasn’t passionate about my art, if I wasn’t passionate about combating over consumption and fast fashion with slow-made, ecoconscious pieces – there wouldn’t be much motivation to keep at it, and to give it my all. I feel like a lot of other small business owners can relate to that as well.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my small business in 2019 when I was still in high school, living a couple hundred miles away from home while taking some college classes. peaceandpines started as an apothecary, where I was making soaps, herbal teas, etc, all in my tiny apartment. I have always been very into natural healing and making high-quality products, so this felt like the right direction for me.

As time went on and it seemed like my apartment kept getting smaller and smaller, I kind of slowed down on my business altogether. I still had an Etsy shop open, but because I didn’t have the space and the COVID-19 pandemic had just begun I felt… lost. I didn’t have a lot of room for things. I didn’t have the ability to use a stainless steel kitchen and with how many other people are in the industry, I felt like there was too much to compete with.

When my boyfriend, now fiancé, and I moved into our current home, he had began working with leather and his laser engraver a lot more. At this time, the pandemic was still in the forefront of everyone’s minds and he had designed an ear saver for masks. Because his store, LaserHaze, was very busy and had many other items in its we decided to put the ear savers in my store.

Now, I had never worked with leather and didn’t really want to so he still hand produced everything in our home studio, and I would just do the customer service side of things and ship the packages out.
Overtime I really felt like I was doing something good by helping people, mostly healthcare workers have a little less pressure in their lives, pun-intended, but that quickly diminished once I realize that this was not my passion that I was pursuing.

I began painting the leather and turning scraps into earrings and keychains and things, and that slowly morphed into making jewelry and sun catchers, which is what I do full-time now.

My focus is on using stainless steel, after three or so years of using other metals like silver plated, copper and brass I realized that these metals weren’t lasting as long as they could be. Stainless steel is extremely durable & I use wire-wrapping techniques to ensure that my pieces last as long as possible. I wanted to be providing people with extremely high-quality home decor, and jewelry – that will last them lifetimes, not a few weeks.
I’m a perfectionist, so I often spent more time than I needed to on something simple like a pair of earrings or a necklace. On top of that, I’ve always loved using scrap materials, discarded items, thrifting, and upcycling, I wanted to incorporate all of this into my shop.

peaceandpines is my passion. It’s all I think about. It’s all I want to work on. It’s quite literally consumed my entire life and I’m perfectly okay with that. I’ve learned so much about myself, I’ve learned so much about making quality items, and I’ve learned so much about centering your life around doing something good for the planet.

People often say “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” which I used to really agree with, but when the comparison is small businesses that are fighting for a change versus large corporations that don’t care about their customers, that don’t care about their impact on the climate, that don’t care about their carbon footprint – and are doing nothing to change, that’s when I don’t agree anymore.

That is my main message behind peaceandpines, “creators over corporations”. Because art is inherently political. In a world where AI rules everything, that message even more important. I want to be a part of the change.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I first started out on Etsy, which I think is a great place for a lot of small businesses to begin. A really big pro with Etsy is that they reach the clients for you, they reach the people that you essentially ask them to with your SEO. The cons are, because it’s a really large marketplace – if your SEO and photos aren’t perfect you’re not going to be shown very high up in search results. Another con something that I really don’t agree with is that Etsy has become a huge drop shipping hub. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything “wrong” with drop shipping, I know a lot of people do it because it’s a quick and easy way to start a business. But it’s taking away from Etsy’s whole message of “handmade products”. It’s confusing the customer base who is thinking that those drop shipped products are handmade, and I don’t agree with that. I now run my own website that I built from scratch, and market through social media.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to teach myself that I can’t undervalue my work. I have always wanted to give people high quality pieces for a comfortable price, but at some point, your time, material costs, and skills are worth more than you’d think. You have to really check in with yourself to make sure you are honoring yourself, while still making your pieces accessible to as many people as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://peaceandpines.com
• Instagram: @peaceandpines
• Facebook: peaceandpines
• Youtube: peaceandpines