Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly Palencia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I started my business specifically to do something meaningful. As a creative person living in a foreign country, I felt the need to connect with other creatives, and that is how it all started.
Handmade in Norway is a business that has been built around my wish to support creatives. This is a business with humble origins. grown from a seed planted in 2016 when I started a Facebook group. I wanted to find creative people in Norway. I knew that I needed a network, and hoped that others also wanted the same. They did. The network grew faster than I could possibly have imagined, and now after 6 years, we have over 4200 members. We all live in Norway, we are all creative, and we all love handmade products.
Soon after our first Christmas market we started getting invited to venues to arrange events for them. Now I have arranged over 300 events now, ranging from craft markets, creative workshops, small business workshops, and art exhibitions. We have built up a reputation for providing events that mean more to both participants and visitors. The atmosphere is buzzing, makers can really enjoy themselves as they grow their own network and meet customers face to face. Customers can come knowing that they will find high-quality handmade products from local makers.
My goal is to give creatives the opportunity to make a living from doing what they love. I started our Inner Circle with that in mind. As a community we support one another, and that way the process is faster, and less stressful. There is always someone that has faced the same challenges, and that can guide you through the ups and downs of running your own creative business.
We give access to business growth, but the sub-text, speaks of something deeper too – a need to not do it alone. By working together and supporting one another we also grow much faster individually, because we pool knowledge and resources. We also do it in a more sustainable way, without a lot of the usual trial and error, and with a network of creatives that are all rooting for one other.
Handmade in Norway negotiates discounts with service providers and products that our Inner Circle members need. We arrange markets, workshops, and exhibitions to create networking and sales opportunities, and we connect members with experts in a variety of fields, making sure that the path is as smooth as it can possibly be.
Our motto is ‘Creativity & Community’ because we see first hand how important community actually is. Simply put, it can be lonely to work alone, everyone needs community, including creatives. By uniting like-minded people, bonds are formed, friendships made, and suddenly we’re not just building a business, we’re doing it together, and thriving.
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’m a Graphic Designer and Illustrator. I’m English but live in Oslo, Norway, and I’ve been living here since 2005. Long story short, I ended up working outside of my industry after switching countries, so that I could focus on learning the language, and integrating into Norwegian society. Several years passed and I was missing my creativity, something was wrong and I needed to fix it, for my own wellbeing. It wasn’t easy, I suddenly felt very alone, I was filled with insecurities and doubt about whether my skills were still there, and if they were still there, I knew for sure that they were seriously outdated. As I cautiously tried to fire up my dormant creativity, I realised that I didn’t know anyone else that was creative. That’s when I started the Facebook group, and that’s when things changed. As I realised just how important community was for me, and all the others that were being drawn to the group, I also felt a need to change things for the better, for all of us.
I’m also very fortunate to come into contact with many amazing creatives along the way, and projects can grow from these meetings. One such projects in Art of Wellbeing. In this project I work with a fabulous artist and now friend, Sarah Johanne Hannevik. Together we curate exhibitions with a mission to promote emerging artists and create a platform for connections, inspiration and joy. We believe that art enriches life and that creating art spaces in society does not need to be difficult or unattainable. Instead of waiting to be ‘discovered’ we encourage artists to participate and be seen.
That is a theme that runs through all of the projects that I create myself, or get involved in. I want artists, designers and makers to be seen, and to succeed!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
My driving force in the very beginning was a real sense that something was missing. I wasn’t complete. I didn’t feel like myself. For the longest time I just couldn’t figure out why. When I figured out that the hole that I felt inside was self-inflicted, because I had not been nourishing my creativity, I was amazed (and ashamed) that it had taken me so long to understand it. As I have now fully embraced my creativity once more, and fill my days encouraging others to do the same, I know that no non-creatives will ever understand that feeling of longing I experienced when I wasn’t giving myself the creative space I deserved. But on the flip side, I think that we, as creatives have such an insatiable need to embrace our own creativity, and let it play, develop and mature into something that is uniquely us, that it is also very hard for us to imagine what it would feel like to be a non-creative.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’d like to talk about my own creativity a little. I fill up my creative cup by drawing. I have a deep love for nature, being outside makes me feel safe, and in touch with things that I cannot describe. I can stare into raindrops and drift away into that delicious space between thoughts. So it is nature that inspires my art. I draw plants, flowers, animals and insects, and sometimes I mix them together, creating bugs from plants and flowers for example.
I draw nature because I enjoy it, both experiencing nature, and drawing inspiration from it. I want others to see the beauty that is all around us. I want others to find their own inspiration in nature, and fill up their own cup with those delicious feelings of belonging, groundedness, awe and excitement that this astonishing planet offers. We distract ourselves continually with work, gadgets, entertainment, shopping, and much more, but all of that combined has less substance, and less of an impact than the fundamentally basic, but magnificent things that what we started out with. This planet is beautiful, I wish people would look at it more often.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.handmadeinnorway.com / www.graphicsgarden.com
- Instagram: handmade_in_norway / kelly.palencia.art / osloartofwellbeing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/handmade.in.norway AND https://www.facebook.com/kellypalenciadraws
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-palencia/
Image Credits
Kelly Palencia/ Handmade in Norway