We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Jo Hiney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary Jo, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My initial idea that launched in 2004 has completely changed and continues to do so, but the process of turning an idea into a product has remained similar.

At first, I had what I would call divine inspiration to package silk fabrics in small pieces for those who like to create with mixed media. Since I’d already been involved in the how-to industry, I had sources and was able to order the silks I needed easily.

After receiving the silks, I organized them into twelve color palettes, came up with a name for the product and had packaging designed. The packaging design was developed by my son, who was studying Graphic Design at Cal Poly, SLO. He created templates for me in the Illustrator program so that I could print on demand, using our home printer. It did not take long for me to learn how to use Illustrator, even tho I would refer to my skills in that regard as the hunt and peck method. Learning Illustrator has been one key to my success and continues to be what I would call the freedom to create on a shoestring. I can bring any idea to fruition simply because of this one skill.

Once designed and packaged, I already had business connections in the how-to industry. I presented my product to a friend who owned a wonderful fabric store. She bought it. After that, I presented it to a few distributers in the quilt industry who also bought it.

Since then, my product mix has changed completely, grown substantially and my daughter is now my partner. We no longer pursue wholesale accounts, although we do still have a few. Everything we sell we create completely from scratch. It is a thoroughly unique product. We offer our lovely, creative customers handcrafted kits they can be guided through to create and we offer hand-dyed silk fabrics and ribbons as open stock for those who know exactly what they want to create and just need our beautiful materials.

I like the shoestring budget. I like keeping my business small. We make our workspace work by changing it up, sometimes daily, so that it is efficient for the task at hand. We built our new website on Shopify and we love it. We provide free tutorials on our YouTube channel. We offer inspiration.

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’ve been an artisan for all of my income-earning years. I started out with excellent sewing skills and decent design skills, which led me to selling hand-made products to boutiques in the 1980’s. During this time, my business became work and I stopped enjoying it. The economy changed and this aspect of my career came to a close, Shortly thereafter, I was discovered by Jo Packham and started designing and writing how-to books for her. I was given many opportunities to design within very specific categories, which allowed me to get a lot of design ideas out of my system, narrowing it to what I truly love to create. During this time, I did not have a product to sell, so my income came strictly from designing for others in an industry famous for low compensation. I wrote for Jo from 1993 – 2005, at which point it was time, once again, to reinvent. This is when I started selling silk fabrics in small pieces for creatives like myself.

I’ve long been an expert on ribbon embroidery and ribbonwork, but wanted to be able to create with my own ribbons in my own shades. In 2007, I began dyeing silk ribbons in 15 shades and eventually added silk velvet, organza, noil chamois and jacquard, increasing to 75 shades, dyed across the board. These hand-dyed silks are the first main aspect of Mary Jo Hiney Designs. Because I’d written how-to books, I knew our customers would need ideas for how to use our products, so I started designing a variety of patterns, with a focus on decorative accessories and gifts, my favorite areas of design.

This led to our creating hand-crafted kits that contain all the materials needed to create a design. These kits empower our customers and contain really beautiful, hard-to-find materials These kits are the second main aspect of Mary Jo Hiney Designs. For most of our kits, one will only need basic tools and supplies to complete them, such as scissors and threads. Over the years, I’ve developed couture hand-sewing techniques because I’ve wanted my designs to look polished and well-made. Our customers want to learn how to achieve the same results, so our kits are really thorough in terms of how-to achieve a certain result. And we have created videos for most of our kits so that someone can watch me make something as if standing in my place. Sometimes a design hits big and other times, barely at all, but we keep on keeping on.

I love this little business. Just my daughter and I wear all the hats and that is plenty. Claire and I work hard, but seamlessly. We work 4 days a week, which gives me weekend time to continue creating in a quiet space, which I need. One does not need to earn a massive income. It is unnecessary. We are not getting rich from this small, creative business in terms of money, but I am beyond wealthy in terms of being able to live my purpose.

We are proud to provide such beautiful materials for our lovely customers so that they may create beautiful things too. I believe in the power of creativity, because it is so good for so many reasons.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have learned to adjust and anticipate major shifts in my career that began in 1975. I was searching for where I could belong, given my unusual skill set and being guided by my right brain. Working in the garment industry led to becoming a dresser for live television for five years, which led to an escape from the big city to a small town. It was in this small town that I engaged with an emerging hand-made market and created a product line sold to gift stores across the country and that flourished for about 10 years. When that ended, my unusual skill set was discovered by the amazing Jo Packham and I began to write how-to books for Chapelle/Sterling Publishing for the next 13 years. Near the end of this phase, I shifted into developing my own product line again. All my previous experiences were joined together and I finally accepted that I was a small business owner. This phase began in 2004 and continues to this day. I think the primary reason for my resilience has been the need for survival. It has been my greatest motivator. But I wanted to survive on my terms by living my purpose.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Without question, having my designs discovered by Jo Packham was the primary reason I was able to build my reputation in the how-to market. Jo and I worked on many how-to books together for a long time. During these years, I was given the opportunity to hone my design and writing skills and to understand what worked and did not for those we wanted to recreate my designs. I continue to work with Jo now and then and she continues to help me recognize my own strengths.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maryjohiney.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mary_jo_hiney?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryJoHineyDesigns?
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@maryjohineydesigns?si=0Y0jS4ZiF1CHp6Pn

Image Credits

Photo credits: Claire Hiney, Mary Jo Hiney