We recently connected with Noémie Borcard Noemygurumy and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Noémie Borcard thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned how to crochet from my mother 10 years ago, who has some materials at her house. She teached me the basics, and then I managed to learn every technics on my own. Everytime I saw a project I wanted to make, I tried to make it and discover all of the tricky technics, even if they took me several times to succeed my project. It was really challenging, and thanks to that, now I can easily realize almost every crochet creation I want.
The only thing every crochet artist would need, it’s time and patience. Crochet needs a constant stitch all around the work, so your creation won’t be irregular.
Today we have a lot of crochet artist who share their tips and their works. When I started, there wasn’t so many tutorials on social networks, so it was more difficult to learn the technical stitchs.
Now I have just to deal with my weekly schedule, because I have a full-time job and I would need more time to expand my business, and it’s difficult because you cannot really “speed-up” crochet creations. I hope that by time I will be able to reduce my time in my job to focus more on my crochet business :)
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started to crochet for myself and my friends, for small gifts or just for my pleasure. Then I decided to share my projects on my Instagram page just as an artist blog.
Then I got my first orders on 1st month, and so I started to step-up and to subscribe to local artisans markets, then I built my own website !
The most important thing in this kind of business, it’s having pleasure doing your creations. I always try to make new projects, and especially the ones that make my excited to make ! That is why I suggest for beginners to still having a job, even part-time, to continue to pay your bills and your materials because crochet is not a stable job. For having a constant incoming profit, it is demanding a lot of work and for starting I suggest to more focusing on your own design, your own style of crocheting first.
For myself I am half-japanese half-french, so I was born with japanese, manga and pop culture. So all of my creations are based on japan-geek references, such as pokemon, zelda, etc.
I try not to put pressure on myself if I do not crochet for 1 day, per example. It is a hobby before all, and it is important to keep pleasure making your projects before everything else !
How did you build your audience on social media?
I share all of my posts on my Instagram page (@noemygurumy).
For the publications, I always take a picture in a clean place (table, in front of a wall, etc.), to make it the more visible possible and simple to watch.
For the reels, I make them with the application Capcut, and for special publications, I use Canvas.
For getting more audience, i try to post daily stories related to crochet, by showing what I am doing right now, or sharing other artists projects.
And for the posts, at least once a week minimum, so people still know that you are active.
I try to boost my reels depending on how much I want these contents to reach as many people as possible.
And during markets I always give my business card with my instagram name on it, so they can still look on my page later.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
The clients (or potential clients) can’t understand how long a project can take to be made. For myself, the shortest creations can be made at least in 30min, and the longest, 9-10 hours long. And so the price will come with it, and that is what people cannot get it easily.
But do not be afraid of making the right price. If people really support your business, they will buy your creations no matter what !
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.noemygurumy.com
- Instagram: @noemygurumy
