We recently connected with Yasmin Bratcher and have shared our conversation below.

Yasmin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’m a busy mom with two young kids, and a supportive husband. Like so many, I was looking for a creative outlet while staying at home during the pandemic. After long days of virtual learning, a teaching degree and years of experience did not prepare me for the realities of online learning with my own child. That plus taking care of a toddler and running a household, I wanted, NEEDED something for myself. I fooled around with different hobbies that some of my friends were into, nothing stuck. But I became really inspired when I started working with polymer clay and learned to macramé. At first I was just creating earrings for myself until I quickly realized I was running out of room and days to wear them all! I wanted to keep creating, so I began gifting items to family, friends, and my children’s teachers. Others started commenting on pieces I was wearing myself or sent messages about what I was posting to IG. “Of course I made it!” was always my response. Then requests to buy and even commissions came rolling in and Alzer.CO was born!

I have been home with my children for 7 years now and have appreciated every moment, even the not so great ones. As my son nears Kindergarten I started to think about how I could convince my dear husband to let me be a stay at home wife. Kidding, kidding…kind of. Really I began thinking about what going back to work would look like. Would I go back into education? Would I explore a new path entirely? Would I do something part time or full?
There were so many questions and a range of emotions from excitement to fear, thinking about this upcoming chapter.

For Alzer, my maiden name to take form right at this time felt like fate!
I have always loved creating, I just never put enough energy into it to see what I could actually do. Now it’s where I want all of my energy to go! The thought of turning my passion into a career with the flexibility to continue being with family full time?! I mean HELLO! What was I thinking? or rather, NOT thinking earlier?!
Of course as dreamy as it all sounds, once I began to treat my jewelry line as more than a hobby, reality set in. I have to do things like taxes, social media upkeep and inventory? UGH! While I’d choose this path time and again since discovering it, the learning has been extensive and never ending. The excitement of beginning a new career, intertwined with the fear of learning new skills and the ups and downs of all the fails and the occasional wins, I wouldn’t change any of it.

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?

My name is Yasmin and I am a former educator, wife and mother of two. I began creating like so many, during the pandemic. I needed an outlet and found it in the form of clay, embroidery,beading and beyond. After some encouragement from friends and family I branched out and began selling my creations. I soon found myself in the small business and art world of Wilmington NC and I knew it was where I wanted to be! In addition to wanting a creative outlet I also wanted to be a part of a community. A community that leans on each other and helps others from every walk of life. It has always been so very important to me to try and not only help anyone in need big or small, but to empower them. Every person deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, every person could use a helping hand and a shoulder to lean on at some point in their life. I wanted what I do to facilitate that. When teaching I knew exactly how I was helping others. When I started creating, aside from helping a friend out with her accessories for date night I wasn’t so sure. Eventually I realized that by making someone smile with a simple piece of jewelry, it may not seem like much, but it was something! Then I met other small businesses with the common goal of helping others and between donations to nonprofits, collaborations on projects that help various community programs, sharing advice that was shared with me to helping another person trying to make it, that was it! I can help others by sharing things that I learn and giving back to the community that has supported me.
I also can’t forget about my aesthetic towards empowerment. Everyone is beautiful and deserves to feel so. A great deal of my work supports body positivity, female empowerment and pride. I am proud to be known for my “breast earrings ever” my boobs are my best seller, see what I did there? I love that I can give people confidence to wear things they wouldn’t normally wear and to display part of them they are proud of!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

So I have always said that my business plan is to win the lottery so I can continue to create and give my jewelry and creations away to people. The most rewarding part is without a doubt the love I receive. I do not normally take compliments well, but when I get a compliment on my jewelry I’ll take it! I love how happy it makes people to get a new handmade pair of earrings or laugh when they see my plant charms and or get excited to gift something they see that was just perfect for someone they know!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One thing I had to unlearn that I am still unlearning is STOP waiting on perfection! I was, still can be, so stuck on waiting to take the next step until I had everything just right. It was fear and an excuse I used to stay in my comfort zone! I am thankful to have a supportive and pushy husband and circle of friends to call me out and tell me to just do it!!! So I did it! I created an Instagram account and posted my creations as terrified as I was and the response was way better than my self criticism! Turns out, the only one who didn’t want me to share this part of me was me! If you are thinking of starting something, a hobby, business, idea, zoo DO IT! You may fail but not trying is way worse! And there is no rule saying you can’t try, try again! I will be going back to reference myself, because it is not easily unlearned and I remind myself everyday of this!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alzer.co/
• Instagram: @alzer_ofcourseimadeit
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alzerofcourseimadeit

Image Credits
Cocreative Lindsey Fort