This summer has been difficult. Anyone who has been on the art festival circuit knows that three days shows are no walk in the park. Add creating between those shows and you can get burnt out pretty quickly if you aren’t careful. I have done five festivals since June 28th. I’m tired. I have two left. I realized pretty quickly this summer that though I love the people I meet at art festivals it is draining and soul-sucking to put myself in front of the public to sell my art. Being an introvert and socially awkward, sales is just not something that comes naturally to me.
When I started INKA Clothing it was to create a livelihood for my daughter and I. Something I could do and spend more time with her. To see her grow up and spend as much time with her as possible. It started out that way but as my business grew I found I could spend less and less time with her. Now it has gotten to the point that I have seen her for about 3 hours a day for the past three weeks due to my crazy schedule. I am now working between 9-14 hour days (5-7 days a week) and I am still not making a living wage that can support us. Though I have received an incredible support from the community, that community that supports local is just not large enough to create a living for my daughter and I here in the Flathead Valley.
I have decided to scale back my business drastically to go back to basics and see my daughter more. I will be doing INKA Clothing very part time after September 5th (Vintage Whites Market). I will be getting a normal job part time and trying to strategize a better way to run my business so it can work for me more instead of me slaving away for it. I started this blog to offer tutorials and patterns online. This will begin to be my focus. I love to draft patterns and I am going to focus on this as my blog and my income. You will soon see tutorials for my most popular clothing items pop up in my Etsy page so that you can make something beautiful all by yourself. Tutorials will also include a sewing school that will teach you sewing techniques for professional finishing. I will also be creating a very specialized line of basic clothing made from all new materials. My focus will be 100% silk, linen and organic cotton knits in basic tones. I haven’t been taking advantage of my professional pattern drafting skills and I am going to embrace that and run with it.
On top of these drastic changes, I just invested in a vintage airstream camper that I will be remodeling to fit my family and my sewing studio so that I can hit the road and see this beautiful country. So this blog will become a documentation of the creation of my home/studio and our adventures as badass artist, homeschooling, single momma-radical toddler, adventure seeking, thrill loving, sewing, scribble drawing, women on the open road. We will be creating a self sufficient mobile living space including composting toilet, solar and wind power and embrace tiny living fully. Eventually we will find a place to land. But while my kiddo is young I am going to love her and squeeze her and show her how awesome the world can be, before BFF’s and that whole pre-teen (and teen) privacy kick in.
So stay tuned. I’m excited for the changes and very excited to share those changes, adventures and new beginnings with you all. I will remain in the Flathead Valley while I finish up the remodel of the airstream and I am still considering whether or not to vend any of the holiday shows this year. Thank you for all of the support over the last few years and I hope I will continue to interact with you in my transition to a new focus. Thank you for being awesome folks! ❤ ❤
INKA Clothing 