Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi! I’m Lorena, 21 years of age, born and raised in a small mountain town in Cuba. Since migrating from there, I’ve lived and worked only in South Florida, U.S. I currently reside in South Miami Beach alongside my boyfriend, Ryan, and our two amazing terriers, Bronson and Captain. Ryan, who recently opened his own Etsy store ryanthewheelbarrow, helps me with the hand-printed graphics that are on my packaging, tags and other things.

Pretty soon all four of us will be undergoing some major changes as we venture out to make Boulder, Colorado our new hometown. Our plan is to settle down, marry, have some babes, and probably more dogs. Ryan had lived and loved Colorado before. I first visited there with him two years ago and knew I’d be back for good. Sure enough the opportunity presented itself, arriving earlier than we had both anticipated but we’re happy about that.

FUN FACT: I’ve lived in Hialeah Gardens and Hialeah 10 out of the 12 years since migrating from Cuba in 1997. The two are #1 and #2 in the list of cities in the U.S where Spanish is most spoken. Now you know.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

When I’m not embroidering, sewing, or drawing, it’s because I’ve gotten distracted by something on the internet. It starts with harmless little links to blog content, shoes, videos, but before I know it, three or four hours of my day have vanished.

When I do go out it’s usually to the dog park, or the grocery store. Living in South Beach has made me quite the hermit. It’s crummy at times to live in a tourist city when you’re not a tourist.

I love a good vacation, though. Preferably one without internet.

FUN FACT: One thing I do enjoy about living in this small island is being able to walk, or bike pretty much anywhere I need to go. This is especially helpful to me because I’ve never learned to drive.

What first made you want to become an artist?

My creative gene is inherited from a very long line of painters, carpenters, singers, sculptors, knitters, etc., etc. Nearly everyone in my family has the same instinct and mutual love of creating.

FUN FACT: After graduating high school, I attempted to show my teachers and peers I was much more multifaceted than they thought. So, instead of fulfilling everyone’s assumption that I would go to art school, I veered into plant biology. Going against my genetics obviously didn’t work. But at least now I know more about plants than the average person.

Please describe your creative process.

Ideas have a way of constantly polluting my head. It’s a good kind of pollution, though. There are all these little sketchbooks I fill up whenever something extra good dings especially loud in my pollution bubble. Some of my sketches evolve into accessories and some don’t. A lot of times what seems like a great shape, or pattern, just won’t translate on the embroidery hoop.

Long story short; I draw, then draw again on the embroidery fabric, embroider, cut out, apply lace, sew it all together, attach hardware and finally, ship! Sometimes I wish it was as easy and fast as it sounds. But the results are incredibly worth the long process, and as one of my returning customers put it—-you gotta wait for the good things.

Shipping is my favorite step. When I’m packing up orders I always have to step back and think that someone, somewhere is REALLY going to wear this. This thing that I made. With my hands. In my chair. In my room. Something about sending them off always seems unbelievable to me. I love my job.

FUN FACT: My shop’s name is marañón. A marañón is a fruit. It is most commonly known as the cashew apple. My grandmother and I are avid lovers of its taste. She told me it was her favorite fruit because throughout the fruit’s developmental stages, it displays all of the colors visible to the human eye. I’ve never been able to prove the validity of this statement, but I have always taken her word for it.

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

I have these couple of tall, slender, wooden figurines one of my uncles sculpted for me. It’s a young lady and lad, dressed up so slick, just ready for a lively Saturday night around town.

I came back with them 7 or 8 years ago, the last time I visited back home. And I guess these two figurines serve as a reminder of where I come from, who raised me, and why I am the way I am. These figurines are everyone in the enormous family I left behind, and everyone in the town I grew up in, standing up on my dresser.

Name your top five books, movies, musicians, and websites besides Etsy.

BOOKS: My short attention span has never allowed me to be an avid reader. On the rare occasions when I do read, the books have to be informational, or non-fiction. The five I’ll always keep with me are
:

Making Things Grow, by Thalasa Cruso

Complete Indoor Gardener, by Michael Wright

A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion: Historic and Modern, by Mary Brooks Picken

The Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin

The Art of Sewing: The Classic Techniques, by the editors of Time-Life Books

MOVIES: I don’t have any favorite movies. In fact, I forget most of the movies I watch. But there have been some memorable ones
:

Cidade de Deus

The Sea Inside

Bringing up Baby

Amores Perros

Hable con Ella

MUSIC: Surprise! I don’t have any favorites in this category either. My tastes shift from genre to genre every month. One month I’ll listen to a lot of old Bollywood tracks. On another, I’ll be very much into old timey, classic country tunes. I like to like everything. Here are some artists I”ve recently been listening to
:

Red Foley

Nosaj Thing

Orquesta Aragón

Bola de Nieve
Pacific!

WEBSITES: I’ve been enjoying these a lot lately

Westervin

mossière

Jak & Jil

RegrEtsy

Yes Yes Y’all

FUN FACT: Throughout my years living in the U.S, I have learned the English I know now mostly by watching television, and speaking with others. If you ask me what nouns, pronouns, adjectives or any other language mumbo-jumbo terms are, I won’t know what to tell you. I’m still learning to speak, read and write English.

What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?

Patience, please. When sales are down, instead of moping around, work hard. Have confidence in the work you make. I seriously wish I had followed these three pieces of advice in the beginning. Lastly, take time to look through well established stores, learn why they are so successful, but don’t plagiarize.

FUN FACT: I signed up to Etsy one day because I stumbled upon these amazing earrings I just had to buy. Some months after that, I started looking around and noticed all this vintage eyewear lying around my house, so I listed some up, and had my first two sales. I grew unsatisfied with selling eye wear so I stopped. A year later, after becoming pretty good at knitting, I thought of selling custom-made dog sweaters. That idea was short lived. It wasn’t until August 2009, when I quit my ridiculous retail job at a hotel boutique while simultaneously learning to embroider, that the idea hit me. This one stuck.

What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?

I love to heart items and sellers. And I enjoy browsing through the Storque articles once in a while. Thumbs up to Etsy for making what could be a seriously overwhelming place into a maneuverable, friendly one.

There’s very little I would like to see changed. However, a grievance I share with many other sellers are un-payed items. There just has to be a slightly more functional, seamless checkout process where customers aren’t repeatedly forgetting to complete transactions. And we feel a sale should only be considered a sale if it’s been paid for.

Lastly (and maybe this is already in the works), a phone application would be amazing.

How do you promote your work?

When I opened up my shop, I turned my flickr account into a sort of photo blog (because I don’t have time to run a real blog). In the beginning, I would add my photos to different communities for others to see, and I think that’s where it kind of started. Suddenly there was a domino effect within the blogosphere, and that’s when things really took off. To everyone who’s ever written, read, or commented on my work, please know I have mad love for you.

Oh, and I recently got a twitter account! Besides being quick and precise, twitter’s also a lot of fun. I try to keep it light on the social media marketing because, while effective in a lot of ways, it can also eat up a lot of time. This is even truer when your attention span is that of a goldfish and distractions can be detrimental to your schedule.

In ten years, where would you like to be?

Alive and happy.

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