Tell us a bit about yourself name, location,
affiliations, personal stuff.
Hi, my name is Kay and I live in Los Angeles with my husband and two toy poodles. I'm, originally, from Seoul, Korea with the last 13 years living in the States. I majored in Fine Art in college, but after taking one sewing class at a local college here in LA, to just alter my own clothes, I started pursuing my fashion design career. My first job was designing men's and boy's beachwear for a private label company for about three years. After that, I decided to design and manufacture clothes myself; not just draw them on the computer.
Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Go to the beach!!! The best thing about my profession is being my own boss. This allows me to go to my favorite place: Hermosa Beach. I usually take with me my drawing book and pen. I enjoy skiing and rollerblading as well. I'm into just about any type of outdoor activity which gives me a workout. I also spend a lot of time social networking. My favorite is cyworld.com. This Korean site connects me to my friends and family when I get homesick.
What first made you want to become an artist?
It's hard to say what actually made me want to become an artist. I think it's just an outlet for expressing my experiences in life. My mother is a big influence in my life. She was a hair stylist for as long as I can remember and she truly enjoyed what she was doing. I admired that zeal and passion she had in her creative flair. If she was not at work, she always did things with her hands. I've observed her making jewelry accessories, small home deco pieces, etc. Being an art student, I put this weird pressure on myself where I wanted to wear different clothes that nobody had. I had no sewing skills back then, so I just started with my jeans by making holes and adding patches cut out from other clothes as well as adding some stitches by hand. Some friends liked it; some laughed. But it didn't matter. It's been more than 15 years, but the excitement and feeling of confidence I felt is still so fresh as ever. So, I guess that's how it all started.
Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.
I love fabric shopping. Varieties and multitudes of fabric motivate me. I just hang them out or lay them where I can look and touch them whenever I walk by. For days or weeks or however long it takes, I'll start envisioning all kinds of different styles in my head until something clicks. Then I start sketching. But the magic is when I actually start sewing. As crazy as it sounds, most of the time I end up having a different final piece from the original sketch. I enjoy being spontaneous and creative like that... you know... just playing with different materials. That's why it's a tremendous pleasure making one-of-a-kind pieces.
What handmade possession do you most cherish?
A pink flannel baby-wrap that my mom made when I was a newborn.
Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.
Books:
The Winner by David Baldacci
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The Notebook
Movies:
The Sound of Music
Rambo 2 ( yes, I cried...)
The Bourne Ultimatum
Center Stage
The Usual Suspects
Music:
Paolo Nutini
Adele
Fatboy Slim
2Pac
Rain (my favorite Korean singer ^_^)
Websites:
style
fashiontrendsetter
cesarmillaninc
What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
I'm still kind of new and still learning from other Etsy sellers, but one thing I found helpful is to be responsive. It's all about culturing relationships with my clients. I treasure getting prompt responses when I have questions, I'm sure my clients do too. Of course it will be very hard to please all customers, especially when English is not my first language and Convo is the only way to communicate. But I strive to treat my customers as I would like to be treated myself.
What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?
Etsy Forum. All the answers are in there. Not only do I get to find my answers quickly, but I've also learned to have a positive attitude from other great sellers and buyers. The one feature I would like to see is where the 'ranking featured items' could be set by numeric orders; not by 'up and down' buttons.
How do you promote your work?
Before I found Etsy I participated in shopping events and sample shows and I enjoyed interacting with customers and especially loved seeing my clothes on customers. But some of the shows became more like flea market events where people only came to look for cheap deals not for one-of-a-kind art pieces. So I was looking for other ways to promote my work, and just found Etsy while surfing the web! now, I feel that I've been blessed finding wonderful customers who appreciate my creativity and hard work through Etsy.
In ten years I'd like to be...
Healthy enough to keep challenging myself to learn new things; in a small house with a big yard somewhere near the beach; and living with my loving husband, a daughter (someday we'll be blessed) and 15 dogs. |
