Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Kidd.
Hi Jen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Pretty Pretty started out as a business partnership in 2005, in a downtown Staunton storefront. I made our first website at www.4prettypretty.com in 2007 and made our Facebook page (Pretty Pretty), then later, our Instagram page (4prettypretty). In 2015, Pretty Pretty closed the storefront and became an online and festival vendor. In 2017, I began managing Pretty Pretty as a sole proprietorship and redesigned the website. In 2018, I took some classes in small business management at what was then called The Creative Community Fund and applied for a Small Business Administration grant in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. With that grant, I was able to purchase a vintage ’71 Holiday Rambler travel trailer to attend more outdoor art and music festivals. This truly saved my business, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make any in-person sales. I also set up art markets at a local breweries from April to October to make sales and take commissions. Now I still sell online and attend music and art festivals as a craft vendor, the biggest of which is Red Wing Music Festival in Mt. Solon, VA. I have vended there for the last nine years and hope to add some more family friendly art and music festivals to my vending schedule.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, but it has always been worth is to do what I love: make art and help people feel happier with beautiful, wearable art and home goods; made from Objects with History, which is my brand’s tagline. My business partnership broke apart under the weight of the 2008 recession, and we both worked full time in addition to manning the store, which was just too much for either of us. I am also a full-time mom, so it was a lot to juggle. Learning to create and manage my own website and social media platforms was also quite the learning curb too, but I am a quick learner, and I Art Direct, Style, shoot all of my product photography, as well as edit and post it online, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to advance my business. I couldn’t afford to hire someone else to those things. I’m lucky to have a broad skill set and grateful for the experience these challenges have given me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Pretty Pretty is created from items which; otherwise, most likely, would never have met. Thankfully, fatefully, they found one another orbiting in my art studio.
Jewelry, light catchers, custom work, reimagined designs, repairs, fabric banners (Blings!) evolve from my imagination and are made by my hands from your treasures and my objects with a history. One-of-a-kind designs with the exception of a rare series (usually featuring antique buttons!).
I am fascinated with transforming utilitarian items into mementos which perpetuate good energy by being worn or displayed. This creative process started when I was a child playing with my grandmother’s shells and buttons. The jewelry doctor is in, just send it to me with your instructions or ideas and I will reimagine and recreate it.
Humans have always adorned; and Pretty Pretty is what you Want to Wear!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Buy work from my website, commission custom work and repairs and follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see where I will be vending next!
https://www.4prettypretty.com/
https://www.instagram.com/4prettypretty/
https://www.facebook.com/4prettypretty/
Pricing:
- $3.-$195.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.4prettypretty.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4prettypretty/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4prettypretty/
