Julie Meyer of Julie Meyer Leather Goods
Interview by Kara Larson
Photography provided by Julie Meyer
Conducted in collaboration with American Craft Council
How are you doing? How have the changes of the past couple months affected your creativity?
I’m actually doing better than I imagined I would be. On March 1st I signed the lease to my studio at the Holland Arts building—I had my business in my home for 10 years. So kind of a tricky time, but my kids are finally old enough that they are more self-sufficient, and it’s always been my goal to get it out of my house and separate the two.
So after I signed my lease, I spent the first two weeks painting and fixing it up and moving everything in. And then the first day that I was ready to start working, I was cutting leather while listening to the governor talk about shutting the state down. And I had a brief panic of like, “Why am I doing this, what am I doing?” And then I realized the shortage of PPE and thought, “I can sew; I can do this.” So I immediately stopped what I was doing, got in my car, went to JoAnn fabrics, got all the stuff I needed to make masks, came back, and made my first five or so that night just to come up with a pattern. I started listing them on my site the next day. So I feel like I only had a couple hours of panic before I figured out what to do. Since the beginning, for every mask purchased, I’ve donated one. I’ve also been donating 10% of my sales to Springboard for the Arts.
I chose Springboard because it was the first place I felt support and community in the beginning of the pandemic—I applied for their emergency grant and they awarded that within a couple of days. I was super impressed with how quickly that happened—and fortunately I’ve been able to donate back more than what they gave me, but it was great to know that people were looking out for artists and makers.
That’s so great to hear. Generally, how does it feel to be making masks?
It was pretty much non-stop 12-14 hour days for a few weeks. I started to get a little burned out, but I have slowly transitioned back more into the leather goods. I’m still making and selling masks, but not as frantically as I had been.
Does it feel good to be back to working with your primary medium again?
It feels so much better to be working with leather. I might spend one day a week working on masks at this point, and then the rest of the time is leather work. So it’s a good balance.
So, thinking about the economic shift around this pandemic, where do you see yourself evolving in the relationships you form within the maker community as well as with customers?
Because of the distance right now, I really want to engage in more collaborations between local makers and artists. I’ve never really collaborated with other creatives before, and earlier in the pandemic when I was trying to transition from all the mask-making back to leather work, I came up with the idea for a wellness pack, which is a leather pouch that holds a mask (that comes in the pack as well), and then I partnered with Lulu Organics, and I include a little bottle of her hand purifier. So I’m racking my brain for other people to collaborate with to try to bring our goods together.
With customers, my hope is that with less overseas manufactured goods available they will discover local makers who can fill their needs and this will allow local makers to reach an even bigger audience than pre-pandemic. I’ve also been thinking a lot about customer experience in a different way for those choosing things to be shipped to their home. I’m working to improve my packaging a little bit to make it a little more special than an Amazon product shoved into a box.
I definitely want to keep curbside pickup going for people who prefer to swing by and pick up goods. I also plan to offer by-appointment shopping, and then eventually just have open hours. I’m looking forward to the day I can open up my shop a couple days a week, and people can come in and linger more and they can hear my story, I can hear what they’re looking for, and we can come up with designs together.
And that’s the appeal of a small maker, right? You get to know their story and take part in their passion, and there’s just an extra personal touch. And now that we’re physically distanced, it just changes the dynamic in a way that feels like, “Oh, what do we do?”
Right. I typically do about 20-25 juried art shows, and of course, those are all cancelled or postponed. So usually three out of the four weekends a month I would have a show in the summer. I would say for sure it's tougher to connect. I miss seeing people at craft shows, but the climate and community online has been really energizing, so that has been helpful.
For a lot of the makers I talk to, their livelihood is based in the spring/summer/fall art fairs and craft markets, and even if you have a functional website to complete sales, I’m wondering how people are supplementing. Is there a whole new marketing strategy for you?
I actually started a new marketing direction last fall, and I bought into a business coaching program. I had been online with my business for 10 years, but last fall I redid my website completely. I couldn’t believe how old my website was feeling. So I spent the winter cleaning up the site and working on my marketing plan. If I hadn’t done that, I don’t think I’d be where I’m at right now. So that’s my recommendation to people—if you’ve had a website for a while, go through page by page. And I also started collecting emails about a year ago, and I wish I would have started that earlier, but that’s been a great way to connect with people I met at craft shows.
You know, I feel like my business was ready to pivot and evolve, which I’m grateful for. I’m a problem solver, so that worked well into the situation.
Kind of switching gears to sustainability in your practice, how do you maintain an environmentally conscious craft? How do you approach the sustainability of your work?
For me, the leather is expensive, so it’s important that my patterns create very minimal waste. The smallest pieces I have get turned into mini-wallets. Anything after that, I don’t throw any of the leather. I just keep scraps in a box and every few months, I either donate them or sell them to another craftsperson, who then turns them into whatever they’re making.
How does sustainability feed into the ethos of your brand?
I knew from an early age that creating with my hands is what I loved most. Each item is made with the thought of function and durability first and secondly the desire of knowing that someone can enjoy these items on a daily basis and for years to come.
Thinking about the pandemic as a point of reflection, as individuals and how we think of each other functioning collectively in a community, do you see any positive changes you hope come out of this moment?
I love how everything has slowed down and people are home and stores closed at a reasonable time. My hope is we don't go right back to the 24-hour hustle and bustle and we linger a little longer with the people, places, and things close to us.
See more of Julie’s work here: https://www.juliemeyerleathergoods.com/
Learn more about American Craft Council here: https://craftcouncil.org/