Bad Words and Deep Roots Intertwined to Create Great Designs with Elizabeth Elswick from the Hippie’s Daughter
Witness the deep roots of handcrafted art and the impact family has on shaping makers sharing their special talents and skills while creating curated, location specific and sometimes explicit collectible pieces of art in sticker form with Elizabeth Elswick from the Hippies Daughter.
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Transcript:
NICOLE Q + C: Today, I'm joined by Elizabeth Elswick from The Hippies Daughter. Elizabeth is a West Virginia, born and raised artist. She's a tree hugging, animal lover who enjoys being an introvert, spending her time in the mountains, and getting to be creative as hell. Thanks for coming on the show.
ELIZABETH: Thanks for having me.
Q + C: Could you tell us a little bit about your business and how you got started?
ELIZABETH: I have always kind of been creative. My dad taught me how to watercolor paint, how to macrame, literally everything. My grandmother paints. Everybody in my family is pretty creative, so I've pretty much done it since I could. I went to college, all that boring stuff, got a nine-to-five, hated it.. And I started my business. I mean, it just kind of grew it more and more, evolving it, I guess, because I started the signs and then I stopped that.
Q + C: All right, that's awesome. How has it changed since then from making the signs to what you're making now?
ELIZABETH: It's really simplified my life a lot, because it takes so much to do all the signs, plus I would force my husband to help me. So it's really simplified a lot in that sense. But of course I still pretty much work from the time I get home to bedtime.
Q + C: Yeah. Cause you have a part-time job too, right?
ELIZABETH: Yeah.
Q + C: Are you working on anything exciting right now in your business?
ELIZABETH: Probably the newest thing is being accepted as a Tamarack artisan.
Q + C: That is so cool. Congratulations.
ELIZABETH: Thank you. We'll see how that goes. They kept some pieces to start on consignment and they should be sending me a wholesale order soon. So we'll see.
Q + C: Congratulations. That is so exciting. So many people stop at the Tamarack.
ELIZABETH: I got there before it actually opened, and there were people at the door, like, ready to go.
Q + C: Wow. That's intense.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, it was packed.
Q + C: That's exciting. So where else do you hope to be with your business in the future? Like, what's your big dream look like?
ELIZABETH: Definitely want to go full-time so that I can not work that part-time job. But it is a nice safety net. So, I definitely want to go full-time with the business, and then hopefully just have more free time to travel, do some stuff from the road, maybe pick up freelancing, designing stuff that I can do on the road. Easy, just see where it goes.
Q + C: Yeah, that's really cool. What kind of design work would you like to do freelance?
ELIZABETH: I've done a little bit of graphic design. That's what I went to college for, actually. And then mostly just drawing, like illustrations and stuff for other businesses to use as stickers or prints or whatever they need.
Q + C: Yeah. Right now you could probably just have an offer, like making sticker designs or converting people's designs into stickers and helping them with that.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, I'm excited to start a new one here soon for a flower farm in Ohio. So that'll be fun.
Q + C: That's cool. That's really cool. You mentioned travel and I know you and your husband recently bought a school bus. You mind sharing a little bit about that?
ELIZABETH: Yeah, so we bought, I guess a mid-size school bus, it's 28 feet long. Her name is Estelle. She's currently completely demoed inside and pretty close to being ready to build back up into a home.
Q + C: That's cool. Did you save anything from your demo?
ELIZABETH: We have a pretty good pal of aluminum that was ripped out so we can scrap it, but we sold most of the seats. We took some seats to my family's camp in Greenbrier county. Most anything else we were just going to try to scrap it, recycle it.
Q + C: It’d be neat to have a jar of all the bolts that you had to remove from this.
ELIZABETH: There's so many, like they're just everywhere. When we move the bus, it's just going to be a driveway of screws, they're literally everywhere.
Q + C: That’s funny, that sounds really cool. So back to your business, you said you've been in business for how long?
ELIZABETH: Since 2017. Pretty much the beginning of 2017. So about four years, which is insane.
Q + C: It goes really fast. Yeah. You've been super busy doing a part-time job and a full-time job.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, I mean, I can't believe it's July right now.
Q + C: You're also in a lot of really cool locations where people can pick up your stuff. Coffee shops and…
ELIZABETH: Yeah, I've done wholesale a little bit throughout the years, but this year I really tried to kick it up and it's pretty much taken up all the time.
Q + C: Do you have any advice for people who want to sell their items in different stores for wholesale or consignment?
ELIZABETH: Yeah. Definitely keep a very organized inventory because that can be a nightmare unless everything's made to order, and you literally just make it to order. I have a little bit of both. I've reached out to a couple shops, but I usually let shops reach out to me, which is probably not the best, but signing up for the wholesale websites, like Fair or Hello Abound can really launch you forward in it. As soon as I signed up with Hello Abound I had tons of wholesale orders cause they also will feature their new wholesalers. So that was really awesome.
Q + C: Oh, wow. That's great. I think I just saw them post about you.
ELIZABETH: They just posted again, so we'll see what happens.
Q + C: Get ready for a flood. So after four years in business, what's the craziest thing that's ever happened? Or maybe, like, the coolest thing. Maybe not, like, that crazy.
ELIZABETH: Well, it is crazy, but really cool: People will, if I do an event, people will travel to come see me and it's so weird. But no, it's so cool. And like, we will wholesale to shops and stuff. People will specifically go to those shops to get my stuff. Like I just started selling in a coffee shop in St. Albans and every step of the way has been amazing. Coal RIver Coffee. Mike and Rachel are amazing.
Q + C: Yeah, you go there all the time too.
ELIZABETH: We're there pretty much half of the days out of the week.
Q + C: What is your favorite drink from there?
ELIZABETH: A Joel. (?)
Q + C: Cool. All right, I'll have to try that if I get down that way. So what advice would you give to your past self, or what would you say to yourself at the beginning of this journey after learning everything you know now?
ELIZABETH: One of the first things that I should have done, that I actually learned from you, was doing a mood board, like a branding board for my business. If I would have done that from day one, I feel like things would have went a lot smoother, because I would have had a vision for what I actually wanted it to look like. Because in the beginning it was like, oh, “let's do this and this and this and this…”
Q + C: What kind of elements did you use on your mood board that helped clarify that for you?
ELIZABETH: Getting colors down, using just a lot of pictures. I used mostly my pictures to get the vibe that I wanted for everything, to get that aesthetic that I wanted. And it's helped to try to hone everything in a little.
Q + C: It makes it really cohesive when you have, like, a color story. I think people kind of get lost, trying to make things look pretty instead of just, like, simplifying it, and sticking to like, you know, your, would you say your colors are like your favorite colors to use with your work?
ELIZABETH: Yeah, because mostly everything I do is black and white, which are kind of my base colors, but then I threw in some different yellows, which are throughout some of the work, but I tend to stay more in black and white everything.
Q + C: You use a lot of the rust orange and the greens too. I really like the deep green that you use.
ELIZABETH: I actually have a camera strap that I custom ordered, and the key chain matches the small business owner key chain that I have. So I have to get a different key chain so they can contrast. I’ll probably get a rust one.
Q + C: So what advice would you give someone who wants to start a small business similar to yours?
ELIZABETH: Figure out all of the nasty, not fun texts, proper registration stuff, because it's really not fun, but it's terrifying to get into your business and then be like, “Oh my God, what have I not been doing?”
Q + C: Yeah, definitely. Would you say you're in the startup phase still, or do you feel like you've transitioned over into the small business owner phase where you feel more established?
ELIZABETH: I definitely feel quite established now. It's funny because when I started, I didn't really have anybody that I could reach out to and ask, and now people ask me and I'm like, yes, I will tell you whatever you need to know, because it's not fun starting and not really having anybody that you can ask.
Q + C: Or just not knowing where to find somebody to ask. What were the hardest things about the businessy stuff besides taxes and finances? Or is that pretty much, that's the hardest, that's the main part?
ELIZABETH: Yeah, no, taxes are kinda not fun because literally every city is different.
Q + C: Yeah. That's true. Taxes are not ideal.
ELIZABETH: It's a nightmare.
Q + C: Yeah, you do all that stuff yourself? Or do you hire an accountant or bookkeeper or somebody?
ELIZABETH: I do all my sales taxes, all those forms, and then at the end of the year, my income tax, I have somebody do.
Q + C: Did you do it yourself first?
ELIZABETH: No. I've always had somebody do our income taxes even before business.
Q + C: That's good. Do you feel like you understand that stuff more now, having someone doing it for a minute, help you?
ELIZABETH: A little bit, but I wish I knew it really well. My brain just doesn't compute with that stuff. Definitely more creative than all that technical.
Q + C: So, let's talk a little bit about the magic of your business. What kind of ways do you feel like your business kind of has a spiritual connection for you, or it's kind of magical, or even with your life, things that you do that kind of keep you grounded and feeling like you're living the dream?
ELIZABETH: Number one, my favorite is, that I wouldn't know how to macrame without my dad. I mean, we would literally sit around for hours and make jewelry as a kid, the entire family, like mom, brother, dad, all of us who would just make tons of hemp jewelry. So it kind of started there. And I've always been the weird kid, so I've just learned to embrace that. So I like to be as authentic as I can, and I hope that I inspire others to do that as well.
Q + C: Do you know that there's actually knot magic or spells and stuff that you can do with making different knots and stuff?
ELIZABETH: No, I did not know that.
Q + C: You can incorporate that into your stuff and have secret spells.
ELIZABETH: I’m gonna have to look that up now. It's really fun, just learning new knots too, because there's so many different, crazy knots.
Q + C: Yeah. It's cool. How many knots do you think you know?
ELIZABETH: Oh, gosh, probably use four different knots a day just, just normal. And then maybe a handful of like other weird knots that I don't normally use.
Q + C: Do you like doing the macrame stuff more than the graphic design?
ELIZABETH: It depends on my mood, I guess. Like macrame, I literally just sit there, watch countless shows and movies and work. Mindless, like it's complete therapy for me. But it's really fun, thinking of an idea and drawing it and bringing it to life. So it really depends on my mood. “What day is it?”
Q + C: What do you watch when you macrame? Do you have binge-worthy shows?
ELIZABETH: Let's see, I've watched Supernatural three times. Criminal Minds, I think three times all the way through. I've watched Friends twice now. I just started Dawson's Creek because it was there. What else? There's so much like, just so many random shows. If there's at least three seasons, I'm probably gonna try it.
Q + C: I watch too much TV. I don't know how I get anything done. Do you like other magical things? I know you make these really cool macrame pods that you put air plants and crystals and stuff in. Are you into crystals and plants?
ELIZABETH: Yeah, I went down that rabbit hole a couple of years ago.
Q + C: That’s what it is.
ELIZABETH: I'm like, oh, this is so pretty, and the next thing I know, I have way too many crystals. I don't know what happened. We have tons.
Q + C: Do you have a favorite crystal?
ELIZABETH: I love obsidian and I love smoky smoky quartz. We literally have a little bit of everything.
Q + C: What are you going to do with your crystal collection when you're on the bus?
ELIZABETH: I know I'm going to have to downsize quite a lot. The good thing is I can probably use command strip stickies to make them stay anywhere, so that can save quite a few. We'll have to downsize, maybe find them some nice homes.
Q + C: Plus your pods, I'm sure you could make some sort of crystal holding, organizing wall hanging that you could just squirrel on your crystals in. Make like a, instead of, you know, how people paint an accent wall? You could have a big macrame accent wall, that’s just a crystal hoard, just stick crystals in it and air plants and stuff. So, you do make a variety of macrame products, but if you had to pick, which one would you say is your favorite?
ELIZABETH: Wall hangings.
Q + C: Like the bigger, the better, or do you like the small ones?
ELIZABETH: I love making the massive wall hangings, but they just don't sell as easy as the smaller ones.
Q + C: How on earth do you even go about shipping those things? Or is that like a local pickup kind of thing?
ELIZABETH: It's a plus if they can pick it up somewhere, but what I do is clear out the floor, get out all my craft paper, make sure I've got enough pieces taped together to be long enough or wide enough as the branch, lay the logging down and literally like bring it up into a little tube. So it just looks like a giant blunt. Then I Frankenstein a box around it.
Q + C: That's a magical skill on its own. Well, do you have anything else or advice you'd like to share with other small businesses or people who are creatives looking for ways to have more creative time?
ELIZABETH: Just do it. Do it, be you, be authentic, find what you love and go for it.
Q + C: Let it dominate your life.
ELIZABETH: Absolutely.
Q + C: You said something before we got started about your day job and your business and having to choose. Do you remember what you said?
ELIZABETH: What was it… I would rather be fired from my day job than have to quit my business. So if you're looking to fire me my two weeks notice.
Q + C: And you’d get unemployment, right? Haha. I really appreciate you taking the time to come into the studio and chat with me about your life and your business. Let everyone know where they can learn more about you and get their hands on your bad-ass stickers and some awesome macrame.
ELIZABETH: You can shop everything and the hippiesdaughter.com. I do still have stickers on Etsy, you can find me on there. And then Instagram is @hippies_daughter. And that's where I usually put everything.
Q + C: All right. Awesome. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. I really appreciate it.
ELIZABETH: Thank you!