Create Your Happiness

Dear Fiskars and Vocal Community,

It’s a Wednesday, I sit here in a coffee shop in New Mexico, jotting notes on the rules and guidelines to enter a contest that has been building in my soul to enter. I have seen the contest ad everywhere I go, it’s haunting me or maybe it’s the inter-web algorithms catching me every time, I think… “I want to enter the Vocal/Fiskars community contest”. Whichever it is, it’s been a sign for me, and signs are everything these days. The more I follow the signs, the more my creativity sings. The more I feel joy, the more I am reminded of what I am on this Earth to do.

This is me, Chelsea, a 30-year-old designer. Sitting with my cute faux wood laptop-covered computer next to my big purple water bottle. I am wearing rattan weave earrings and a velvet turban-style headband I made because my accessories never fail to make me feel “spiced up”, a unique expression of myself using accessories as an art form.

It all started 25 years ago, going to kindergarten with a tiny purse in hand and denim bucket hat on, complemented with a floral printed dress with patch style pockets-no backpack needed for this little fashionista. From a ripe young age, being “different” was appealing to me. Using fashion as a way to stand out has been the base reasoning behind the creative path I still walk on today.

Fast forward to age 12, I got my first prepaid cell phone (with a solid 20 minutes on it) for my 6th-grade graduation present. I was elated! What’s the first thing I did?

Decorate the cell phone case!

Gold glitter dots, rainbow stripes, and hand-painted happy faces ended up dancing across my new cell phone case by the end of my joyous craft session. Having the opportunity to make something my own was what drove me. I turned a solid color cell phone case into a vibrant canvas of emotion (art!). That feeling was everything to me and still is.

I continued to express myself through accessories throughout high school. Using a sharpie to draw designs on sneakers, painting doodles on backpacks, creating unique trends because, it was fun and different.

People would tell me things such as, “only you can pull that off!”

I’d reply, “No way! You can too, just try it!”

That is where my “ah-hah” moment came into play. When I realized I wanted more than ever for others to feel confident enough to also express themselves through accessories.

From that point on, when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I’d say... “I want to have my own brand that encourages people to follow their dreams, and to express themselves through accessories”.

They would say “cool, what do you want to call it?” I’d say “Kujo”.

Why “Kujo?”, well that’s another story but, long story short is my Dad used to (and still) calls me “Cujo”, it’s a nickname he gave me after the barking dog in Stephen King movies. I spelled it differently than the original movie, making it my own. Classic “Kujo” of me.

I worked my way into creative internships during my high school years, formulating collaborations with young creatives in the community who kindly helped me take photos of all my funky designs I made to apply to the school of my creative dreams “The Fashion Institute of Technology” in NYC.

I got accepted! I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accessories design, a certification in athletic footwear design, and a minor in art history. I continued to live in NYC and worked in the fashion industry designing for children’s accessories and footwear companies for 8 years.

For the past 4 years, I have been designing for companies up north remotely as I have officially moved out of the city to the desert of all places! I promised myself I would always advise that I can’t work on Fridays because I work on creative passions (which is my small business “Kujo Accessories”).

My passion craft revolves around creating accessories that help you “embrace the art of you”. I hand make velvet “turban-style” headbands, “one of a kind” hair accessories, bespoke bridal pieces, and jewelry. I also graphically design mental motivation art to intertwine with my accessories as I am a firm believer that mental health matters. A portion of sales from Kujo Accessories currently goes to “NAMI” the Nation Alliance on Mental Illness.

The inspiration behind my accessory designs stems from my core beliefs and values in life, focusing on authenticity, encouraging others to do the same, and standing out because of it.

My creative process always starts with a mood board. I collect photos, quotes, colors, and textures that inspire my soul to create. I then jam to my favorite music, windows open, clean craft room in-tact, and I get lost cutting and pasting away. I then carefully map out a story with a mood board, keeping it cohesive in different ways such as colors, textures, and styles. The mood boards I create help to keep me inspired as it radiates a vibe that I can recreate by simply looking at it.

After my mood board is completed, I dive into the hands-on creation of my accessories. It is a lot of trial and error for the new designs I set goals to create. The “Timeless Turbans” I make consist of tracing, cutting, pinning, sewing, then finalizing by a hand-stitched center sinch. I am all about getting the perfect amount of gather at the center of my headbands. The hand-making process of accessories when ordered off my website can become redundant but, many times I find that the repetitive cutting and pinning steps of making the headbands, are when new ideas come to me. It is therapeutic and ignites happiness inside of me to simply be with my craft, actively creating.

I would not be able to create the accessories I have made today without the process of cutting. I vividly remember buying my first pair of Fiskars scissors, I was in Michael’s craft store standing next to my cousin. We stood in front of all the scissors, the bright orange Fiskars staring right at us.

He told me – “get the most expensive pair, don’t you need the best tools for your business?”

The answer was “yes!”.

I purchased them, and they have lasted me 6 years! I just bought the same pair a few months ago because my originals were getting dull. I knew I could get them sharpened but, as I enter this new energy of really pushing for my dreams to come to even more fruition than they ever have, I went for a brand-new pair. New vision, new pair!

I opened the scissors the moment I got home from the craft store, and there I went cutting away “like butter”, I said in my head as it slid so nicely along the lining grain of the velvet I was cutting.

It is so important to have nice clean cuts with the craft I make. I strive for my headbands to last, to help the wearer feel extra fabulous when worn, to not slip off, and to not give a headache as many customers have told me is a concern they have.

I can officially say I have gotten positive feedback that customers say that my headbands “don’t give them a headache”, “stay in place”, “love them”, are being complimented and “worn every day”. Wow, that is amazing! Hard work does pay off. Those types of comments are what make my heart so happy. It reminds me of my “why” behind my creative passions.

To me, my story has only just begun. I am grateful to share where my passion for crafts has stemmed from and where I have taken them today. I will never stop making time to create as pure happiness happens when I physically get to create something that I dreamed up in my head. Creativity runs through my veins as it is who I am, and who I will always be.

Thank you for providing this opportunity to the world of passion project go-getters. To the do-ers, the makers, the believers, and dreamers. Cheers to that!

Xo, Chelsea