Fashioned By Jaye -- a little update

It's been about 4 months since I ended my occupation of 212 S Campbell, and while in some ways Fashioned By Jaye had a good run it's left me somewhat burned out (thus the lack of activity in 4 months). However, it's occurred to me (as I'm sitting here working on my tax return) that there are a lot of loose ends left to deal with and I haven't even posted an update on what's happening with the company.

In short, not a hell of a lot.

I'm not sure where I want to go with my little endeavor at this point, although I am sure I don't want to let it die. The absolute honest truth, though, is that FBJ turned into something that I didn't enjoy by the end of it. I made a lot of compromises to keep things running, and before long the person who ran the company and the person who created stuff under the FBJ label might have shared the same body but were two different people. The Jaye that many people met at the shop was a sanitized, artificial version of the real me, and it's not good when you don't feel able to be yourself in your own store.

It's not a huge leap from Business Owner Jaye to the regular version (sounds like I should be made into collectible dolls), it's just little things. Business Owner Jaye was so worried about paying bills that she was afraid to offend anyone. She didn't play the music that really inspires her in the shop because it wasn't radio friendly. She nodded and smiled when customers talked about controversial opinions with which she didn't agree because she didn't want them to feel uncomfortable about buying something from her. She referred to her girlfriend of almost six years as her roommate. She kept her personal life segregated from the business.

Bleh. Enough of that.

I started FBJ because I wanted to make a living making and selling my art. That's not what it became. At this point I'm not even all that concerned about the money part. I have a job I like, and my art doesn't need to be anything but a hobby. So if I'm going to keep FBJ alive as a means of creating and getting my creations the hell out of my studio where they're just going to collect dust, it needs to be an honest, enjoyable endeavor.

So...

What does that mean for FBJ? It will live on, but it won't necessarily be as warm and fuzzy. No promises about update frequency, amount of work produced, or content thereof. I will probably merge fashionedbyjaye.com, the long-neglected bits-of-paper.com, and my blog into one site. I might do more vlogs. I might do a lot of things. I'm just going to see what happens.

If you want to see what happens, too, stick around. Subscribe. I might send out newsletters. I might not.

I will be lending my magazine weaving abilities to the Black Owl Bread Company, which is the brainchild (ovenchild?) of a good friend of mine. She makes awesome bread, and you should order some. Seriously. It's fucking good.