Rising Stars: Meet Jess Morini of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jess Morini.

Hi Jess, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I took a jewelry-making class through the Chicago Learning Annex and they let us keep our equipment. I hated the necklace I made in that class and thought I’d never use these skills ever again. But then one day I bought a necklace from Nordstrom and thought, “I can make this easily for way less money!”. So I returned it, ordered the supplies online, and made that necklace. And then I sold it. And I never stopped making things after that. It’s been about 15+ years since that class and I am always looking at unique findings or discarded items and trying to figure out how to re-purpose the materials into something unique.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My journey has been a side-hustle rather than my main focus. So it’s up to me how much time I dedicate to my little business. When my full-time job or life gets busy, I lose momentum and it’s easy to push aside the creativity. I’m also horrible at social media maintenance so I need to rely on live events to get out there and showcase what I’ve made.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I started making things out of scrap leather years ago after shopping at a fabric store and seeing a bag of remants for $5. I thought- I”m going to do something weird with these. Initially I just used scissors and the organic shape of the cuts and made some really wild statement necklaces. Not very commercial at the time but it was fun to piece together the “puzzle” of making it work. Now there are all sorts of dies and specific shapes you can cut and make more precise designs. But my specialty has always been the funky, one-of-a-kind designs that nobody has ever seen before. I don’t really like making the same thing over and over to mass produce for everyone. So, even though it’s probably not a sound business practice, I set myself apart from others by creating 1 of each item and moving on to the next thing. Grab it while it’s available because I’m never going to make it again!

What are your plans for the future?
I finally launched a shoppable website. That was a big thing this year. I would love to do some fun photo shoots and just stay on top of timely collections. I’m always making things a bit too late for the season, so the plan is to try to get ahead of it this year!

Pricing:

• $10
• $25
• $35
• $50

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.xomoe.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xomoehandmade