Today we’d like to introduce you to Sky & Connor.
Hi Sky & Connor, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We come from two very different backgrounds: Sky has a background in costume creation, creative design, and social media, while Connor has a background in photography, business management, and economics. However, we both combined our skill sets and our love of fantasy, Renaissance Festivals, and in-person markets to create Enchanted Moth Hollow! We started planning for our brand back in September of 2023, right before the largest Renaissance Festival in the United States: Texas Renaissance Faire. Sky began experimenting with different materials and sizes for the cloaks, starting with her hand-painted Moth Wings that went semi-viral online, while Connor handled the website creation and taking high-quality and eye-catching photos of our stock. From there we just kept creating and reaching out to local markets to sell at until we had made a complete brand for ourselves!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With any small business, you are likely to run into issues that larger corporations don’t have to worry about. One of the biggest obstacles we faced was having enough stock for markets. Since it was only Sky creating the stock, we had to find efficient ways to make high-quality and cost-effective products, which we narrowed down to an assembly line creation process. First the cloaks are cut on a fold and then sewn step by step, allowing for multiple cloaks to be finished in one batch. Another challenge we found was trying to manage inventory, production, and purchases in a way that made sense. In the beginning, we used to plug everything into a spreadsheet until it started to get very long and convoluted. We decided to move over to a professional inventory management system made for businesses which allowed us to plug in our purchases and see how much stock we have of each item seamlessly.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Sky has always been a creative person ever since she was a child. She has a degree in game design and a passion and knowledge for creating costumes, otherwise known as cosplay. Cosplay is always what got Sky into sewing and creating accessories to wear, as it allowed her to create clothing or designs that aren’t exactly normal in today’s fashion landscape. Her love of sewing cloaks came from years of making them for her friends and family when they would go to their local Renaissance Faire. It would only make sense that for one Faire in 2023, Sky spent several days making a 7-foot-long, hand-painted, and sewn Moth Wings Cloak for herself. She had posted her progress of making them and showing them off on social media, which garnered a lot of attention online and in person! This led to a lot of people asking where they could buy their own and where the first visions of Enchanted Moth Hollow began.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Resilience. The ability to keep going through the negatives and the passion to push yourself during the positives. Small businesses, especially ones that focus on handmade goods, can be extremely demanding. There is no salary for yourself, no vacation days, and no traditional benefits that come from traditional employment when you start a small business. Many people will ask you why or say it is easier to get a 9-5 job in the office, but your resilience for your brand, business, or art will keep that flame of passion burning through all the doubts. If you face a challenge in your small business, resilience is asking yourself, “How can I fix it?”. When you sell at a market during freezing temperatures and rain, resilience is bringing hand warmers and a puffy down jacket, ready to weather the storm for your passion. Resilience is the most important quality a small business or a person can have.
Contact Info:
- Website: enchantedmothhollow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enchantedmothhollow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enchantedmothhollow/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@enchantedmothhollow
Image Credits
Connor Wilson
