Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Overbey.
Jessica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
JWo Designs as a business started in 2008 out of my college dorm room. As for crafting and art, I have been dabbling in creativity as long as I can remember. I have my mom to thank for introducing me to sewing and crafting as a means to keep me occupied as a child. A lot of kids tend to drop the craft and art phase of their life, but it stuck with me, and I have been interested in it since. In my preteen to late teen years, I took up digital and traditional art and became involved in multiple online art communities. I would post up artwork on a weekly basis in hopes of garnering attention from peers. I dabbled a little bit into cosplay, or costuming, as senior in high school, but it was a short lived hobby.
As soon as college started, I found that I did not have much time in my schedule to sit at my computer and make art, so my attention turned to crafting. I made some polymer clay jewelry as small gifts for my friends, which, in turn, gathered the attention of other students and professors who paid me for handmade jewelry. That is when I took on the brand name of JWo Designs and focused on handmade jewelry and accessories. When I got my degree in nursing, I continued the jewelry making business as a side gig for the duration of my five year nursing career and sold jewelry to coworkers.
After a debilitating injury from nursing, I began to reconsider my career choice and decided to change my path. I quit nursing and decided to take crafting more seriously as a business. My husband, who was already an established internet content creator, helped me plan and set up how I could share my love of crafting and art with the world. I remembered my short foray into cosplay in high school and decided to pick it back up since I had started live streaming video games for a small audience. Combining my love of crafts and video games, cosplay was the perfect outlet in expressing myself. Many people showed interest in my work and learning how they could get into cosplay themselves. As of today, I have been so thankful for all the opportunities and friends I have made in the cosplay community. I am constantly learning new skills and getting to teach others what I have learned.
Has it been a smooth road?
Getting to where I now have definitely been a long and bumpy ride. Cosplay was seen as a hobby for so long that attempts to monetize the hobby were looked down upon. Still, there were a few cosplayers in the community who had done just that and overcame challenges and made cosplay their own. I was determined to do the same. There has never really been a set plan on what to do in cosplay. There is not a school or university you can attend to get a degree in cosplay. I had to take the knowledge I already knew and learn even more along the way to be able to craft the costumes I have made thus far. Another struggle I have faced that many cosplayers are aware of is that showing off cosplays to the internet will always attract unwarranted opinions. There have been many harsh comments and body shaming on many of my photos, but I still have to remind myself that I am making these cosplay for myself, not others. People along the way have told me to quit if I did not want to see those kinds of comments, but that is not who I am. I am looking for the challenge of crafting cosplay and bringing a character to life and to show others that it is possible.
Tell us more about the business.
The JWo Designs brand encompasses my creative vision of art, crafts, and cosplay. Currently, I am specializing in the creation of cosplay from various media such as video games, TV shows, anime, movies, graphic novels, and more. I regularly live to stream the creation of my cosplays to an audience, and they are free to chat and ask questions as I work on each piece. I am most proud of being able to introduce cosplay to many people who have either only heard about or seen other cosplayers. Many of my live stream viewers have told me that I had inspired them to make their first cosplay and were proud of what they had made. It makes me smile to hear that people can learn from my work and find it inspiring.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The cosplay industry has been and still is currently going through huge changes. Just ten years ago, cosplay was relatively unknown to the public, but TV shows such as Face Off, Heroes of Cosplay, and Cosplay Melee has shown the public how much work and effort goes into each cosplay. When I dabbled in cosplay in 2005-2007, online tutorials on how to make certain pieces of costumes and materials were scarce. In recent years, resources such as tutorials, videos, and live streams have exploded in popularity as more people get into the hobby. Big name craft stores are now carrying supplies aimed solely at cosplayers. I can see this continuing into the future and only becoming bigger as more people dive into the hobby. There will definitely be a bigger push for inclusivity in cosplay, such as more representation for people of color, the LGBTQ community, and the disabled community. Cosplay is for everyone, and the community needs to strive to show that it is willing to accept everyone.
Contact Info:
- Email: jwodesigns0@gmail.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/jwodesigns
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/JWoDesigns
- Other: http://twitch.tv/JWoDesigns
Image Credit:
ThinkNu
ChezPhoto
David Kadlubowski
Tobious Photography
Drift0r
Sage Joshlin
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