Angela was born, raised, and is still living in the Bay Area of California. She studied and worked in the graphic design field for 10 years, but on the side, she has been always fascinated by fantasy worlds and fairies.
She has a background in professional fairy and princess parties and that brought her to designing her own costumes and eventually, wings that she sells to the public.
She started selling iridescent fairy wings when there were none yet on the market because she wanted wings that looked like they could have been plucked from a real fairy.
Angela has been making and selling fairy wings for over 10 years, and as a sole proprietor for 7 of them.Her wings have been used in Victoria Secret fashion shows, on Katy Perry in Every Day is a Holiday, Music video and in multiple fine art photography projects.
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Get in touch with Angela
- Website & Shop: http://www.fancyfairy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancyfairyangela/
Key Takeaways
“If you can dream it, you can do it … but be practical and copyright your work!”
- Angela studied and worked in graphic design for 10 years, but on the side, she worked on children’s parties, dressing up like Disney characters and princesses
- She started her own company out of necessity to create her own costumes. Angela is a huge perfectionist and she created many details for her fairy characters. She put her creations on eBay and the went right away. That was a proof that this concept works!
- Worst advice Angela received was that you can’t copyright the fairy wing designs which is not true. Clothing is considered practical, functional and noncopyrightable item but wings are not
- Having her creations in a Victoria Secret fashion show was a pinnacle of her career. It kind of happened. They found her wings on Google and called her up. Since then, Katy Perry wore her wings in one of her music videos.
Resources mentioned
- Angela’s inspirational movies
- Craft Store – Michaels
- Victoria’s Secret – clothing brand that used Angela’s wings during the fashion show
- Events
- Labyrinth Masquerade in LA – costumes amazing – film industry area – A-game
- Faerieworlds in Oregon – outdoor thing
- FaerieCon Mythic Worlds in Seattle
- The Edwardian Ball in San Francisco – eye-candy costumes
Special thanks to Angela for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Angela Jarman, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello everyone and welcome to the next episode of Art Side of Life where I chat with inspiring artists five days a week. My name is Iva and my guest today is Angela Jarman, also known as fancy fairy. In this episode, you will learn about how you can make your dreams come true.
Angela Jarman
She responded and said I am a wardrobe assistant for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and we have a segment called fairy tale that we think that they would be perfect for and I just my jaw hit the floor because this had been sort of my dream goal.
Iva Mikles
Angela was born raised and is still living in the Bay Area, California. She studied and worked in a graphic design field for over 10 years, but on the side she has been always fascinated by fantasy world and fairies. She has a background in professional theory and Princess parties. And that brought her to designing her own costumes and eventually wings it she sells to the public. She started selling iridescent fairy wings, where they were known yet on the market because she wanted wings that look like she could buy them from a real theory. Angela has been making and selling fairy wings for over 10 years, and she is a sole provider for seven of them. Her wings have been used in Victoria’s Secret Fashion shows on Katy Perry in everyday is a holiday music video and in multiple fine art photography projects. So please welcome Angela Jarman, and let’s get to the interview. Great, how are you?
Angela Jarman
I’m doing good.
Iva Mikles
Perfect than that. Let’s start with your background. And maybe you can tell us some stories how you had the creative outlets, you know, when you were a child,
Angela Jarman
okay, ah, well as a child, I got into a really got into arts around I think third or fourth grade. I was always really a really shy, weird kid. And I wasn’t very socialized terribly, you know, afraid to talk to people. I daydreams a lot. And one of my favorite movies in the whole world was The Last Unicorn. So that’s what I started drawing. Who’s this weird misshapen fat unicorns for a while, that got me into it. And I discovered I really enjoyed it. And I definitely always had a fantasy leaning in my artwork. So you know, unicorns, fairies, and my little pony zoo, whatever. I would enter some art shows, here and there at the schools that I went to. And initially, when I was younger, I had thought that I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator because that would be a one way to be an artist as a career. But I ended up getting into graphic design. Because I figured it was something easier to make a living at. children’s book illustration seemed very, very competitive and difficult to get a foot in the door. And so therefore difficult difficult to make a good income off of. So So I ended up getting a graphic design jobs fairly early on when I was going to see maybe 21 I started at a place that did stamps and flexography. So it was package printing. And I worked in the it was more production design than actually creating artwork. I did a little bit of that. Not as much as I wanted to. And then I moved from that job to another one that was more it was pre press. Not package design, but more Uh, print publications and magazines, flyers, all kinds of different things. So all in all, I think I had maybe about 1010 years of working in the graphic design industry. But on the side, I had been doing children’s parties. Because dressing up like Disney characters and fairies and princesses was something that I also really liked. And I was just amazed when I found out that you could actually make money doing something like this. It was a friend of mine in high school that her mom was running a company doing it. So I started doing that. And eventually, I started my own company. Because I really wanted to make and have my own costumes. I’m a huge perfectionist. And I just had a very particular vision of what I wanted it to be. And one of those characters was a fairy. And I came up with that these wings that they were, I got inspired to make them. First of all, from movies like labyrinth and Dark Crystal, there’s the scene in labyrinth where there’s a fairy flying around, and she gets sprayed with the fairy poison because they bite in that movie. And she falls to the ground. And she’s got these, they looked like these transparent iridescent wings. That were, they were more insect like then butterfly, which is what I was usually used to seeing. And I really wanted to make something like that. And when I was house sitting or dog sitting one day, the dog came in and it had these tiny, tiny, tiny little insect wings stuck on it’s for
Angela Jarman
the insects was not there. Or whatever reason it was brought to you. Yeah, so um, it must have been maybe a fly I’m thinking. But either way, you know, they had this, this iridescent sheen to them that I thought was really cool. And so it was just determined to find a way to make some fairy wings like that for my fairy character. So yeah, I went to the craft store and I got some of the iridescent film and some of the vinyl and my first set was very, very cheap. And I used really thin floral wire and, and they were sort of just bubble shapes. I think I used I think I use scotch tape like to lay down some of the veins inside. And the harness was very blocky, it was literally a wooden block that the wires stuck into. So yeah, and my my dress was my dress was just sort of a couple of great pieces of fabric and a very simple skirt and pictures of that that I can share actually. Yeah, it’s come a long way. So at that time, I had met my who’s now my ex husband. And while I was working at my graphic design job and doing the kids parties on the weekends, he was starting his own Halloween company. He was a sculptor and sculpted masks and props and things. And this was during the internet boom and graphic design and prepaid services were starting to not be in demand so much anymore. So I had gone part time things were slowing down and eventually I got let go because there just wasn’t enough business coming in. And it was a mutual kind of thing too because I was also really kind of wanting to go on my own and focus more on the party business as as well as trying to see if maybe, you know I can make some wings to sell. So I started doing that I made my first set differently than the very very first set that I made for myself. No more of the weird block harness thing. And I use thicker wire. They had a more Open Ended design rather than having a wire going all the way around. So I actually had a, I had a dream about watching a play with these fairies floating around and their, their wings were more delicate looking. So I tried that. And I first created a few sets with Avalon arts, who was very portrait studio. They made they took portraits of children and people with wings and things. And, and that was that was their business. And we met them, I hit it off really, really well with Charlene, and John. And we decided that they asked if I would trade some wings in return for a photoshoot, and some images that I could use. And of course, I said yes. So that was my first sort of not really a sale, but a trade. And after that happened, I thought, well, maybe I’ll try and put a setup on eBay, and then went right away. So did the next set. And it became obvious that people were wanting something like this. So I ended up having a page on their, our old company website for the fairy wings, which initially people sort of complained about because they had to go through all these really creepy monsters and things. Halloween stuff yet to these pretty wings. So so after a while i i came out, I came up with the fancy ferry.com and got my own website. And after a while too, it was it was getting difficult to keep up with orders, because I was making these all of you know, wrapped, you know, hand wrapped wire.
Angela Jarman
So it was a little more difficult to be consistent with the design, and also a little hard on my hands. So I spent just lots of nights, late nights up on the internet, trying to think of ideas and searching for ways that I could streamline the process a little more, and also allow me to make the designs more intricate, a little more sturdy, and, and more consistent. And that’s when I came upon the idea of getting the frames cut out of sheet aluminum. Because that would allow them that would mean that they would be very light, they would be rigid enough, and they could be still bendable and poseable so that people could bend them out at an angle. And they just look more dynamic to me that way rather than just if they’re flopping around. Or if they’re just sticking straight out to either side. It just gives them a little more life. So after that, it just it took off a lot faster. And it was a lot easier to fulfill more orders and offer better pricing to people as well.
Iva Mikles
Oh, wow. Yeah. When you were doing the parties for kids? Did you do like sketches? Or did you do costumes? So you’re actually suing or something? Or how did you transition from that to wings and designing wings?
Angela Jarman
Oh, well, what I would do with the parties was just I would do face painting. And I would play games or tell stories we would do princess or fairy dancing, and a little magic show. But the wings just came about just because I was wanting to make a set for my own costume. Yeah, well, that I could look as authentic as I could. And have that kind of that really started at all and I don’t even really haven’t had time to to keep doing the parties for the last. Probably it’s been a couple years. I think the fairy wings have sort of taken over and now I am. My focus is more on that. And now I’m providing wings to a lot of other children’s performance. Yeah.
Iva Mikles
And when you started creating stuff, did you have a mentor or someone who inspired you the most?
Angela Jarman
Um, I don’t know, you know, I mean, I can say that my mom was always really good at making us costumes for Halloween. You know, she made a lot of stuff from scratch, and she made me my first butterfly wings. They were these monarch wings that she just put together. And at the time, I thought they were really amazing. And so that’s one you know, for all of our differences I was I was in I was inspired by the fact that my, my ex was had an actual career, you know, working in the fantasy field, just making monsters. And and that was encouraging to me to just to know that. Yes, well, there there are people that need to fulfill this. Yeah, this need that people have or these, these costume items? And yes, you know, so I didn’t really, but I this, this whole process has really been self taught. There wasn’t, there wasn’t really anybody that was doing what I was doing at the time. So there was not really anybody that was instructing me or helping me. I think my ex had helped me solder you know, we redid that very first set of wings.
Iva Mikles
And how did you find the material you want to use? You know, like you found something online? Or did you went to like local craft stores? And then you try different materials? Or how did you find the one like, Okay, this is really cool.
Angela Jarman
It was the craft stores like Michaels or Joanne’s. So I got it there initially. And, you know, for cutting the metal, I have to, I have to use a metal shop to do that for me because it’s requires a huge, huge machine. But I wouldn’t be able to have here. And so and then the other materials now I get wholesale. So I I work directly with the companies. And one of them the one that I used to get the iridescent feel from film from they stopped making the clear one, the one that was the most popular, and most important, and I ended up having to go directly to the manufacturer and order 10,000 feet huge investment. Yeah, it was pretty crazy.
Iva Mikles
What do you do? I mean, like it’s quite big.
Angela Jarman
Honestly. Well, they came on rolls that were 30 pounds each. I think I had said eight or 10 rolls of that. So you know, I have a couple rolls in the wing room that I work in herself, some shoved in the closet. We have a couple that are in the kitchen cabinet in the back. I sort of stashed around my apartment,
Iva Mikles
because like keeping your walls standing.
Angela Jarman
Yes, I would have I would have rather gotten a smaller amount of material, but it wasn’t an option. So
Iva Mikles
Oh, yeah. Well, then good that you have it now. So yeah.
Angela Jarman
Yes, I’m set for a while.
Iva Mikles
And what did you think it was the best advice you ever received? And maybe also the worst advice?
Angela Jarman
Oh, hmm. Probably the best advice I’ve received that, um, that I didn’t do, because this just sort of happens is, you know, take some business classes. Um, and probably the worst advice that I heard was to I don’t know if you could call it advice, but I was told a while back, but you can’t copyright fairy weighing designs. So basically, that there was no way to protect it because it was a costume and, and there’s no protection for that. And in recent years, I’ve learned that that’s not true. Yeah. Like yeah, it might have been it might have been someone in the industry that I heard that from in the costume industry that you know, people that sell to retail stores and such. Because caustic fashion is one thing if it’s clothing. It’s actually not very protected. There are organizations working on ways to try and fix that. But so that might be why because We would go to these halloween trade shows and you every year, you just, you see rip offs of other people’s things all the time. Because clothing can be considered a functional practical item. But fairy wings are not functional. They can’t We can’t fly in them. And they’re not practical. They’re, they’re basically two flat pieces of artwork that you’re wearing on your back. So, so yeah, I’ve now I, I registered my work with copyright office. And it’s, it has come in handy. into some issues.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, yeah. Because now you have stuff on the Victoria’s Secret shows and theaters and plays and everywhere. So how did you get to this? Maybe How do you do your networking and kind of the contacts you make along the way?
Angela Jarman
Well, with Victoria’s Secret, that honestly just sort of happened, I wasn’t expecting it. They told me that they found a picture of my dragonfly wings on an internet search on Google. And when they emailed me initially, it was the chief wardrobe assistant. And she, she didn’t say who she was, I had no idea who she was. And they had asked if they could rush an order. And this was Halloween season. So it was crazy, chaotic and busy. And, you know, I said, I really just don’t know if I can, I don’t want to make a promise to not be able to do this. And you know, if so there’s going to be a recipe. And she responded and said that, well, you know, if you could make it work, we would so appreciate it. I am a wardrobe assistant for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. And we have a segment called fairy tale that we think that they would be perfect for and I just, my jaw hit the floor. Because this was, this had been sort of my, my dream goal. You know, I that was always this sort of this highlight that I never really thought that I could get do is Oh, it’d be so great. If my work could ever been the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Just that would just be the pinnacle of my career. That would be the highlight of my life. So yeah, I I wasn’t even sure if I should believe it. At first, I had to go double check. And I looked up her name to see it and, and there she was. And she she was listed as being involved with the show. And so of course, I told her yes. And sent her the wings. And then they called me back after they got them and said that they wanted more. So I sent off about I think was four more sets for that year. And that was 2014 Yeah, so that was it was really a crazy experience. It was, it was stressful because it was during Halloween season. And I got you I got my friend brandy to help. And my boyfriend and my mom helped me out somehow.
Iva Mikles
And what about some exciting projects you’re working on now or something in the future you can share, which is not secret, maybe.
Angela Jarman
Ah, right now I’ve um, I’ve been focusing a lot more on just trying to trying to come up with some different ideas and create maybe using some new materials that I haven’t tried yet. Um, we got a 3d printer. So we I need to I need to brush up on my 3d skills and I’m planning on incorporating that into my work to add some sculptural elements. I did that with one set that I I sculpted by hand just with the sculpt of clay to add a sort of Baroque flourish piece to the base of a set of wings. And I really liked it although symmetry is more difficult doing it by hand and as and also really small details. So yeah, that using more Swarovski crystals will be fun. I want to play around more with flocking, even though it’s a huge pain. It hasn’t really neat effects because looking at real butterfly wings, some of them do have this sort of very Almost velvety surface I had bought a couple of butterfly specimens from a store that used to be near the area. And, you know, to inspect them and really look at, at what, what they look like up close. And, you know, I want to try and mimic nature as much as I can. But create new designs in doing so.
Iva Mikles
So you look also in different shapes of wings. So you I guess you do sketches right before you start designing and
Angela Jarman
yes, yes, I’ll do sketches a lot of times you know, I’ll I look up things in nature, I’ll look up bugs, butterflies, dragonflies, you know all kinds of insects, I’ll you know, collect a few books here and there. There are a lot of other artists that inspire me to. So I sort of, I sort of browse around all these things to try to give myself some, some ingredients in this sort of subconscious do. And then, and then I put it all away and take out the sketchbook and just sketch some ideas out and see what comes out. Because I don’t want to, I don’t want to just copy a butterfly, I want it to want it to be something unique and something something that looks like it could have come out of nature, but is not
Iva Mikles
yet some realistic element. But then it’s still like in the fantasy world. Right? Yeah, really nice. And do you have some books you would recommend to people to check out like our audience always interested, you know, in your new ways of creating stuff, maybe some like, material book or DIY or something you you like, or some I don’t know, biology book, or it can be also some other related topic?
Angela Jarman
Um, oh, gosh, I’m trying to remember them book butterflies that I have. And now I can’t. But I would say yeah, if it’s, if it’s wings or something. There’s lots of those sort of collections or specimen books with photos or illustrations. There was a book called Was it very style or fairy fashion? I’m not sure now, but it was really neat. It was a book that had was basically little fairy outfits. And they were made out of flowers and plants and feathers and things. If I find it later, maybe you can put in a show no caption or something. Yeah. Yeah, but that was also really inspiring. Because I do also like, I really like to design costuming. It’s just not something that I want to sell to people because it’s extremely time consuming and very labor intensive. And, you know, at least with fairy wings, I don’t have to worry about sizing and fitting people and I’m just, I’m not that fast of a seamstress. Although I enjoy, you know, making these things for myself once in a while, like maybe I’d say maybe once a year. Sometimes last year, I’ll make some elaborate thing for myself, especially if I have an event to go to. And then make some wings for it.
Iva Mikles
So what are the events he will recommend? You know, like, you go through something really cool maybe for networking as well or just see creative stuff.
Angela Jarman
Oh, definitely. A labyrinth of jerith is amazing. And that does happen in LA. I believe it’s happening this coming weekend. And I can’t make it this year. But last year we went for the first time and it was just it was amazing. Just the the costumes that people showed up there with just blow your mind I guess understandably so, you know this is in the film industry area. So there are a lot of professionals they’re just everybody’s on their A game. There’s just just amazing things to look at. We didn’t even we didn’t even see all of the entertainment that was Is there at the event just because there’s so much to look at just in the people that are there. So lots of picture taking lots of talking to, you know, friends and artists that I have you connected with online but hadn’t gotten to meet in person yet and customers of mine. So that was a lot of fun. And there’s a fairy worlds, that happens in Oregon. We had gotten to that. I think we said the year before that. Safari roads is great, that’s more of an outdoor thing. So it’s more it’s almost like a like a music festival or Renaissance Faire or fairy themed. The only drawback as you know is it was very wet. Last year, we were, we were prepared for scorching heat and ended up with there were mud puddles everywhere. Fairy con, I went to once in 2012. And that was in Seattle. And that was a lot of fun. I believe they changed the name of it now to mythic worlds. There’s the Edwardian ball that’s actually local. That’s next to us. That’s in San Francisco. That’s a lot of fun. Not necessarily fairy themed. But another very, you know, full of eye candy costumed event. That’s another place where everybody’s have some really spectacular costuming and makeup. And
Iva Mikles
that’s a lot of fun. Do you also have sometimes like a stand where you can promote your staff or sell or do you usually just go in the walk around and at work.
Angela Jarman
I actually usually just go walk around. I used to, I tried to do a few fairs and trade shows initially. With the old Halloween business that that we had, we went to trade shows all the time for that. And it’s a lot of work a lot of overhead, a lot of freight and shipping and you know, having to store these display walls and things that you need for the show. And I decided I just I just didn’t want to get into that, again. It’s a lot of work. And sometimes, you know, we would go into a show and people just wouldn’t. They’re not prepared to spend that kind of money on something like fairy wings. So I’m sure that’s probably different depending on which event I go to if it was something like fairy con, or fairy world as I’m sure probably do fine. But I, I do it so rarely. I get to take so few vacations that when I go I prefer to be able to enjoy myself. And you know, I go in costume. I bring on my wings, and I’ll bring some business cards and I’ll network that way.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. So it’s also promotion for you. Yes, exactly.
Angela Jarman
And, you know, and usually the people that need their wings probably have bought them before their trip anyway. Yeah, though. Yeah. So that’s how I prefer to do it. And it’s, it’s more enjoyable that way. I don’t get stuck at a booth. Yeah, so so you can see me some day. Yeah, there’s something local, which I still can’t believe that we never have any fairy themed events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Iva Mikles
Maybe you have to show one. Baby.
Angela Jarman
Event Planning isn’t something I’m really good at. If someone else wants to take that on, and we’d love it. But yeah, if we had something local, I might be a little more open to the idea. Because then it might be fun, and maybe I could have other people helping work the booth and not have to be chained to it myself the whole time.
Iva Mikles
And so how do you now combine your income streams or it’s mainly from commissions or do you have like big client work? Or how does it look like over the I don’t know, a year or a month?
Angela Jarman
Well, mostly now, I’m mostly doing just ready to ship wings. It was sometime in was it 2015 I think it was around October 2015. I decided to stop taking production orders. and start making wings just ready to ship. So I just make what I want to make, based on what I had available and announced the date and time and put it out there. And, you know, no, no more long wait lists. And I did this because it had been, what, maybe 10 Little over 10 years, I think, since I’ve been making wings. And while it’s probably better for my income that way, but I didn’t feel like I was able to be very creative. It was hard for me to, to break away and make something that I wanted to make. When I had orders that were still waiting, I’d feel guilty if I did that. So I wanted to finish my orders first and then do it, but the orders will keep coming in. And so it was sort of a neverending thing. And as an artist, I do have some add on kind of a procrastinator. It’s, and after so many years, even though it is the thing that I most want to be doing, I can still burn out, there’s still, you know, it’s a, it’s not always inspiring and wonderful and motivating is there’s days that my back hurts, and I don’t feel like bending over the wing table to make stuff. So. So stopping orders in that way. And making just what I want to make is it’s better for my time management, and my procrastination. Because that means hey, if I wait too long, if I procrastinate, I’m not going to make any money. I have to make the wings first put them out there before I can sell them. And it allows me to just do new things. You know, before I didn’t have time to make headdresses. And now I’m making those and I didn’t have time to experiment with flocking or, you know, crystals or anything else. So
Iva Mikles
it helped. And now you can fully support yourself with your business. Yes. Oh, super nice.
Angela Jarman
And I’m very lucky that I can.
Iva Mikles
It’s perfect. And how does your normal day look? Like? Do you do something daily which contributes your success?
Angela Jarman
i Yes, I I usually am on the computer in the early part of the day and check the emails, check social media posts, make sure I’m answering questions. And and then the later part of the day is usually when I’m making wings. Sometimes, or researching I’ve this past year I I’ve been I’ve been doing a lot of just sort of experimenting, and trying to learn different things so that I can expand the way that I make wings and the way that they look. So it really depends. I’m not great with scheduling. I don’t always have a really set routine. I try but there’s just there’s times where an idea comes to me and I just have to go with it. Unfortunately, sometimes those ideas come to me like seven o’clock in the evening, and I just don’t want to keep going. So yeah, it’s hard to schedule inspiration. Although I hear that that is the better way to do it. Because you know, wait too long, and maybe it doesn’t come and then the other way, money. Right?
Iva Mikles
And is there something you bought which simplifies your life in recent time? Maybe some tool or medium or something?
Angela Jarman
Oh, let’s see. Um, I mean, smartphones have been a big help to you know, just keep track of things. Um, social media has made a big difference in getting my my products out there to the public. And I honestly it’s been a long time since I have paid for advertising for anything. Um, because you know, things like Facebook and Instagram have sort of generated like a word of mouth sort of advertising. What would I say the other things. Just something as simple as getting new work tables that have storage underneath it. Because where I’m working at is fairly small. I’m in a two bedroom condo that I’m renting. And I just I’m working out of one of the rooms. The dining rooms pretty much taken over is the photography area.
Iva Mikles
And do you have like a favorite brand of the table you bought, like for working?
Angela Jarman
Oh, I honestly can’t remember the brand. But I know I got it on Amazon. But I really liked it, it was a lot less expensive than I thought it would be. The height is adjustable, even though I haven’t changed the height since I got it. But if I wanted to I could. And the main section of the table actually raises up. So if I’m, if I needed it to be at a level that I can do that.
Iva Mikles
Oh, really nice. And is there something you wish you knew before you started the whole creative and art career something you would this like, advice to young self?
Angela Jarman
Oh, there’s probably a few things. I would definitely say that one of them is registering with the copyright office. But it’s, it’s it’s a pain. But it’s really important when it comes to protecting your work. I don’t feel like it should be this way. Technically, once you create something, you already automatically own the copyright. But unless you register it, you don’t get a whole lot of protections if you needed to take something to court. So that’s something that I wish, I wish I had been more aware of the legalities of intellectual property rights, copyrights and everything that’s involved with that. I would tell people, you know, whatever you’re putting online, Watermark it, brand it have your logo on there somewhere. I learned that the hard way. And a lot of my images, you know, stolen and taken and then people would redistribute them as stock and or just offer the photos for people to download. And there’s no watermark on there, you know, people have no idea where it comes from. So now I watermark the hell out of everything.
Iva Mikles
Yes, and if you would mention, like the worst or most difficult career moment, was there something like that on your way? And maybe what do you learn from it?
Angela Jarman
Ah, well, um, there’s a couple. I mean, the one really big one was it was before I really had before I was completely on my own with the various weaknesses. So when we were still at the Halloween company who it was during the 2008 2009 market crash here. And we had, we had taken out, you know, loans and credit lines in order to grow the business and we had four people that we had working for us then they were full time and we consider them really good friends as well. So, there were some major clients, major vendors that ended up not buying any new designs that year or their you know, their, their orders were cut in half because of all of the other the stock market crash the housing market crash, everybody was being really careful and cutting back and we hadn’t really we hadn’t really planned very well. For that kind of thing. We saw I mean we had we it was a blessing and a curse that our products did really well and and got picked up by retail stores like Spencer gifts and the other ones spirit But we got into it so quickly that we didn’t, we didn’t learn all of the ins and outs of having a business. And, you know, we didn’t know that there was that we had to play that we had to pay employee the employment tax on top of so it was, it was I forget the exact number, but it’s 10s of 1000s, that we found out that we owed for employee tax, that we had no idea about, we didn’t, no one had really taught us that nobody had told us that this is something that you’re going to have to pay. The person we hired for our office manager wasn’t aware of it. And we were sort of depending on her, like she must know, you know, the CPA that we’re using must know, they would tell us just all of the really boring difficult parts of business. A, you know, we hate it, because we’re artists, but we need to, we need to learn before we go into it. Okay? If you have employees, you’re going to have to pay employee tax, if it’s a corporation, you know, you’re going to have to pay what is it? I think it was at least $800 a year, no matter what you make. And we, we just assumed that the business would keep growing. And when we found out that it wasn’t that we were going to actually need to borrow more in order to keep it functioning. Then we found out that, you know, well guess what the housing market is tanking, our, you know, our house, which was our main, you know, our What do I want to call it the equity. I know, there’s another word that I for some reason can’t think of right now. But is, is not enough, who we could not get any more. And we eventually had to decide to lay everybody off. And that I would say that was the most that was one of the most difficult things. We felt horrible. It was the last thing that we thought about doing. Even though I guess, you know, financially, we should have thought about it before. So that was just horrible, just not being prepared for that. Feeling like we disappointed, you know, our friends, and you know, we felt really responsible. So, that was one thing that was sort of more in the past. More recently, I’d say the other one was, there were two fairly major infringements. I found out that I had a couple of my Wayne designs wing images that were being sold in a stock fairy wing pack by a really large app company.
Angela Jarman
So that was a mess that took a lot of time and resources. And it was settled, we came to settlement. But don’t know if it was really worth all the trouble that we had to go through to take care of it. So yeah, but that kind of thing happens a lot. That was just, that was just the biggest one where it was actually a really a pretty high profile company that that stole it and was selling it.
Iva Mikles
So the copyright helps when you have something on top of it.
Angela Jarman
Yes, exactly. Yeah. If I didn’t have a copyright it probably I’m not sure what would have happened.
Iva Mikles
Also on these images, would they use the you actually had copyright as well? I thought they use something without copyright. Which you Yeah,
Angela Jarman
yeah. Well, I’ve they said that it was just one of their employees, you know, that they hired to make these must have taken them from the internet. And it was funny, you know, we did a and it wasn’t just me, it was actually two or three of my other fairy wing making friends also had their fairy wing images stolen in the same pack. But you know, we just we went to Google, we did a search for fairy wings. And you know, oddly enough there were. There were our images right there in the search results, like this person just went and did a Google search and just downloaded. Yeah, it’s just it’s very lazy. very lazy work. They must have just thought that nobody would care and that they wouldn’t matter somehow. So yeah, you know, die, what can you do?
Iva Mikles
So, okay, so people should be ready also for something like this. And yeah, so we should watch out for each other. And just if we see something, you know, we shouldn’t be there. So we should inform the artists if we know. Yes, yeah. So that’s perfect. And what are some of the last questions I want to ask you is about the future. And if you would have a dream scenario in five to 10 years, what would you be doing and you cannot fail? And, you know, just how does he look like?
Angela Jarman
Oh, wow, um, I don’t know. I, I would like to still be making wings. I would love it, if we could find an even easier way to make moving flapping wings.
Angela Jarman
And a bigger place to create out of that’s probably that might be one of the main things is just, it would be wonderful to have a larger space that would allow us to actually, maybe make some bigger things. Maybe somewhere down the line, you know, have one of my own machines that can cut some of the stuff I would like to, I would like to do actually just more art, more painting. I do. I paint for my fairy wings, currently, but I would like to, I would like to make more just fairy art in general and be able to expand the things that I can make an offer to people. It’s just, it’s, it’s always on the list. But it’s just one of those things that it’s, I have to get better at my scheduling and time management in order to make those things happen. So yeah, I mean, it would be nice if if somehow I could get to the UK and do something, I don’t know, a photoshoot, or eventually, I would love to make it out to one of the fairy events that they have in Europe. There’s some really amazing ones I’m always seeing pictures of and I just have not had the opportunity to get out there. So more digital items, I would like to because eventually, eventually somewhere down the line. Physically making wanes is probably going to get more difficult. As I get older. There’s no There’s no real there’s no real ergonomic system to make things right now in order to to avoid, you know, repetitive stress injuries or anything like that. So I would like to actually expand and make more digital things like like stock fairy wings. I finally made some, because everybody else was stealing my images and selling them. So I figured I should be I should be doing this.
Iva Mikles
You can actually create them yet. Yes. And my last question would be like, What would you like to be remembered for in like 100 years?
Angela Jarman
Oh, well. I would, I guess just like to be remembered for making people happy, or helping them transform into their ideal fantasy version of themselves.
Iva Mikles
Oh, perfect. I like that. And so I’m so happy that you took time and join us and inspire young artists and before we say goodbye You can maybe share like last piece of advice or key takeaway and then we will say goodbye.
Angela Jarman
Okay. Oh gosh, what do I say? I guess I would say he’ll follow your passion and You know, if you can dream it, you can do it. But be practical. That’s perfect, practical and cover your butt. And copyright your work. Very important. That’s one of the things that I always suggest to people in the house, make sure you copyright get it registered. And, and have fun and make what you love. Make what you enjoy. And you know if somebody hasn’t done it before, and you’re being told that it’s not possible, those people could very well be wrong. You know, I started this, this I remember my dad, you know, asking, Well, I don’t know, you know, do you really think that, um, you can support yourself just, you know, making wings. But here I am. And that’s that’s actually happened. So, yes, I would say just keep making art. And even if it’s not something that is going to financially support, you just make beautiful things make arts as a form of therapy, if it makes you happy. We kind of need it right now in the world. Definitely. We need the artists, we need all the beauty that we can conjure up at the moment.
Iva Mikles
I agree. So it’s a perfect way to end the interview. And I want to thank you again. And it was my pleasure.
Angela Jarman
Thank you.
Iva Mikles
And thanks, everyone for joining and see you in the next episode. Hope you guys enjoy this interview. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode at artsideoflife.com Just type a guest name in the search bar. There is also a little freebie waiting for you. So go check it out. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes, hopefully five stars so I can read and inspire more people like you. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to Art Side of Life podcast because I post new interview every single workday. If you want to watch the interviews, head over to artsideoflife.com/youtube. Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to inspire each other. And I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Bye.
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Hi, I am Iva (rhymes with “viva”). I am a full-time self-taught artist behind Art Side of Life® and a Top Teacher on Skillshare. I have 15 years of experience in the creative field as a concept designer, illustrator, art director, and now freelance artist, content creator, and art instructor. My goal is to help you get your creative groove on with Procreate and make awesome art through practical classes, tutorials, Procreate brushes, and guides on art tools, supplies and resources. About me »
