This week’s featured Australian artisan is Lexa Adams – the boutique card maker behind Juntei. 

If you are an Australian artisan or craftsperson and you would like to be featured – please click here.

Where about in Australia do you live?

Sydney, NSW

What’s your favourite place in the world, and why?

Here is pretty good. There’s things to do, lovely people, and fantastic weather!

Where does your online ‘handle’ come from?

Juntei is the Japanese name for the mother goddess aspect of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. I do have Buddhist leanings, but mostly I thought it was pretty and I used it for my main character in the game World of Warcraft. Heh. But the idea of a mother goddess and creation go well together, so I transferred it over to my business and permanent internet identity.

Tell us a little bit more about yourself! Your ‘day job’ or business, family, hobbies…

My ‘day job’ is housewife and mother to my kitten. That is also code for sometimes doing housework, but mostly I avoid it and play video games instead. 😉 Seriously, part of the reason I started my own business is because no one else was hiring me when I was looking for work. As for hobbies, there are the aforementioned video games, as well as roleplaying games, tv, movies… anything of a geeky bent, really.

What did you want to be ‘when you grew up’?

Hm. I have switched between chemist, writer, poet, policewoman, lawyer, crime lab technician, and artist. The last one pretty much stuck.

How did you first get into your craft/art?

I come from a fairly creative family, despite none of them making art for a living. My brother can draw, my father can draw… heck, even my grandmother was a fair hand at drawing. So, deciding to take art classes at school was pretty much a natural path for me. After high school, I studied art and design through various colleges, though my education is a bit eclectic, everything from drawing and painting to website coding with javascript, etc. The whole greeting card thing started for me, really, when I was creating my own wedding invitations a couple years back. Our theme was Japanese-Inspired mixed with Retro Swing, and I had the idea to use fabrics over cardstock as the base of the invitation. I managed to find an amazing store selling vintage kimono fabrics, and have fallen in love with them. What you see in my shop are simplified versions of my own wedding invitations.

What do you make?

Greeting cards, greeting cards greeting cards! At least, that’s what it feels like these days. I also still paint, draw, and design on the side, so I’m hoping to expand my Etsy shop with my own artwork, as well.

What is your favourite media to work with, and why?

Obviously, I’m completely obsessed with the vintage fabrics I use. They are so gorgeous, I often feel terrible chopping them up to make cards out of them. But then I get to share them with everyone else, so I get over it. For art, I generally draw in charcoal but recently I’ve been exploring oil paints and loving it.

Where do you get your ideas?

Everywhere, really. It is not an exaggeration to say, however, that I am a huge fan of the Japanese-aesthetic. In fact, that may be a wild understatement. I love blending elaborate, gorgeous fabrics with clean lines and simple design. I believe greatly in balance. Too much of this or that and things can go from beautiful to meh rather quickly.

What do you like the most/least about selling your wares online?

I love simply having the freedom to do what I believe I was intended to do. What I dislike is feeling like I’m pushing myself on everyone all the time. Promoting is hard work, and I’m shy by nature. Virtually jumping up and down shouting, “NOTICE ME!” is often uncomfortable. But it is part of the business, and I’ll do it if it means I eventually get to make someone somewhere happy with the things I make.

What’s your favourite word?

I like things that are fun to say. My current favorite is marmalade. I don’t like eating it, mind, but it’s a fantastic word.

If you could sum yourself or your work up in one sentence, it would say…

Powered by caffeine, motivated by adorably evil kittens, and dreaming of cherry blossoms.

 

Learn more about Lexa by visiting her blog.

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