For the Record: Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle
Visiting a talented creative in their habitat is always a treat, so I naturally jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the world of one of my new favorite peddlers of cute accessories, Leslie Yang; she’s the exuberant owner and designer at San Francisco based Feisty Elle.
I first met Leslie through my friend Isabel after stopping by the DIY/indie Renegade Craft Fair in July, where Leslie was working a table. A few months later, I ran into her goods once more at doe-sf, which also happens to be my former workplace (owned by the very cool Kati Kim). Serendipity, or 7×7? Hmm.
After some lovely twitter chit-chat, Leslie kindly allowed me to tour her charming Bernal Heights abode one Sunday afternoon, where she lives with her equally crafty, rocket-engineering boyfriend. There, we talked about where she grew up, felting, her commitment to balancing creativity with activism (she has a full-time job as graphic designer at a non-profit) and had a little photography session. I walked away some new envy-inducing ear adornments for myself, and the both of us made a well-earned trip to Mitchell’s ice cream. Leslie totally recommended the Mexican Chocolate. Yes, it is tasty.
Feisty Elle’s most popular design- the dahlia – in green.
Where were you born, raised, and how’d find yourself in the Bay Area?
I was born in Redwood City, lived in Daly City for a couple of those early toddler years. I don’t remember anything about it though. My first memories are of when we moved to Arizona. My sister and I were the only Asian-American kids for miles! Later, when we moved around the suburbs of LA, was I able to compare those experiences and I get a sense of who I was and who I wasn’t. LA was a huge melting pot and Arizona, er, wasn’t at all. Living in a racially and culturally diverse community began to matter more and more to me as I grew up. When my sister was accepted to UC Berkeley, my family and I went to check it out and I was in love with not only the diversity but the walkable neighborhoods and this…I don’t know how else to describe it, but this lovely energy and sense of community and activism. Four years later, I moved back to the Bay to attend Berkeley myself and I was hooked. I’ve lived here ever since!
The future of these darlings? Cherry blossom brooches and hairclips.
You have a 9-5 job as a graphic designer for a non-profit, and I know both that and your jewelry-making business sort of emerged unexpectedly- could you tell us a little more about how you became such a great designer? Did you have previous inklings of creativity, or dabble in artistic hobbies before?
Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back everything seems to fall into place but when you’re living it, you feel like you’re just trying to keep your head above water. When I was a kid, I was bored one day and looked at my bedroom wall thinking it was pretty dull looking. I had this epiphany that it didn’t have to be that way and I could change things up. I wound up amassing a ridiculous amount of art and craft supplies and decorated the hell out of my room for years up until I went to college. On the other hand, going to Berkeley, I had my activist side awakened, and upon graduation chose to work in the nonprofit sector as an avenue for social change. For the next few years, I felt challenged to find work that both supported my creative side as well as my passion for social change. It was while I was with my current organization that I switched roles to manage print production and had a similar epiphany; I realized that I could design something better than what we had been producing before. I taught myself how to use all the Creative Suite programs, took classes, devoured design blogs and tutorials, and eventually took on freelance work for practice. I’m still learning as much as I can and I strive to be a better designer every day.
It was also during this time that everyone and their mom was into crafting and there were all these crafting forums abuzz with how to knit, felt, crochet, screenprint, etc. I was really into learning how to make women’s accessories. If you check out my Flickr, you can see a lot of what I used to make. Eventually, a number of crafty ladies on these forums started up businesses and I thought to myself, “Hmm, why don’t I do that too?” And that’s how Feisty Elle was born.
Leslie’s collection of Japanese fabrics.
Talk a little bit about your creative process… and what inspires you.
I approach the creative process first with research. I collect inspiring images on Evernote, group them, add notes and ideas, and file them till I feel like I have some idea of what to do with them. Sometimes it’s nothing, sometimes a couple of months later, it’ll all gel and I’ll come out with a new earring or brooch design.
I’m inspired by great photography, lovely patterned fabric, beautiful color palettes, essentially great design. I strive to not copy what I’ve seen, which would be the easiest thing to do but not the right thing to do.
Sneak preview! Felt feather earrings.
What are the challenges of running a side business- and a self-run DIY business, in general?
The biggest challenge is wearing all these hats and switching them constantly. I multitask like crazy, but there’s only so much you can do in a day. It’s tiring and I could use some more sleep.
What sorts of projects do you see in the forseeable future?
I see myself starting a line of home accessories. Feisty Home has a nice ring, doesn’t it?
You live in the cutest Bernal Heights neighborhood. Favorite things to do in the city?
I love my neighborhood! I love to eat! There’s so much great food in the city. And I love discovering new, crafty spots in the city. (Peep my “SF is Crafty” Google map)
Yet another sneaky, sneaky preview: Felt earrings inspired by the clouds in Buddhist artwork.
Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs or for life in general…
I have two tips. One, don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t figured it all in life. No one’s figured it out! Two, not everything you make will be awesome. Sometimes you will make something ugly and lame. It’s what you decide to do afterwards that matters. You can choose to feel crappy about it and just walk away in shame or, when you’re ready, you go back to the drawing board, listen to critical feedback, and come back with something you’re proud of. It’s an iterative process and not always a fun one but it’s worth it for that breakthrough moment. Feels great!
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[...] We interviewed Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle. [...]
Weekly Round Up | The Steel Closet added these pithy words on Oct 24 09 at 5:13 pmthose earrings are just gorgeous. really lovely stuff and she sounds really sweet as well xrebecca
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Oct 19 09 at
11:14 am
added these pithy words on Patrici and The Steel Closet, thanks so much for interviewing me about Feisty Elle. I had a blast!Leslie
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Oct 19 09 at
2:20 pm
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