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Crafty Divas and Entrepreneurial Empresses
March 2003's Diva
Jasmine Deatherage
of www.exlibrisanonymous.com
Keeping a journal is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Not only does it offer you a bit of samity - it is a gift to read through them years down the road. Now there's a place you can find the coolest journals around: Ex Libris Anonymous. This Crafty Diva has come up with a unique way to create something new out of something old. You're sure to look cool the next time you write a bit to yourself.
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The Gallery
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The Interview
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 The Basic Lowdown:
Girlposse.com: Who are you?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I am Jasmine Deatherage
Girlposse.com: Where are you located?
Ex Libris Anonymous: The mostly rainy, but beautifully sunny Olympia Washington. I operate out of a workshop in my house. it has pink walls and I love it!
Girlposse.com: What is your creation / business?
Ex Libris Anonymous: Ex Libris Anonymous is my little business and i make journals out of vintage books, over sized vintage nudie playing cards and record album covers (not the actual vinyl though).
Girlposse.com: Where can people buy your stuff?
Ex Libris Anonymous: The very best place to buy a journal from me is on my lovely web site: www.exlibrisanonymous.com
I have 118 books up at all times and as soon as one sells it is replaced with a new journal so there are new ones to see all the time.
I also do quite a bit of wholesale accross the country, some of my favorite locations being Therapy in Austin TX; Lipstick Traces, Hello Gorgeous and Bailey/Coy Books in Seattle WA; Powells Books on Hawthorne in Portland OR; Henrietta Fahrenheit in Ypsilanti MI; and all of the Paper Source stores accross this country.
Girlposse.com: How long have you been doing this?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I've been doing this for a year now. I started out pretty small-- just putting up a table at craft shows etc, and i still do those because I love them, but I also wholesale and retail these days.
Girlposse.com: Tell us something about yourself - your personality:
Ex Libris Anonymous: I am short. I eat lots of yogurt. I like walking really far. I like people. I only ride a bike for fun. I'm 25 years old. I make my calenders instead of buying them. I'm not afraid to stray from the reciepe. I have very close friends. I am the oldest of four. I am a gemini. I am willing to go out of my way to get natural light in my house. I love my job. I used to only wear black, now im growing out of it. I like yard work. I love my man with an undying passion. I sleep with socks on. I can't handle loud chewing. I know how to make damn good coffee. I used to smoke. I collect typewriters. I like music I can sing along with. I have a cat named chairman meow. I like coffee ice cream. I have a tattoo of fruit around my wrist. my favorite color is robins egg blue. and I am all of that and lots more.
Girlposse.com: How did you first come up with the idea of using old book covers and those
fab playing cards?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I should start by saying i like the vintage thing... so I had a friend visiting from out of town and i had made a book for my boyfriend Jacob, and I was telling her how I made it and how excited i was to make journals like his. it was a collage of vintage-ish images basically, but it was a lot of work and you could tell. then she was like 'well you could just use book covers and make the journals that way'. at that moment my whole life changed. I didn't know it then, but you don't always know it when it happens.
The idea for the playing cards I thought of because I was looking for good vintage girlie images and found some over-sized vintage nudie cards and the light went off, as they say.
Girlposse.com: You also do custom work. What are the challenges in that versus working on
your own ideas?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I am always excited to see what books people want to see made into journals.. I meet all kinds of awesome people and it's great to see their sense of humor or thier beautiful book. but all in all the custom work that i do is actually not that much of a challenge because i'm basically just assembling something that another person wants to see as a journal. really, there's not a ton of creativity in binding per se.
Girlposse.com: What finally inspired you to offer your journals to the world?
Ex Libris Anonymous: My inspiration was the journals themselves. everybody has the thing that they like to do that is fun and makes them feel productive, for me this is it! every book is different and I never get bored. Ever.
Girlposse.com: Do you have any plans to offer additional items (like address books, etc.)?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I really want to offer address books and calenders and reciepe books and buttons and t-shirts and underwear and magnets and vintage scores and more and more all the time. This is totally one of those issues for me where I need more hours in the day. I have to keep up with myself craft-wise and have a normal life as well. Honestly I would like 3 seperate lifetimes all in a row, one for craft and achievement, one for relationships and children, and one just for T.V. (which only gets small cameos in this life unfortunately). But in answer to the question: in the coming months and years I hope to add many wonderful, fun things to my web site.
Girlposse.com: What was (is) your biggest obstacle in selling what you create?
Ex Libris Anonymous: Finding enough books and cutting the paper for each and every, single, gosh-darn book. All books are different sizes, I have learned to live with that truth and bought a huge industrial paper cutter because of it. And it's easy to find a few cool books at your local thrift shop, but finding 500 when you need them is a little more challenging.
Girlposse.com: What keeps you going on a bad day?
Ex Libris Anonymous: I wear lipstick on bad days.
Girlposse.com: Where are some of your favorite places to shop?
Ex Libris Anonymous: Lets see... buyolympia.com is one of my favorite places to find cool gifts. And I thrift a lot, plus thrift stores are a good place for me to find books for my journals! But otherwise I really like Atlas clothing, and Double Trouble in Seattle, Dumpster Values in Olympia and Seaplane in Portland.
Girlposse.com: What was the best piece of advice you've been given?
Ex Libris Anonymous: A crafter friend of my told me 'dont let someone have the product until youve received the money'. But I still had to learn it the hard way.
Girlposse.com: What advice would you give to a future Crafty Diva?
Ex Libris Anonymous:
- Don't let someone have the product until youve recieved the money.
- The sooner you learn how to not be competitive with your crafty girlfriends the better.
- Aim high. Assume that people want what you have, its easier to get yourself out there that way.
Girlposse.com: Any additional thoughts or comments you'd like to share with the world?
Ex Libris Anonymous: Nope.
Girlposse.com: Are they any other Crafty Divas or Entrepreneurial Empresses we should know
about?
Ex Libris Anonymous: All of the girls on my links page are completely kick ass! And I know so many cool girls that that's about as specific as I can get.
~March 2003
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Are you a Crafty Diva and Entrepreneurial Empress? Or do you know one that should be featured in a future Girlposse.com issue? If so, e-mail Trixie with the details.
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