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Check out Moriah Jacobs’s Artwork

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Moriah Jacobs.

Moriah, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am the owner/ designer/ maker/ customer service/ jack of all trades and only employee at MJ Custom Leather! (I do have one amazing part time helper named Amber!) I grew up in Litchfield Park, Arizona. I have a 4H/FFA livestock showing, horse/mule, and farming background and LOVE my agriculture community.

Growing up around my parent’s business in Goodyear Arizona (Ass Kicking Hot sauce, we are located around the i10 and Bullard aver) Gave me an amazing work ethic. Both of my parents are extremely hard workers and showed me growing up what it is like to be a self-made business person! I admire my parents so much for creating their amazing business and it has always been a blessing being a part of watching the business flourish. We also have a corn/soybean farm located in my dad’s home town in Pierre, South Dakota where I would travel to every summer ages 13-22 and help him work and run the farm.

I grew up working with my mom and my dad a lot. I would be traveling all over the US to trade shows and work in the office and gift shop with my mom (which I think gave me a ton of my interpersonal skills). And on top of that I would constantly be getting my hands dirty helping my dad in the shop and on the farm (in Arizona and South Dakota), he did his best to help me learn how to do things on my own and teach me a lot of what he knows! From being self-sufficient problem solver to driving tractor and semi, to welding, working hard and handling anything life throws at me. I take pride in my ability to be a professional business person at one moment, and in the shop getting dirty the next. He always taught me to give my hand at something first before asking for help, so I think that gave me the ability to be independent and figure things out on my own. I am so thankful to my parents for all of my skills and am so thankful to grow up the way I did!!

I was lucky enough to grow up with business owners as parents and watch them work day in and day out to make their dream happen. I admire them so much, and can’t wait to grow my dream as they grew theirs. I graduated from the University of Arizona (Bear Down!) in May of 2016, moved to South Dakota for a job in my degree field as an Agronomist. I lived there for 6 months before realizing that being an Agronomist was not a fulfilling job for me.

In South Dakota I really started pursuing my passion for leatherwork in my spare time, and with my move back to Arizona in November of 2016 my client base has grown amazingly!!

It is truly an amazing feeling knowing my passion has grown into something that other people love, not just myself and my mother haha. My vision for MJ Custom Leather is creating beautiful and unique leather goods that will last a lifetime. And creating a customer experience that will make my customers not only want to come back for the quality of goods, but the experience they receive.

Growing up my dad, sister and I would build some leather goods like dog collars, tack, and random things here and there nothing too intricate. So that gave me my base in leather working… But the bag building and everything else I am 100% self-taught!! My best piece of advice for someone who wants to start their own business or get into a similar handmade field… Google and YouTube are your friend. Endless resources are available for free!!

Great customer service is SO important to me, as I know you can get similar work anywhere these days. Good customer service, and creating relationships with my customers along with having a fun experience through the purchase process is very important to me.

My favorite part of this business is working with customers and creating the piece they have always envisioned for themselves. I am SO blessed to have such a great support system, and all of my friends and family who have had faith in my work and my life!

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I make handmade leather goods! Purses are my specialty but I make quite the variety of goods from dog collars, makeup bags, shave kits, Apple watch bands, jewelry, tack, portfolios, yeti wraps… and so much more! Everything is 100% hand made. I start out with full cowhides said and cut everything by hand, glue everything by hand, and use my sewing machines to create those perfect stitch lines! I take huge pride in my quality and look of my products. I do my best to make them look as good as I can, make them as functional as I can, because I know what quality I would expect as a buyer.

My inspiration is my western lifestyle and my southwestern style. You will find a lot of western ties to my pieces, and a lot of southwestern patterns and styles in my work. I would say that my style is geared towards men and women in the western lifestyle. I hope people who purchase my goods, get the use out of them for life, and every time they look at their pieces it brings them some type of joy! My artwork is one of a kind and built to last a lifetime! All of my pieces come with a lifetime warranty so if anything happens to go wrong with it I am happy to fix it. In my eyes, good handmade leather goods are an investment you can count on to last you for years to come.

The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
My best piece of advice to handle financial challenges in this business is to start small…. Start small purchasing tools and material in small batches, start creating what you can, start up your social media accounts and start posting goods for sale! As your sales start to grow you can start to invest in more tools and more materials!

This is my full-time business now, I started small and have never taken out a loan. I still stress over big purchases, and hitting my sales goals, but if you stress over it all too much it’ll bring down your productivity. So, push ahead and keep working hard and I know you can be as successful as you want to be!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find MJ Custom Leather on Facebook, Instagram and on www.mjcustomleather.com You can custom order pieces right off of the website, or purchase already completed items to be shipped to your door in a timely manner! Also, if you travel to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas this year, you can find us at the Plaza hotel Dec 6th-15th at the RFWA (Rodeo Fashion and Western Arts) Expo!! Please come visit me! If you mention this article I will throw in a free gift!

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Picture of me goes to Emily Cox Photography!

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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