Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Jarrett.
Hi Julia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Of course! So, my name is Julia; I’m originally from Florida, but spent most of my Childhood in Tennessee, just north of Nashville. There, I spent my formative years with my grandmother quilting, beading, scrapbooking, weaving, even making dolls out of sunny-d bottles and sewing them clothes or tiny cloth babies to hold. We made really anything we could get our hands on, especially in the realm of textiles, but I don’t think I recognized that was what we were doing until much later. My Grandmother was a former painter, aiming to be a fashion designer, turned neo-natal nurse, who also drew beautiful astrological charts and read the tarot. The metaphysical aspect of my life has definitely been generational and my grandmother and great-grandmother referring to our family as “pagan catholics”. Both artistically and throughout life, she has definitely continued to be my greatest influence. However, as I got older, I lost a bit of that whimsical creation, especially when my parents and I moved overseas for my high school years. Not long after, I began dabbling in the digital art space and teaching myself how to create fantasy and sci-fi compositions in programs like photoshop. My mom began self-publishing novels around the same time and asked me to create a series of book covers for her. From there, I got cover design jobs via word of mouth until I eventually started my own book cover design business. I worked primarily with independent authors and small publishers to design almost 300 book cover designs throughout my high school years and a little after. I was even able to take advantage of creating in the digital space and travel around eastern Europe for six months before coming home to enter art school. I spent my first year of community college in New Jersey trying everything I could within their design program. I took my first real drawing classes learned how to create digital 3D models. got my first real taste of what a graphic design education would look like, developed my own film for the first time, and ran a sticker business on the side to fund my day-to-day college life. Community college was an extremely important time for me to just try everything I could before I dove into any specific direction. Within a year I had found my way to SCAD in Savannah Ga, entering into their Motion Media program. I had started to grow tired of working specifically in graphic design and thought turning towards animated design might bring a bit of my excitement back. However, my first semester when I turned in an embroidered color wheel in my color theory class my professor pulled me aside and asked if I was sure about the major I had picked. He wasn’t sure that someone who was creating in the way that I was would be happy behind a computer screen. That I seemed more like a painter or a fibers person. I had felt so disconnected from my creative childhood at that point that both of those options came as a shock to me. I no longer believed I had the ability to create in that way, but within three months, I had visited SCAD’s Fiber’s open studio, and I was hooked. I switched my major immediately and began studying Fibers/ textiles. I loved everything the department had to offer from sewn sculpture to screen printing and weaving. I spent the remaining three years soaking up as much textile information as I could. Towards the end of my college career, I rented a space in a community art studio where I focused on screen printing for my personal brand, Venus Moon. This ended up being that place that I met Mia, my former business partner, and fellow textile artist. Together, we hosted the Savannah Night Market in 2019 as a way to grow our creative community and showcase artist all around the southeast. We eventually moved out of that studio space and began dreaming up something bigger. A space where we could have an art studio, support our community, and share the lifestyle and work of all those who inspire us. This led us the opening The Circle, an inclusive retail space in downtown Savannah that celebrated color and magic, hosted community events, and operated as our textile studio. There, I developed a love for home and hearth magic and carved out a beautiful divination practice for myself. While owning the circle, I found myself once again separated from my creativity due to the day-to-day operation of running a brick-and-mortar space and so much of my time being spent on the computer again. I began searching for a way back to physical creation that also included textile work, and I found my way to broom making. I made my first broom with my grandmother when I was ten for my mother’s wedding, so it felt like the perfect process to find myself drawn to. I began making brooms for the Circle as well as teaching quarterly broom-making classes to our customers. The Circle closed down in March of 2023, and I moved into my home studio, where I have been able to dive into and explore the craft of broom-making in a way that I never could have before. Today, I am doing many things! I am back to hosting the Savannah Night Market, which is happening at The Legion Ballroom on October 19th as well as our holiday market at the Thompson Hotel on December 3rd! I also spend my days searching for fallen branches around Savannah’s Eastside to craft into beautiful broom handles, weaving dried flowers into hand brooms, wholesaling handmade products to stores around the US, and screen printing divination cloths for my charm casting practice. I also offer tarot and charm casting readings weekly around Savannah.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say both yes and no. In some ways, I’ve always naturally found my way to where I needed to be, but in others, I’ve had to wade through quite a bit of failures. I would say my biggest struggles took place while I owned my brick-and-mortar shop. We opened The Circle with zero outside funding. Just our waitressing money and a small amount of savings. So when COVID-19 started three months after we opened our doors, it was a huge hit. Our community showed up and supported us in every way they could, and we were able to keep the lights on through biking deliveries around Savannah and shipping out as many online order as we could get. It allowed us to get through that initial push, but it left a huge impact on our ability to grow a successful business in the future. A dream that started as a community space and an art studio could no longer invite in its community, and we were constantly pulled away from the studio to keep things afloat. We had so many highs and so many lows, but the massive fluctuations in the economy in the three years that followed COVID, increasing rent prices within Savannah, and several other factors led us to close our doors much sooner than we would have liked. Which in its self was a massive struggle to watch something you worked so hard to build crumble and then have to quickly rebuild your life around the aftermath. I love where I am now, and I’m so grateful and lucky for every turn that led me here, but it was definitely a bit of a bumpy road!
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Primarily, I am a broom maker and a charm caster! I hand-make brooms of all shapes and sizes for anything from hand-fasting ceremonies to ritual use or everyday sweeping. Overall, I make intentional goods to bring joy and magic to the everyday. I work with found branches from around Savannah combined with natural broom corn and weave in dried flowers, thinking all the while about color magic and the intentions of specific flowers. Charm casting is an intuitive divination method that involves casting small objects and interpreting them based off of how they fall. I offer readings throughout Savannah, but I also make and sell charm casting supplies. This involves keeping an open eye all around Savannah for small trinkets like Barbie shoes, marbles, or shells that could be used as charms. I also dye, sew, and screen print charm casting cloths so that when I go to markets, people can grab the instructional zine I wrote, a charm casting cloth, and a selection of found object that they can take and use to create their own charm casting kits!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Overall, I believe I am extremely lucky. Throughout my life, I have been granted opportunities to explore and create space for my creativity, more than many people dream for. Although I have definitely fallen victim to bad timing, I have always been given the opportunity to pick back up again and keep moving, and for that, I am extremely grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.madebyvenusmoon.com/
- Instagram: madebyvenusmoon
Image Credits
Mike Schalk
