Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Gomez.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My inspiration for starting up my business happened when a friend and I bought a Tie Dye Kit at the local store. It was fun, no matter how amateur we were our creations were great. I decided to buy more kits and along the way, it just developed into a hobby. I started posting my creations online and started asking my followers if they would buy my creations! Thus, my business started, it was also a way for me to contribute to my family. I had just had a son the year before and felt like it was time for me to help in my own way and be a stay at home mom instead of leaving my son to a babysitter while I worked. I had quite a few rough patches in the beginning but the more I practiced the better I got. I started being obsessed going to the store and seeing something white then immediately looking to see if the item was made out of cotton! It was clearly a problem, but obviously a good one!
Further on, I decided to take it one step further, stencils! When I was in high-school, I had one of the best art teachers and I still keep in touch with him to this day, I owe it to him for teaching me to use Photoshop and how to make my own stencils. I started creating, hand-cutting and hand painting on my stencils onto my Tie Dye creations. It was great and my followers and family loved the idea! As an avid gamer, I started out doing characters from games, then as custom requests came in I started doing so much more than I thought I was going to do. The business started slowing down again, you wouldn’t believe how many people there were that don’t like Tie Dye or think how it’s only for girls and the colors are always too bright! I’m trying to change the stigma of what Tie Dye is. Along with creating Tie Dye, I got inspired to go into clay/jewelry making by friends I had made while vending at an event. Let’s just say it’s gone well and it helped my sales a bit better but it just wasn’t enough. Before I knew it, I feel like I had lost all inspiration and just thought about how to make sales. I got mainly custom orders and I felt like no one wanted to buy my originals. I went into an artists block and didn’t create for a long time until I started getting sales again and with the help of my family I kept my chin up, and I’m still going and creating! Then, I got the offer from Voyage Houston to share my work on their page and then this interview happened! I feel 2018 is going to be the year I make my huge comeback.
Great, 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?
The road was most definitely not smooth. I had so many people tell me to my face “Oh I could do this at home” “This looks cheaply made” and the one that came a lot was “Oh I remember doing this when I was younger, it was so easy!” It discouraged me a lot and me being young and these older people seeing me make something like Tie Dye that started in the 60’s, they made it seem like I knew nothing. Yes, it is something you could do at home. for fun. The fabric I choose is not cheaply made. And yes, it was something that was thought of so long ago but there is so much more to it now than most people think. The work that is put into trying and trying to figure out how to get that one design that someone you look up to achieve. So much hard work goes into creating anything. Any advice I would give to someone who is just starting up their own business journey is, don’t lose hope. Don’t listen to the negative people who put down your work because they aren’t there physically seeing how hard it is to do what you create and how much your back hurts from standing or sitting over something or the long hours it took you to finally get to where you are now.
what should we know about TechnicolourInk? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I do all the work, I have no helpers and everything is done by hand. From the tying, which is really hard you have no idea how many times I’ve snapped myself with a rubber band haha, all the way to using an Xacto knife cutting the stencils and hand painting on the stencil. I am known for being the “Tie Dye” person to my friends and customers who have seen me at previous events! Haha If you see me somewhere I’m most likely wearing one of my Tie Dye creations, which I am proud of. I have come a long way, 6 years now to be exact. If someone were to look at my work from the minute I started to now, there is a HUGE difference! What I think sets me apart from others is my stencil work on Tie Dye. I don’t see much of it, although I know there must be a few who have had the same idea. The fact that I don’t have a huge machine putting the ink on for me, which I actually wish I did have but I feel like it would take away from my image of “made by hand” only. But in the future, I do want to own some kind of T-shirt printing device to call my own!
Who do you look up to? How have they inspired you?
I’m going to be honest and say my mom is my biggest inspiration. Although she’s never had or made her own small business, she showed me while growing up that she could do anything. No matter what she was told she kept going. She was a single mom and did everything she could to make sure I grew up how she wanted me to and taught me things that of course I didn’t begin to fully understand and respect until I got older.
Pricing:
- Tie Dye T-shirts range from $8-$30 depending on the size/with or w/o stencil
- Tie Dye socks are anywhere from $2-$25 depending on the type of sock; ex. Thigh High socks
- Clay creations $8-$18
- Choker sets (choker necklace, bracelet and ring) $5 with or w/o charm
Contact Info:
- Website: Etsy.com/shop/TechnicolourInk, TechicolourInk.BigCartel.Com, Redbubble.com/Christinaskye
- Email: Technicolour128@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/TechnicolourInk
- Facebook: Facebook.com/TechnicolourInk
- Twitter: Twitter.com/TechnicolourInk
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston 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.
