Joint Kustody History
I have always been artsy. I love painting with big bright colors, always scribbling some design. I grew up in Bend, Oregon, graduating from Mt.View, I knew that I loved Art and making things. This led me to Brooks College of Art, in Long Beach, California. I love the sun and the beach and it gave me the opportunity to travel california. College helped me understand color theory and taking my art to the computer, learning Illustrator and Photoshop.
I met my love, Collin, in College and we graduated together getting our degree in Graphic Design. Right out of school I found myself in love and pregnant with my first baby, Coral. While I was pregnant I had the oppurtunity to design my very first website, this started me thinking that I could have my own buisness and my own clients also, keeping me at home with my new baby and using my design degree at the same time. I also started sewing at this time, clothes for my new baby, baby blankets and little purses for myself. I had some random jobs trying to get any freelance work I could and continued to sew for fun. When coral was one we were fortunate enough to be able to buy a nice Condo in Long Beach with more space and an office for our new adventure I was taking us on.
In 2001, Joint Kustody, expressed the feeling I wanted to come out of my business. Art, culture, news, organic foods, becoming a new age hipster mom, sharing information on living an 'All Natural lifestyle' .
Joint Kustody started with me doodling on the computer. I easily became an expert at Illustrator and started designing logos, stickers, and Tshirt designs. Then the sewing started, I would create a bag and put one of my logos on it. I had created a couple different bags I liked and went up to Venice Beach to sell my new crafty bags on a blanket on Venice beach. My fate turned into something different... a contract with the owner of 3 shops on the boardwalk wanted to carry my bag. I was so excited I got to sewing hundreds of bags. My bags distributed to these three shops and sold really good. The three shops soon turned into five, all owned by the same person. I was soon one year into Joint Kustody and had made thousands of bags by this time. I was sewing like a mad woman all hours of the day and making a couple hundred a week. Two years into it, I had sewed over 100,000 bags, they were wholesaled out to several different shops in the US and Japan. Sewing 40 - 50 hours a week, pregnant with a toddler to take care of, put a little toll on me, I also worked in one of the shops my bags were at once or twice a week. I would get to sell my bags and art directly to the customer and it was a joy to be apart of that world.
After a few years of creating bags that would sell, I started creating kustom pieces. Someone would come in the shop and need a kustom bag, certain colors or a logo put on a bag. I really loved creating kustom art for an individual person not just the mass public. In 2004 I was at a crucial time in my business, the shop owner that i was working with, sent all of my bags to China to be re-made. All of a sudden there were bags all looking like Joint Kustody bags... but I did not make them. They could get them made for pennies compared to the time and money I had put into all of my patterns. Frustrated with the system, I quit selling to the shops in Venice.
After having my second baby, Asher, my family moved back to Bend, Oregon. At that time I made a decision that my company, Joint Kustody, will never mass produce any product I make. I started learning how to screen print and from there painting directly on fabric. I have always loved graphic design so I have about one thousand different logos for Joint Kustody. Making them into Stickers, and art to put onto my fabric pieces. Each purse and kustom design I make with love. Taking care with each item as if they were mine.
Every art piece is unique and made with the best love and care in the Northwest.
In 2007 I was getting deathly sick, daughter in Kindergarten and son still a baby, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Crohn's is an Auto-Immune disease, my body is attacking its own cells for some reason unknown to doctors. There are over Forty Auto-Immune diseases that attack a persons body, including Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Diabetes, etc. Going through several medications with Traditional Doctors, I also started seeing a Naturophath who got me learning more about the importance of Natural Herbs and Vitamins. I am an advocate for Medical Marijuana because of my personal experience with a sickness that leaves me weak, malnourished, unable to sleep properly, migrains among other things. I have collected tons of information on Auto-Immune diseases in the last 4 years. Now, In 2010, I talk parents of children with Autism, or ADHD about the importance of Herbs and a Natural Diet, parents who also are being diagnosed with threatening AutoImmune issues themselves like Diabetes, & Arthritis, etc. Also I meet people everyday who are curious about Auto-Immune and just don't have the information they need to treat these unknown diseses.
I feel I am here to be a Voice.
A Voice for the Earth.
That's why I Create, Love, and Listen to everything around me. Live everyday to the Fullest.
Never quit. Always be the best you can be to your friends, family and the Earth we live on.
I Also try to educate myself to let others know how important it is to
‘Live a Natural Lifestyle’
-Jennifer Robinson
