Casa Murriguez, Casa M for short, makes environmentally and socially sustainable handmade housewares and home decor featuring illustrations by Sharon Murriguez. Products include throw pillows, tea towels, art prints, stationery and other such items that will turn the style knob of any room in your home up a notch. No need to choose between style and conscience when you can have both!
Sharon Murriguez, the owner and currently the one-woman manufacturer of all of Casa M’s goods, is an Oakland-based artist who has been making art since she was 3 years old. Through the years, Sharon has focused her studies on filmmaking, photography, and printmaking. She is excited to see all of these creative endeavors intersect with the production of Casa M goods.
What inspired you to go into the craft business, do you still have a day job? I love making stuff and I was ready to take the leap into self-employment! I left my day job working for s non-profit last September and I am not looking back. Even though managing and balancing the creative and administrative elements is a constant challenge, I can’t imagine having it any other way.
Describe your creative process when designing/making your product line. In developing Casa M wares and more generally in my artistic process at large, I’ve found my biggest inspirations to be from everyday things. Whether it’s the view from my living room window, photos taken from a walk around Lake Merritt, images that pop up on Google searches for “vintage audio,” long distance road trips, or doodles drawn while riding BART, bits and pieces of all these experiences can be found in every Casa M design. I love the process of prototyping, from making a new illustration to figuring out how to pattern it to exploring different color and construction possibilities.
What’s the best thing about what you do? And the worst? I love having the creative freedom and flexibility to actualize an idea for a design, product or color palette. I also have gotten really into understanding the business side of things and have found it very empowering to understand the holistic reality of being a self employed business owner. And of course I have a ton to learn.
The worst part is always feeling like I wish I had more time and money. It has been a real challenge to increase production volume when every step in the making process is so labor intensive and materials are costly. It all takes time and sometimes I have to check my impatient tendencies, take a deep breath and appreciate the process. And sometimes these are the challenges that force me to be more creative.
What’s the best advice you have been given about your business or craft practices? The best advice I have received – which is totally relatable both to business and craft practices – is to put the right systems into place to make your life easier to be as efficient as possible. I’ve got my own little assembly line process for all my products and that has helped with scaling up production.
Website: http://www.casamurriguez.com/
On Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CasaMurriguez