Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Dulin
Hi Julia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story began years ago when I was just a child. I’ve been connected to the arts and the Earth ever since I can remember. I would dance around my house all day long, work in the gardens with my family, make necklaces for my friends, or make pottery out of oven bake clay. I just loved making art and working with plants. This passion followed me all throughout my childhood so I decided to take it a step further and I went on to pursue a major in Sustainable and organic horticulture and a minor in dance from Michigan State University and in the process I made a lot of art on the side. I taught myself to bead, crochet, and sew and I practiced pottery and painting every chance I could get. I graduated from MSU in 2018 and began my journey as an artist, horticulturist, and a garden and arts educator. I worked as a grower at various large and small greenhouses, I taught garden education to children and families through an Americorps program, and then I worked as a dance teacher at a performing arts school and did outreach Agricultural work. I did all this while selling jewelry, pottery, and paintings on the side through Etsy and Instagram. All of this lead me to realize that I wanted to do a little bit of everything. So I slowly figured out how I could make that happen. Eventually, I met my incredibly supportive and loving husband , we got married and started a home stead and a few years later we had our beautiful baby boy. Having my son really inspired me. I wanted him to know that his mom was never afraid to go after her dreams in hopes that he is never afraid to go after his. So I cut back my hours at the local dance studio to just one night a week so that I could spend more time at home with my son and and this allowed more time to work on my passion project ‘Blumen with Jules,’ an outlet for me to sell my art and create accessible garden education. For the past months now, I’ve been doing just that. I’ve been doing affordable garden consultations in my community, creating weekly garden talk videos on Instagram educating people on commonly asked questions, and I’ve been selling my art (specifically pottery and beaded jewelry) through commissions and inquiries. Its been incredibly fulfilling and I feel so aligned. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not by any means been a smooth road. There has been a lot of work to get to this point. My son is only a year and a half which means everyday looks a little different. Some days I get to maintain a very active presence on social media and respond promptly to messages and inquiries, other days I’m hardly on social media at all or I have to re-schedule a consultation because my son is teething or was up all night. But my family is my top priority so I always do what I have to do and hope people can empathize. Gratefully, everyone who has supported me thus far has been incredibly understanding if I’ve sent an order out a day late or had to reschedule a consult, which means the world to me. We are incredibly blessed to have my husband as our main provider, so if I have a really good week with lots of art orders and consultations it’s awesome but if I have a really slow week it’s still awesome because we’re not going to go without or anything. I understand a lot of folks starting up small business don’t have this same luxury, so I recognize that I am incredibly fortunate.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist, homesteader, and garden educator. Artistically speaking, I specialize in beadwork, pottery, and dance. Gardening wise, we homestead and have flower beds, herb beds, a large veggie garden and animals consisting of chickens, ducks, pigs, bunnies, a dog, a cat, and a couple reptiles. We grow a lot of our produce, I preserve a lot of herbs and food, and I make a lot of our food from scratch. I specialize in organic agriculture and sustainable living and I educate the community on these topics through social media and community events. I am most proud of the fact that I am sharing art that is handmade with love and that I am making garden education more accessible. I love when I answer a question for someone and their like, so this isn’t costing me a thing? Or when someone comes to a workshop and can’t believe they got to learn a ton of information and donations of cash or seeds are only recommended, not required. But, at the end of the day I just want to share my creations and knowledge with others in hopes that it inspires them in some capacity.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think that my desire to help others succeed has been the most critical to my success. I do what I do because I love to do it, not for any other reason. Creating art and helping people create their dream gardens brings me so much joy.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: blumenwithjules
- Facebook: BlumenwithJules
- Other: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpzA78lMk9CetOFs2e0wLmWtSsvlkvU451E2aS3viMG0Im4A/viewform
