Dan & Nina: All Deck'd Out 08/27/2010
 Skate it. Break it. Wear it! This is the motto of “All Deck’d Out”, a husband and wife creative team based in Ontario, Canada. Dan and Nina recycle skateboards into fresh and unique urban accessories. Their inspiring creations were featured in the Craft Section a while ago (check) and I simply had to ask them do an interview for EyeCandies. So, let’s see what All Deck’d Out is about: Hello guys and welcome to EC! Tell us how did your “All Deck’d Out” project begin and what inspired the whole concept? All Deck'd Out got started when we bought a hole saw set to do some home renovation projects. Dan had a couple of old skateboards lying around and being the artist that he is, thought it would be a good idea to make a ring out of them. We had heard about Etsy through an arts seminar, and thought we should give it a try. We started off selling rings and it has now blossomed into a list of jewelry and accessories.    You’re a husband and wife creative duo. How is it to work as a team? As a husband and wife team, we make it work by using humor and a 50/50 understanding. We consult each other on everything we do, from posting to promoting. However, we are not going to lie, sometimes we lock horns but at the end of the day, we work it out with a good old fashion punch hug :)  How would you describe the ‘typical’ person that wears your deck’d out recycled pieces? It’s hard to say what a ‘typical’ All Deck’d Out customer would be. Obviously, our demographic is younger. I’d say 16 – 30, but we have sold to skaters and non-skaters alike. We try not to typecast ourselves. We understand that it’s made of skateboards, but we treat each piece as art that a buyer would be proud to display.    Tell us about your selling experience in Etsy and what would you advice young creatives who start to get involved in the same field as you? At first we were hesitant to go on Etsy because to our dismay there were already other shops making skateboard jewelry but after giving it some thought we figured “screw it” competition is what created our society and why should we back down. We have not looked back since. In less than a year we have far exceeded our expectations in sales and response. Our advice would be persistence and make it your own. When you are feeling down from lack of sales or even shop views, let that be your motivation to find creative ways to succeed. You can either sink or swim, the choice is yours.    Can you share your top 5 favorite designers/artists? One of our favorite artists would be Mike Giant. He does some amazing work with Sharpie markers. He is known for his graffiti and tattoo art. Second would be Passchal, which is a company who makes some fantastic luxury bags made of recycled tractor inner tubes. The crunch clutch is definitely on my wish list. Third is a gentleman by the name of Jason Tennant. He makes sculptures carved out of wood. Check him out on Etsy, his stuff is incredible. Fourth is y0omii on Etsy. She makes oddly cute handmade things. Her knitted and crocheted creations are so cute. Fifth would be elSage. She makes great sustainable art and accessories. She too can also be found on Etsy.   How do you see “All Deck’d Out” evolving in the future? Any plans we should look fwd to? We at All Deck’d out have lots of plans for the future. Our little minds are always at work. However we do have competitors and we know they watch our site closely, so we’d rather not say but we will have new products hopefully in the next couple of weeks as well as in the coming month, just in time for our 1 year Etsy anniversary. LINKS: […] www.alldeckdout.etsy.com www.facebook.com/alldeckdout www.twitter.com/alldeckdout E-MAIL: alldeckdout@rogers.blackberry.net  |