Meet Jessica Strain of Peaches N’ Honey Lettering in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Strain.

Jessica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began Peaches N’ Honey Lettering in November of 2016 after about 6 months of messing around with lettering. I had decided to get an iPad and Apple Pencil for lettering and I figured that was enough to make starting an Instagram account worth it. So, I started my account which was heavily digital lettering at first but then in January of 2017, I got distracted with work and kind of set my account on the back burner for a bit. I picked it up again more consistently in August of 2017 and finally felt that I was gaining traction and picking up followers. I also began to discover what I truly enjoyed and experimented with different types and mediums of lettering. I ultimately found a love for faux-lettering, pointed pen and brush pen calligraphy. I also drifted into using watercolors to accent my pieces. I set up my website during late 2017, just in time for Christmas Season where I received lots of custom and website orders. Since then, I have been trying to maintain that but also balance my life as a graduate student and studying for the CPA exam but I love that my business allows me a break and stress relief from the hecticness of life.

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?
There are lots of people doing calligraphy and hand lettering in the world and it is really easy to compare yourself to others and want to create a style that is similar to theirs. It can be good when it comes to encouraging you to try new things but you can also set yourself up for failure when you try to do something that isn’t true to your art and who you are. I have definitely tried different styles that I personally hated while my followers and others loved. I wanted to maintain that but I found that when I was creating art that wasn’t true to me, I wasn’t happy. I didn’t start my business for the sake of gaining followers, attention or from a need of money. I started it as a way of sharing my art and doing what I loved and I realized that I needed to stay true to why I am doing this at all. There also definitely difficult periods where you hit creative walls and it’s hard to create things you love and during these periods I find myself creating different pieces and never posting them. I think, though, that it is really important to push through because these are the times that force you to grow.

Please tell us about Peaches N’ Honey Lettering.
Peaches N’ Honey Lettering creates original pieces of artwork, consisting mostly of calligraphy but also watercolor painting as well. The art may be pre-designed pieces on the website but for the most part, it is custom orders. Peaches N’ Honey specializes in bringing peoples personalized art and ideas to life.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I would say that some of my favorite memories from my childhood would involve playing with my sister and the crazy schemes we cooked up. We created a club once in her closet and called it “The Hanger”. We thought our little play on words was so clever. We had secret passwords and games that we would play in there. We were also always trying to convince our mother to let us have a sleepover in the closet. I think we thought that we were so secretive and cool but I look back on it now and laugh. It allowed us to make some really close memories and inside jokes and is definitely a reason we are so close now.

Contact Info:

• Website: pnhlettering.com
• Phone: 678-977-4529
• Email: peachesnhoneylettering@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peachesnhoneylettering/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peachesnhoneylettering/

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