Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Murphy
Hi Jessica, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I guess technically we started many years ago when I Decided that I wanted to cut chemicals out of our daily lives as much as possible. We started making our own Bath products and sold them intermittently at craft fairs and eventually renaissance festivals. In July 2020 I got involved with a brand new non-profit called Home Base. Home Base did supply drives every week and delivered directly to the encampments. As time went on, us volunteers went back to work, and life got more hectic the supply drives and volunteers looked a little different but the mission stayed the same. As I continued my career in mental health and felt a growing need to help the unhoused I decided to pivot my own path a little bit and that was where the idea to combine the business and nonprofit came. We now have the store front where we are an Art and Gift Store. All items in our store are hand made no machines or lasers. And we also offer a space for people facing housing instability to come in and create and sell their art. We also offer free resources to the entire community at all times so clothing, bedding, hygiene items etc. Anything that comes into us as donations goes right back into the community.
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?
Not at all. Funding that I was promised has not come through. Any rent and other expenses have come out of my pocket. I am a single mom currently working part time while we get the store up and running and am not independently wealthy. I feel like we are holding on by a thread at all times. Like I am constantly seconds away from losing everything. Every day I am reminded the importance of the space and see the good we are doing that’s what keeps me fighting to keep it. But it’s beyond stressful at all times.
I have also gotten some important lessons in people in my life who are there and who aren’t throughout the process.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Originally I would say our bath products. In a very competitive corner I worked hard to make soaps that were different from every other artists soaps. Colors, patterns, scents etc are unlike anything others do.
We also don’t use any fragrance oils in our skin care products all products are scented with either essential oils or extracts and I make most of my own extracts.
Also include other products that are lesser known such as lotion candles.
But also as the store grows and I play a little bit with what direction I would like to see it grow I have added new products. We have always offered diffuser bracelets. But this week I have started making three different styles of wire bracelets and am really enjoying expanding our jewelry line while learning new skills.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Because we are just opening the store front this year we weren’t directly effected by covid in that way. But working with the unhoused and knowing the struggles that people facing housing instability did and continue to face in the pandemic and since helped me see the continued importance of a space like ours
Pricing:
- Soaps $3-5
- Jewelry $5 and up
- Art $15 and up
- Clothing-always free
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Basedstoremn
- Facebook: Based gift and art store
