This weekend Wanderlust is going online. Here’s how they’ve shaped the Feelix Yoga Strap journey...
Back in 2019 before the world went quiet, I brought along a couple of handcrafted yoga straps to the Wanderlust festival in Melbourne. It was a grim day with cold winds and threatening rain hanging over the morning.
Only the keenest of yogis attended, I layered up, grabbed a chai and added string lights fully expecting my little stall to be to be in dark with storms by lunch.
In the days leading up to the festival I took a couple of days off work and was madly learning how to use Illustrator and program the ‘carvey’ cnc machine at the local maker space where I had some small bits of 7mm plywood and an idea.
A vinyasa flow can give your body strength but it was the meditation I was calling on to not completely freak out when I didn’t put the drill bit in correctly and found the cutter had wandered off course… and started tearing up the safety board!!
Prior to this my samples were made of cardboard cut with a blade knife that now has my DNA embedded as tribute to the project 100 odd attempts later.
The cardboard then became balsa wood, and following a photograph of what felt like a final design was taken of the Lock, as it’s now known, on grid paper for careful recreation by my talented husband as a design file.
It was these two samples that were proudly put on display and feedback sought.
Did people like them?
Would they use them?
Would they buy them if they could?
They were big questions and as an enthusiastic maker it was hard for me to sit still and not tell everyone about the making process and plans for circular economy webbing offcuts and eco friendly wood.
The verdict was that I was onto something. People signed up to learn about the straps and volunteered as testers. Those testers later shared their feedback and new even better straps were made (and are what you can buy in the shop today).
Since then I went on to secure crowdfunding through Lift Women (a Kickstarter platform for Aussie Women startups) and am just now…. Receiving my first run of professionally carved locks ready for hand finishing to make up into gorgeous one-of-a-kind straps.
So really what I wanted to say is thank you Wanderlust108! Without Wanderlust none of this would be possible and my idea to make a carry strap that you can use to carry your mat on your bag or over your shoulder and practice with wouldn’t exist.
Namaste friends.
Jen x founder/maker/yogi