#CaribbeanCreatives: How Akhela’s Love For Journalling Inspired Her Entrepreneurial Pursuits & The Birth Of Craftii Meraki
For Akhela Guiseppi-Noel, journaling is much more than a hobby. With each entry, the healing and transformative self-care ritual provides an opportunity to sit with herself, making room to explore what can be so easily overlooked, shelved, and silenced by the noisy distractions of the world.
Like most young girls, Akhela first kept a journal to jot down her innermost thoughts as a preteen, returning to the practice years later as an adult when faced with the difficulties of life.
“I just wanted an outlet to express myself. I went through a period where I felt very depressed, very sad and journaling was a comfort for me. This is a space where I have no judgment. That’s why I love journaling, it helps with awareness and you get to really explore who you are,” the Arima native tells YCG.
Quickly filling the pages of her notebooks with her intimate thoughts and self-discoveries, she was first introduced to the art of journal-making six years ago, via a workshop shared on social media.
“I had no idea bookbinding or making journals by hand was a thing, I’m a makeup artist, I wasn’t really in the craft space.
I bought a toolkit, and started teaching myself through tons of YouTube videos. I thought, if I learn how to make a journal, I would never have to buy a journal again,” Guiseppi-Noel remembers.
At the time, she had no idea that she had happened upon the start of her entrepreneurial journey.
That same year her brand Craftii Meraki was born, offering bespoke leather and fabric-covered journals.
Meraki, a word of Greek origin, describes the practice of doing something with soul, creativity, love and passion. They’re the exact ingredients that Akhela uses to craft her pieces.
“People love them. I think in Trinidad and Tobago it’s a unique product, it’s not something you see often,” she boasts, backed by the feedback she gets from customers.
Finding her target market has been an important part of her success as a craft entrepreneur.
Like many artisans, Guiseppi-Noel discloses that at the start of her journey, figuring out how to price her handmade products proved to be a bit of a challenge, especially when considering that there are cheaper, standard alternatives on the market.
She learned quickly, though, that comparing her detailed and intricate process to pieces that are mass-produced at large factories was like comparing chalk and cheese. Bookbinding is no simple undertaking. The labour-intensive skill includes board cutting, stitching, and the actual binding- a single basic journal, for context, can take up to two hours to create. Then there are other factors to consider like the cost of materials, packaging, and marketing.
“Putting my work out there, it was something I really struggled with and I had to work on my mindset with regards to pricing. You’re not going into a stationary store and finding a journal like the ones I create, so for a handmade item, it is worth the cost,” she says of the confidence she’s found in what she brings to the table.
With this cemented confidence in the value she adds to her market, Guisseppi-Noel has branched out to explore another avenue of her business- offering workshops to teach the skill to fellow journal enthusiasts.
“I love teaching these workshops, people really enjoy it. I think sometimes people just want a creative outlet, they want to try something new,” she shares.
Asked if there’s ever been any concern on her part, about whether walking others through how she creates her products could negatively impact sales in the long run, Guiseppi-Noel acknowledges the validity of the thought but affirms that she doesn’t believe in gatekeeping.
“I mean, bookbinding is an old skill. Sometimes we want to keep things for ourselves but really and truly, just share it. There’s space for everyone and every person has their own style. People buy from you because they like your energy, they like your style. I share 99% of my resources. I love being inspired and I also want people to be inspired by me. That’s where growth happens,” she says.
As she looks ahead to the future, Akela anticipates further growth and expansion for her business.
“The highlight of my journey has been seeing my growth as an artisan. In my style, my work gets neater, I explore different aesthetics. Also, personal development, I would have to say, for sure. You have no idea how much a business tests you, how much it tests your mindset. And if you don’t have a growth mindset it could keep you back. I really wanted to put my best foot forward with this and yes there are down periods but overall I would say my mindset has improved and I started to look at things differently, so that’s a win for me,” she ends.
