Today we’d like to introduce you to Karine Ponce Fediay
Karine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
While packing up our apartment in San Francisco in December 2019, gearing up for our move to New York City, my then-boyfriend, now husband, and I decided to spend a few weeks in Mexico City, otherwise known as Cuidad de Mexico (CDMX). We planned to circumvent some of the brutal winter and continue to look for apartments while in CDMX, however, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Within our first few days, we completely fell in love with CDMX. The vibrant street food culture, the music, the art, the creativity, and the people fulfilled us in a way that was exactly what we were looking for. Our “few weeks” turned into two and half years, a global pandemic, a business, and a beautiful wedding. We signed a year-long apartment lease on February 17th and, unexpectedly, on March 1st, the world shut down. I had just finished furnishing our apartment and there was no way we were leaving. In mid-March, while COVID gripped the world, we were stuck inside like millions of people, and that’s when I thought about how unhappy I was in my current role. I started writing down ideas for a business, not expecting to take action, but with the lack of distraction, I rather quickly built out a business plan. I thought “one day I’d do it”, but slowly realized how much determination and passion I felt and was ready to give entrepreneurship a try.
After a few weeks, Mexico lifted bans on travel, so Zack and I stocked up on masks and drove to various places across Mexico. We traveled to Oaxaca and Chiapas by car and due to COVID, there were no tourists in places that would normally be crawling with visitors. We explored unique regions that were typically difficult to see due to crowds while maintaining a safe distance I spoke to artisans, asked about their craft, and most importantly built genuine relationships.
The more we traveled, the more my creative ideas started flowing. Zack and I were still working remotely and spent the money I earned purchasing materials, taking designing courses online and paying to have prototypes created. Then one day, I spent far too long untangling a necklace, when it occurred to me, that my first design would be a jewelry organizer. From there, I thought very carefully about the type of e-commerce I wanted to build. I decided on five pillars my business would always strive to achieve: 1) environmentally conscious materials 2) Artisan hand-crafted 3) Minimal plastic (ideally zero waste) 4) no cruelty towards animals or people 5) accessories that solved a problem and could be used daily
I dove deep into researching materials and came across organically grown cactus leather. Zack and I drove to Guadalajara to personally visit the cactus leather manufacturer, Desserto. We went into their then-small warehouse and purchased a couple thousand dollars of cactus leather. We were definitely taking a huge risk as every penny we spent came out of our pocket and still does. There was no turning back now, we drove our cactus leather rolls back to a small warehouse I rented in Mexico City. I hired a wonderful leather artisan and together we embarked on what has now been a four-year journey to create products with the material. I sketched designs on paper without any clue how to design physical products. It took him months to figure out how to manipulate the material which was proving to be much more fickle than leather. We experimented with different sewing techniques so the leather wouldn’t tear. I also hired an incredible seamstress to go our small team and after a year and a half of prototyping, our first product was ready. I launched our product on Kickstarter and within a week and a half, we hit our financial goal! That gave us enough of a cash flow to create our next product and eventually, we had enough cash to expand our product line to include fine sterling silver jewelry.
Four years later, my husband and I moved back to Los Angeles, and continue to grow our small business. It’s been exciting to continue to see our business slowly grow and my goal this year is to expand into beautiful home and baby accessories using our cactus leather.
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?
It’s been a very tumultuous road. Every step has been a challenge, from finding sustainable materials to finding a great manufacturer to shipping our products from Mexico to the US. Regardless of all our struggles, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. This business has given me a purpose and allowed so so much freedom and connection. It’s been absolutely worth every challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Lunar Method?
What should we know?
Lunar Method is a brand that works in conscious partnership with artisans across Mexico to create one-of-a-kind sustainable products, such as luxury bags made of cactus leather, sterling silver jewelry designed by Karine, founder, and coming soon luxury hand-crafted home goods and baby accessories.
What do you do, what do you specialize in / what are you known for?
We specialize in creating products made of unique and high-quality materials, such as organically grown cactus leather, lead-free sterling silver, black clay, wood, and other natural materials. We are most known for our luxurious cactus leather jewelry organizer, which helps keep your jewelry nicely organized while traveling.
What sets you apart from others?
We are a woman-owned business whose values are deeply rooted in sustainable practices and taking care of the artisans we work alongside.
What are you most proud brand wise?
I’m extremely proud of our ability to pay our artisans fairly and maintain a great working relationship with all our partners over the years. I’m also very proud of the community we’ve built along the way, some customers who have been with us from the very beginning continue to support us. Their loyalty is not something I take for granted in such a competitive space, I’m proud that we continue to create the products within our ethical standards that brought them to our products in the first place.
What do you want our readers to know about your brand, offerings, services, etc?
I want readers to know that when you support small businesses, such as ours, every order makes a HUGE difference in our efforts to continue to do what we do. Unlike large corporations that drive thousands of sales a day, we don’t have that reach yet, instead we rely on articles such as this one, word of mouth, and social media to grow our business. When you support a small business you are directly voting with your dollar to impact someone’s livelihood positively.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think staying hungry to learn and uplevel your skills is of utmost importance in this business. If you’re not learning you’re missing an opportunity to obtain a new way to grow and improve your brand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lunarmethod.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunarmethodshop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoplunarmethod
Image Credits
Velich Kabirova- photographer
