Victoria Close: Legend of Found Things

In this episode, we do some serious reminiscing on the good old days when our salary automatically appeared in our account without any effort from us! 

Skin in the Game to Victoria Close takes us on a time travel in the episode - into the past to Victoria’s teen business, we visit her early aspirations and how during the time she was selecting what to do. We also travel into future Victoria surrounded by artists and artisans, in a very special place and we dreamed up big, dense, thick, coffee cake that resists a knife.

The Northern British sense of humour comes through strongly in our banter and we have a good laugh at some of the more grandiose terms cooked up in our businesses. We also reminisce about our generation’s particular idiosyncrasies - how skinny jeans were something your Nan would create on a sewing machine. We also touch on GenX politics and the impact of Margaret Thatcher and a bit of working out of things around being a GenX woman with all our opportunity that was set up in the generations before us. Victoria is someone who embraces what she can handle, she is honest and humane in about being a woman is a wonderful mix of optimistic, pragmatic and hilariously cutting about toxic positivity! We laugh out loud a number of times on during this legend - it’s medicine.

Both Victoria and I come from long lines of artisans, a proud lineage whose respect got lost somewhere in the aspirational, but who are claiming their place, with out help. I would like to honour the copper etcher, the tripe seller, the master baker, the seamstress, the cafe owner, the silk weaver and the China painters of our ancestors. in the upwardly mobile aspirational class who might be proud of their fine china but would take no pride in one their own becoming such a manual worker, our paths were set to the academic. Generation by generation. We are reclaiming our magic and our lineage. Both of us are reclaiming our magic and honouring our lineage and the remarkable work of the artisans whose work got lost in the grip of economics. 

We talked about the moment Victoria put her skin in the game, took the plunge, left the security of her full time teaching job and planned out how she was going to 

Listen out for ‘Tales from the middle aged underwear’ where did that come from? When do we and don’t we want to PULL OUR BIG GIRL PANTS ON. And also if Marks and Spencer want to sponsor the podcast - please get in touch. 

We love and honour #bromarketing 

At the end Victoria shares a prompt, from #MarieForleo whose B-School we are both graduates from, and also puts a call out for something very specific that she is dreaming up - a dream I got into for her in the future. Listen out for her call - you may know or have something that could be of use. Sorry if you are a brilliant and committed manifester and watch the Secret regularly and vibrate at the same wavelength as pure gold; we are cynical, and YET, the list that she generated from that Marie Forleo prompt was made manifest. I mean she did it, but things happened. 

Thank you, Victoria for sharing your Legend

Discover from Victoria

• How she spiraled her way back to her essence 
• Our musings on the British class system, the loss of artisans and Northern upward mobility
• What is 100% of what you can give? What made her husband say “You’re over the wall - run for your f#$&1ng life”...
• What is your guilty camera? What is your shaming cyclops? Find out what the heck that means! 
• How she approaches learning new tech and using her new camera and how she overcame her perfectionism, and became a filmmaker!
• Her take on the many ways to lead a life? (it brings her to tears).

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would come and say hi over on @sarahfuruyacreative on Instagram.

About Victoria

Victoria Close is the founder, designer and maker at the vintage kimono jewellery brand, Bikudesigns. She creates one-of-a-kind jewellery and accessories using personally-sourced vintage and antique fabrics and other found objects. Victoria’s ‘mottainai’ mission is to save forgotten items from landfill by giving them new life. Victoria set up ‘Studio Biku’ in Shimokitazawa in 2023, a small Showa era atelier where she creates her jewellery, curates a tiny shop representing 12 Japan-based international makers, teaches creative workshops and rents the space to emerging artists and designers to teach their own classes. Victoria is a passionate campaigner for creative small businesses and has taught practical, in-person/ online small business courses as well as starting up Overseas Makers Guild, a free Facebook community established to support, connect and celebrate handmade business owners. She also mentors creative entrepreneurs in her one-to-one programs. Victoria is a long-time Tokyo dweller (for more than half her life) and lives with her British husband and two children in Shimokitazawa.

Connect with Victoria

WEBSITE: https://www.bikudesigns.com/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bikudesigns/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/bikudesigns/

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@studio_biku

Connect with Sarah

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sarah-furuya-creative

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahfuruyacreative/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahfuruyacreative

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXsuS_yVT9fMHjhAylVy8-w