About X
Introduction
Who is Xede?
Hello! Thank you for stopping by! I go by Xede and this is the tale of how I found my space. shadowbunco was but a glimmer in my eye when I started daily planning and drawing. Growing up in the Caribbean, wanting to do something like art is very hard to do from my perspective because it’s not really seen as a ‘proper job’ or ‘stable career’. I vowed to prove to the people around me that the one thing I thought I was good at can support me.
I started my business journey in high school (maybe around 2009/10) when I started drawing seriously and wanted to create art prints and such. During high school I was more focused on mentally surviving than financially surviving by myself so I didn’t really hunker down and say ‘I’m making a business!’ until much later.
Fast Forward...
It’s the last year of high school and I’ll be starting at the local University College come September. Over the years I was really looking into myself to figure out what I could do to support myself once I got older. I tried applying for jobs all over and was constantly not hearing back. So I made a job for myself. I started out as a content creator in my first year as a College student and it was honestly the best decision I ever made. Not only was I documenting my journey but I was also fulfilling this unknown want to share my art with people all across the world. And I could do it without leaving home (which was a great bonus for me and still is).
I started out with an art channel (that no longer exists) and was posting an art video every Wednesday as much as I could. Then I discovered planning. Being a College student and a content creator, I really needed a way to keep track of what I was doing day by day so I wasn’t failing school and completely ignoring my mental escape and potential career. It was then I discovered sticker planning and bullet journalling ( and yes I thought it was a good idea to do both on top of school and making videos). I started planning (according to the journals I still have in my studio ) in 2017 which was the year I became a full-time College student. Because I was on campus from 8 am and not going home til 9 pm most nights, I really needed to be able to plan ahead what videos were getting done when and how I was going to fit into my schedule recording and editing. I even had the grand idea to start making bullet journal videos and other planning videos on top of my art videos. It became ridiculously hectic and I ended up posting 11 videos a week at some point every month.
Granted, I do not have that channel anymore or make those videos anymore (although I want to start again for the shop), but it did spark the idea to start making my own stickers as I was spending so much time looking for kits to use and then spending even more time printing and then hand cutting each sticker I thought I would need for my spreads.
It's Time...
Fast forward even more…
After it takes me about 3 years to get my Associate Degree in Computer Science, I finally have a break from school and decide to look into getting my Trade and Business License to be able to legally sell my creations. During about 2018/19 I tried my hand at having a website but I ended up hating it and scraping the idea until I was more sure about what I could do and what I wanted to share. Alongside these thoughts, I was still applying to jobs and not hearing anything back and finally just decided to make my own job. If they weren’t going to hire me, I’ll hire me!
Then came the extensive research into myself, getting a website, what I was going to offer, create etc. and also getting that license!
It was the year 2021 when I finally bit the bullet and got my license and created the first edition of the website. It was while I was filling out the form for said license that I had to come up with a business name because that was a step that I completely forgot to do after scrapping the first business idea of Bee’s Utopia (if that sounds familiar, yes, t’was I).
That’s actually the story of how the name shadowbunco came about; I wanted to embrace a part of me that I hadn’t really put much thought into and didn’t have something to address it by so I knew what my brain was referring to half the time.
Behind the Name
shadowbunco doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s not Shadow Bunny Co. just smooshed together for aesthetics. It’s Shadow Bunny’s Cove. More on that is going to come soon (wink wink). That’s why I refer to the site as The Cove of Wonder. It’s the magical world I created for this website.
I started shadowbunco to give myself a place to put my art and preserve it. It then evolved into a business that allows me to share my experiences and creations with other people. I want to create a community where everyone can be themselves and feel safe doing so.