Just J in News

Some of snippets.....

http://www.mybangalore.com/article/1210/exquisite-jewelry-designer-wear-and-much-more-at-xmas-bazaar.html

 

 

More about Just J @ Serenity

Bangalore is turning into a typical metro with the hustle and bustle of daily life, crowded streets, explosion of population and of course the famous traffic jams that are a daily affair on Bangalore roads. Hence more and more shoppers prefer to shop in the comfort zones of their residential or work localities. Who would want to be stuck in an hour of traffic jams just to go shop in a particular store! Just J has been in the past 6 months faced with the same dilemma (many friends are yet to check out the existing store.) Hence, this quest to reach out to different localities around Bangalore.

Just J had an exhibit and sale on 9^th-11^th DEC 2010 @ Serenity – a life style store. This store tucked away in the quiet residential area of Jayamahal Extension was a perfect setting for my products. Serenity with is beautiful garden and simple structure adorned with antique doors and window grills is owned and managed by Arati Monappa a beautiful, elegant and soft spoken lady. One can’t help but feel the positive energy that one feel as soon as you enter, very in sync with the name, Serenity. The product range varies from designer saris, kurtis, stoles, silk jackets and skirts, footwear, candles, home made pickles and jams , Ayurveda soaps and scrubs.

Bangalore this year has had an overdose of Christmas theme bazaars! Instead of having yet another sale of Christmassy items, Arati decided to invite a few independent designers to her store and showcase and promote their products. Along with Just J products on display were also Karmasuthra jewelry by Divya Thomas, kurtis and stoles by Kumbaya and Cosmic Conspiracy.

Just J displayed its elegant and simple table linen range of block print, embroidery and border trimmings with the regular linen products. There were also selected items of hand crafted ceramic ware. Due to the many sales across Bangalore, the foot fall was not as high as regular sales. But the Serenity invitees and other customers who did come by were all serious buyers and picked up items which caught their eyes and I must add shopped generously too. We also got TV and print media coverage by TV 9 and Indian Express.

Looking back, I am glad I accepted Arati’s offer to be showcased at Serenity that helped me get to reach out to new clientele and I am happy to say that Just J products will be available @ Serenity from Jan 2011.

Here are some pictures from Serenity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just J @ Serenity

Just J is proud to invite you to an exhibit and sale of simple elegant table and kitchen linens and hand-crafted ceramic crockery at Serenity starting today till Saturday. Here are the details:

Serenity

Thursday 9th Dec to Saturday 11th Dec 201

11 am  to 7 pm 

@ # 8/1 , 5th main Jaymahal Ext , B'lore 46

Tel # 80-41279127

Jyoti Creative Designs range is an exclusive limited edition range of table cloths with embroidery, border trimmings and block prints. Also, on sale will be place mats, table runners, hand painted and embroidered table napkins, block print cushion covers and hand-loom ready-made curtains. The regular table linen like oven mittens, pot holders, aprons, floor mats will also be on sale.

 

The crockery range showcased will be tea pots, milk pots, serve ware, platters in different sizes and shapes, mugs, katoris, soup bowl sets, bathroom sets and many more. The range comes in vibrant colors, shapes and sizes.

Just J is inspired and managed by me, Jyoti Chandran Devaraj, a budding entrepreneur. My dream is to help you redefine your dining, kitchen and living spaces into unique and striking!

Just J … Changing Lifestyle Solutions!!

In Store Now

Just J offers you a new range of ready-made curtains to adorn your windows.

100% hand loom curtains are available in different shades & simple designs. These curtains are machine washable and easy to iron to make your household chores simple and easy.
Come and check out the limited stocks at Just J store in Sanctuary #8 Hospital Rd, Bangalore.

I will post some pictures soon.

Kitschdi Kloset

Kwel, Kreative, and Karing.........a happy bunch are WE!

Come join us tomorrow at our flea market and check out the products we offer in ceramic crockery & table-linens, hand painted T-shirts, handbags, shoes, cocktail dresses, designer saris & Kurtis, designer jewelry and awesome paintings and of course some yummies for your tummy! :)

Keeping with our Karing spirit, part of our sales tomorrow will be donated to the KIDWAI Oncology Center.

Kitschdi Kloset - Flea Market
Saturday 16th October 2010
11 am onwards
@1 B Eden Hall #14, 3rd Main, Jayamahal Extn Bangalore - 560046

Google Map Link - http://maps.google.co.in/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=105393507197812360196.0004921549097c286eebc&ll=12.999582,77.599311&spn=0.011416,0.01929&z=16

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope, a sneak peek at the festival range from The Design Studios of Ancient Fables, Krux, Anjilli M & Just J.

Join us at Sanctuary on Sunday, 10th October 2010 between 11am to 9pm as we showcase our exclusive range of designer saris, kurtis, western wear, crockery, table linen and accessories. Also, enjoy a sumptuous variety of savories and pastries from our food kiosk.

See you soon! :)

The Blue and White Ceramic Collection

The new Khurja ceramic collection is inspired from the Chinese Blue and White pottery designs.

A special mix of powdered quartz is used to make the stoneware base for blue pottery, which is then glazed, blue, with the same ingredients that were used for the blue tiles of pre-Mughal and Mughal domes. This art has attained a distinct flavor and is well known as Delhi blue pottery.

Following and many more designs are available in the store. Do visit.

Quarter Plate

Quarter Plate

Tea Pot

Cookie Jar

Serving Bowl with a Lid

Vase

Terracotta Designs Ceramic Ware - New Collection

The terracotta ceramic ware products are on display and sale at our store in Sanctuary.

The Mughal Collection

Just J introduces - The Mughal Collection - a new serve-ware range, bowls and dishes with lids in different shapes and sizes. The collection comes in Royal Blue, Red and Golden Brown colors.

Come and check out the new limited edition collection now on display & sale at the JJ store @ Sanctuary.

20 % off ~ during sale period

 

 

 

 

Just J @ Sanctuary

One of my favorite past times is to indulge in window shopping at selective lifestyle stores in Bangalore. This gives me a feel of what I want to do or don’t want to do at my store!

Sanctuary- a Lifestyle Souk located off Infantry road at #8, Hospital Road is one such store where Just J store now resides.

The colonial bungalow is tucked in-between modern construction sites. The building is over 100 years old and used to belong to a Jewish business man. At the entrance, you will still find the Star of David.

The high ceilings, red oxide floors, well restored doors and windows, and natural light through these windows give the store a rather mystique feel and a perfect ambiance for Just J products.

Sanctuary was initially conceptualized like a souk (Arabic market) or flea market. The 'multi-store in store' concept now retails in men’s and women’s designer wear, pottery, jewelry, home furnishings and artifacts.

Just J store showcases an elegant range of table and kitchen linens complimented with hand crafted ceramic crockery. The crockery range has coffee pots, mugs, tea-sets, servings bowls and platters, soup bowls, napkin stands, sauce and dip bowls, pepper and salt holders, pickle jars, candle stands, ashtrays and bathroom accessories.

The range comes in a variety of vibrant colors and designs. Each and every piece is personally hand picked to give my customers a unique product at affordable prices. To cater to a typical shopper’s eagerness to find and acquire an exclusive product, I have restricted the range to single piece items that once sold would be difficult to replace in color or design.

No one wants the regular off-the-shelf table mats or table cloths that are readily available in other linen stores across Bangalore.

The JCD Table Linen Collection is inspired by contemporary designs, traditional block prints, exquisite embroidery and hand paints. Thus making this collection a welcome change to the ordinary!

The limited edition collection includes zari bordered table mats, block printed and embroidered table cloths and hand painted table napkins. Along with this, you will find regular table mats, runners, oven mittens, pot holders and bread baskets. We also customize table linen to suit your home and kitchen décor.

So drop in to the Just J store @ Sanctuary and help you find a product that would turn your dining and kitchen spaces to unique and striking!

Just J Changing Lifestyle Solutions

Sanctuary

#8 Hospital Road Bangalore

The Arts & Crafts Bazzar - Just J Soft Launch

I was wondering for a long time when to formally launch Just J as a company. And the opportunity to show case products of Just J at the Arts and Crafts Bazaar was too good to miss.

Just J had a soft launch participating in the Arts and Crafts Bazaar, held on 10-11 April, 2010 at Urban Solace-Café for the Soul.

Urban Solace is owned by Perry Menezes in association with Sanjay Vaswani and Sailesh Deshpande of 3rd-I. They decided to help budding entrepreneurs like me and others to launch our respective businesses and show case our products to a larger audience.

The bazaar was held in the premises of the cafe from 11 am to 11pm. Along with me, there were five other young entrepreneurs, who were having their first show. The range of products on display for sale included Just J table linen and crockery, designer saris, cushion covers, men's wear, ladies' cocktail dresses with hand bags, hand-made jewelery, and other products.

Poster of the Bazaar

The participants transformed the café environment with much creativity to make it look like a bazaar. Each room was converted into a stall to display the products.

The special feature of the bazaar was an absolute absence of paid advertising proving that social networking is the best tool of promotions and advertising. The word of mouth feature is a powerful tool to actually make people interested in coming over to check out the event.

10 April, Saturday saw the participants all busy in setting up the stalls and getting ready for the business. As people came trickling in and we started selling our products, we all saw our confidence grow and belief in our product range. We had an unforeseen challenge with no power supply thanks to the frequent power shut down in the Bangalore city. However, we all managed to make it through the day and do fair amount of business. We had such wonderful customers that some even just hung-around the café sipping tea & having finger bites waiting for the power to come back so that they could shop some more using their credit cards!

Sunday, the second day saw all of us with bright smiles and all set for the another day of sales. We were anticipating that word would have spread around of the bazaar and more people would drop in. So, we all came restocked and recharged to face a busy day!

Sunday morning saw a few early birds, who came to get the best buys before all were sold out. All participants bonded well with the customers and we had many who came back on Sunday to buy some stuff they had taken fancy to on Saturday.

Luckily, I brought some new stock and removed some products that did not do well on Saturday. A few of the customers were happy to see new stuff and my sales were up by the afternoon and my shelves emptying faster than I could restock !!

Looking back at those two days of the bazaar, I must say we had an overwhelming response and all inquiring as to when we all would be back for the next! These shoppers who dropped in were all serious buyers who did not hassle us on prices or product range and just picked the stuff.

It was wonderful to see many young couples come in and shop for their homes. And some shopped till their wallets were truly empty! We had so many come in and say 'hey it’s a friend's birthday/ wedding anniversary and what a perfect gift your products would be!' and shopped!

Some pictures from the bazaar are here.

Setting up the stall

Helping a customer selecting a table cloth

Some tea, anybody?

A corner in the stall

Mugs, kettles, bowls etc

A look of the stall

Bags, clutches, cushions, hand-made shoes

I am truly indebted to Perry, Sanjay and Sailesh for doing a wonderful job in organizing the bazaar and making it a great platform for me to launch Just J to a totally new group of people who would have not known Just J product range and its availability in Bangalore.

Story of a Logo

When one sets up a new business, one of the initial steps is to create a suitable logo that can represent the nature of your business. You need to look at many details while creating a logo. For example, decide on size, shape, color, and aesthetics of the logo that will finally epitomize the nature of your business. The logo should be a reflection and extension of your personality.

Now, let me start with my story of creating the Just J logo.

As a typical entrepreneur, I had many ideas of how my logo should look. Some ideas were practical and some were not. First, I must tell you how the name came into existence. The name was born inside an auto while rickekting racketing through Bangalore's busy roads. My cousin Sarin was bouncing off names for my boutique. I wanted a fancy Sanskrit 4-letter name and had looked up many. But I couldn't find a one that I could identify as mine. Sarin remarked "Please, don't do the typical mallu thing of expanding your initials into a name like JayCee (JC) or JayDee (JD). Just leave it to just 'Jyoti' or just 'J'." And behold I totally loved that Just J and I knew that is what I would want the name to be!!! Thus, Just J was born in an eventful bumpy auto ride in Bangalore.

Sarin still wants royalty for the name. By this post, I humbly acknowledge your contribution in the christening the name of my business.

During the initial days of my business, I did not have the resources to pay Graphic Designers for the logo creation. I worked with a couple of designers who didn't charge me a bomb and gave me a few samples. But none of those logos made my heart say "This is the one." I had to print my business cards minus the logo.

Many months down the line, one weekend night, I was introduced to a graphic designer in one of my friends' place. While discussing, I told him about my frustration at not finding the right logo and designer. After listening to all my rambling, took out a paper napkin and started scribbling. After some time, he showed me three napkins each with different logos. I immediately zeroed in on one! The next few days we worked on the art work, final color, details selection and finally approved the final version that you see on my business card and here on my blog.

The Just J logo is inspired from my signature. The Js are how I sign my name. The three dots are like an inverted therefore. It's also a sign, which often adorns my forehead along with my traditional bindi. The three dots represent my three strengths - passion, perseverance, and simplicity in style. The circle is inspired from the red wax seal on the sealed envelopes. The colors are earthen in nature with my product range.

My logo story doesn't end here. There is more to it.

First few months of 2010 were slow for Just J and I was looking at a revamp of the company name and logo. With this in mind, I went to consult Mr A K Ramchandran, a close family friend and our spiritual guru, who has been a mentor in many ways. I showed him the logo and asked him if any changes had to be made in color, name, or design. He suggested a minor change, which was done immediately. I even changed the logo on my Facebook Just J page. Now, call it a mere coincidence or miracle, I could see a few positive changes in my business. I started getting inquiries and I received a call from 3-I organizers of the Arts and Crafts Bazaar saying that finally a date has been set for the show.

I went on to do the 2-day bazaar, which was a over-whelming success for Just J. Sadly, one day before the bazaar, Mr. Ramchandran passed away. I will be forever indebted to him. Today I can see a drastic changes as my business sure has picked up and I am now taking big steps in making my dream come true!

Just J logo is not just another creation of a designer but the soul of my company.

Just J Products List

Crockery

Home

• Tea & Coffee

  • Sets

  • Mugs

  • Beer Mugs

• Serving

  • Platters

  • Bowls

  • Donga

  • Kadai Sets

  • Katoris -assorted sizes & shapes

  • Trays

  • Soup Bowls

  • Water jugs

• Dinner Ware

  • Plates

  • Quarter plates

  • Napkin Stands

  • Pickle Jars

  • Spoon Holders

  • Candle Stands

Hospitality

• Dinnerware//Flatware/Cutlery

• Table Ware

• Hotel ware/Kitchen Equipments

• Barware

• Accessories

Linen

Home

• Table mats

• Table runner

• Table Cloth

• Coasters

• Table napkins

• Cocktail napkins

• Cushion Covers

• Oven Gloves

• Pot Holders

• Aprons

• Kitchen Towels

• Tea cozies

• Hand towels

• Towels

• Curtains

Hospitality

• Table mats

• Table runner

• Table Cloth

• Coasters

• Table napkins

• Cocktail napkins

• Kitchen Towels

• Aprons

Accessories

• Hand Bags

• Leather Shoes & Sandals

• Pot Puri

• Scented Candles

Birth of Just J

I remember as kids my brother and I would be bored out of our wits each time our mom checked out the Crockery section of the big department store we used to frequently visit in Kuwait. We use to try to steer her away from the shelves. I am sure all the over exposure to crockery definitely inculcated my passion for crockery, which I have now made my dream project.

I have had the normal life of an Indian girl. After finishing my high school, I was sent to Bangalore for my college education. I went a step further and did a post graduation course in Industrial Psychology. Eventually, my parents got me married to a great guy. He has been my pillar of support in all I do.

As a typical Indian bride, I followed my husband to Abu Dhabi, worked and lived there for 12 odd years. We are blessed with two wonderful kids. After years of working in 9-5 job and juggling home, office and kids, we were looking for at alternative plans to give our kids a better life.

One day, in a passing conversation on our relocation plans with a close friend, who was visiting Abu Dhabi, he offered to share space in a new café he was setting up in Bangalore. When asked what type of business I would like to do, my immediate answer was crockery! Now, since I was to share space in café, the initial idea was to sell coffee mugs of all shapes, sizes and designs. However, unfortunately things did not go as planned.

Meanwhile, we relocated to Bangalore in June 2007. The next 6 months I was busy setting up my new home, finding schools for the kids, and unpacking 12 years of what used to be our home. All this time, the seed of setting up shop was always in my mind. As soon as everything settled, I decided to go ahead with my business plan.

I did the usual stuff of scouting for places for the shop, checking the financials, and creating a draft business plan. I also discussed my plans with many friends and got some both good and bad advice. Finally, I decided to set up the business from home, build my product line and see what would sell and what not.

And that's how Just J was born from a small passion of mugs and the idea of a Coffee Mug Boutique. My dream has evolved into what I sell today.

To compliment the Just J crockery, I introduced table linen to my product life. Today I am proud to introdce Just J as a small business dealing in simple, elegant table and kitchen linens, and Khurja hand crafted ceramic crockery.

The hand picked range of vibrant colors, contemporary designs, traditionally inspired products of Just J are fashionable and one-of-a-kind! These products are not your off-the-shelf stuff that is easily available in the lifestyle stores of Bangalore.

I believe in exclusive quality and value for money products. I identify pieces that are simple, delicate with clean lines and with no clutter. Linens and ceramic crockery that I have can transform your space at home into something warm and uniquely personal.

You can find the best selection of tablecloths, napkins, table skirts, table runner, table place mats, kitchen towels, oven mittens, pot holders, bread baskets, tea cozies and cushion covers.

They say that the path to success is never easy and one often faces several hurdles even before they set up a shop. I define success as how I have overcome my hurdles in the past few years and prepare myself for the next hurdle to overcome.

My dream has come a long way and Just J has grown in brand value. Today we cater to a small nice clientèle and hope that Just J products are a true reflection of our customer needs in making their home unique and warm.

Today is my first step in making my vision of Just J a reality. I hope with your wonderful support in the coming days, weeks, and years, it grows to make my dream come true!

Just J - Changing Lifestyle Solutions!