Transcript
Speaker: Hi, and welcome to the UEO Tavern, a gathering place for Questies to grab a drink and talk all things CQuest ESV. I'm Cora. And I'm Keely, and we're your hosts. This week, we have as our guest fan merch creator, Jonathan Janes. We're going to talk to Jonathan about his love for CQuest and what inspired him to venture into making fan made merch nearly three decades after the series ended. Just a bit of background on Jonathan. He is a 38 year old single father to an eight year old daughter who is his world.
Speaker: He's a full -time active duty National Guardsman with two decades worth of service, including being deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He rekindled his passion for SeaQuest at the very beginning of the pandemic as a project to help kill some time while working from home. What started out as an attempt to recreate a screen -accurate uniform took on a life of its own and evolved into an Etsy store and collaborations with fellow Questies from around the world. Welcome, Jonathan.
Speaker: Hey ladies, happy to be here. Glad to have you. So ah Jonathan, I guess we should start at the beginning. How and when did you first discover Sequest? What drew you to the show? Oh, I was nine years old and it was the summer of 93. I remember seeing a bunch of newspaper ads and my grandfather used to get the TV digest and there was ah an advert in there for the show.
Speaker: And then I finally saw my first commercial for the show and I was hooked immediately. And yeah, I had to watch it. I waited all summer. We collected every news article after that and I made a scrapbook. That's really cute. I love that. Oh, that's so awesome. I remember collecting the newspaper back when we had TV guides, right? And ah collecting the little pictures and captures in there. I remember those.
Speaker: So your Etsy bio says that you started the shop because you wanted to find a SeaQuest uniform and you couldn't. So you decided to be the one to make them yourself. Is that what inspired you to start making merch for fans? So the merch for fans, that was ah an afterthought because I put everything together. It was just difficult to try and find the pieces, you know, 30 years later after a show has been canceled and Not too many people were following it by the time it was canceled, so there really wasn't anything out there. And if you look on eBay, there's some patches that people made, but they they just weren't accurate enough for me. So I reached out to some people I was friends with on our Facebook group, who I did not know at the time, at all, from Adam, and I started asking them questions. I'm like, hey, do you have any really good pictures of things? Do you have images?
Speaker: And they both are like, who are you? And that's that's how I first met Mark Bradley and Martin Lakin. So did you have experience with jumpsuits or any kind of costumes previously? So I had been a member of the 501st Legion, a Star Wars costuming group, for about a year. And that's what really was like, you know what, if I can get these other uniforms to where I can be approved into this organization, well then maybe I can take some of those skills that I've required and just make my own. So prior to that, no, I had never made any of this stuff before. No patches, no nothing. That's amazing. and So how did you approach what seems to me a monumental task of bringing this idea to reality?
Speaker: It started with patches. I really wanted screen accurate patches after I had spent a considerable amount of time Google searching and trying to find the perfect flight suit. And I ended up finding it. So that when that happened, that was just the next step is let's get let' get the patches.
Speaker: Besides the uniforms, you have items ranging from reproductions of on -screen t -shirts and uniform parts to pint glasses and stickers. It's quite the range compared to what was available back in like the mid -90s. Could you share a little bit about your process when it comes to creating ah a new product? So I polled some people that were part of the Facebook group and some friends. And I said, hey, if you were ever to want something sequessed on an item, what would that item be?
Speaker: And we're all a coffee mug, stickers, you know stuff like that. And the process that I use, it was real simple. I use a a third party. I can put a logo, anything on anything. doesn't As long as they offer the item, I can put it on there. So what that relieves me of is all the cost of development and overhead and the those kind of printers and just everything.
Speaker: Yeah, they they make a lot more money off this stuff than I do, which is by design. I don't have any of my products marked up above 20 % return on investment. Well, the goal was never to make money. The goal was just to make merch and keep it as cheap as possible for you guys. I think the most I make on anything is $2 or $3 above the price. Spread the fandom love. I love it. I know, right? I know I have some of the merch. I have blue Yu Yu shirt and I've got the working the gray shirt that you're supposed to wear under the uniform. A few other things. that That was the first shirt I made, the gray duty undershirt. I couldn't find him anywhere. I saw pictures and I reached out to Mark Bradley. He had a couple of the actual screen used ones from when he worked on the show. And he took a real nice scan, high def for me. And I
Speaker: Slapped it in the Photoshop, made it look prettier, kind of changed things just a little bit because I was worried about trademark and all that fun stuff. And yeah, that was the first shirt I made. I bought like 10 of them for myself and they're almost all faded because I wear it like daily.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, after you after you made that and I bought it, I saw it everywhere in the episodes. Like I had never noticed it before. until I bought this shirt and wore it. And I was like, wait, they're all wearing it. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And like it is screen accurate. like You look at the show and you look at the shirt and you're like, this is pretty awesome. like If you're gonna cosplay to the tee, this is like the perfect thing to have along with the uniform. It's a little details on it too. like the um The hammerhead behind the collar, um like above the shoulder blades. I hadn't noticed that before I got it on the shirt and now I saw it everywhere.
Speaker: Yeah, is once it comes to your face, you're like, oh man, there it is. One of our customers bought the shirt, wore it to a convention where she met and hung out with Ted Raimi. And even he said, hey, that looks like something that was just on the show. So to me, that's like the greatest feedback possible is that one of the main actors said, yeah, that looks just like what I wore on the series.
Speaker: That is such a compliment. I love it. Do you have a bucket list item that you would love to make, but haven't been able to yet? Well, there were two of them and they're almost both done. The, the first one is the replica VPAL, the handheld talking device. Nice. I, I spent a year with the, uh, 3d modeling, who is with a guy who is a huge Star Wars fan, which is where I originally met him.
Speaker: who has now been converted into a huge SeaQuest fan. So here he's he's been helping me with this. um Mr. Mark Bradley has actually loaned me one of his originals that was a casting of one of the props from the show. So it's very detailed. He did a great job with it. And that's been my model that we've been using um to to get everything where it needs to be.
Speaker: and I purchased a resin printer specifically for this project so that way that I can cut out the middle man who wants to charge like $45 or $50 just to print the actual item itself. So um in an effort to keep costs down for you know the fans, because I don't plan on charging a lot of money for these, but also to keep costs down on my end as well, because I did the math It was actually cheaper to buy the printer than it was to actually have someone print 50 of them for me. So that's the big one. That iron's been in the fire for almost two years now and we're getting there. My goal would be to have working electronics so that way it would make the tone that the VPAL would make when you turn it on and off. The screen would light up and the LEDs would would light as well.
Speaker: so Oh my gosh, just take my money so now. So that's where we're going with that one. The second one, the big giant UEO patches that were on the backs of the jackets. I need one of those jackets so badly. Well, as of this last week, um going back and forth with a person who makes patches for the 501st Legion does a great job Um, he's going to help me out and we're going to try and get this to like 100 % screen accurate with the materials that were used and the sizing. I've got the measurements again. Um, Mr. Bradley and Mr. Lakin have given me high scanned, uh, images to, to reproduce. So like these, these will be spot on. And we're looking in a couple of weeks that I'll get the first test sample to look at.
Speaker: And I'm really super excited about that. Oh, I am so excited. Of course, with my luck, it's going to be ready like the big in the middle of summer, when you know, I don't need a big old heavy jacket, but that's okay. We'll just hang in my closet and look pretty till next winter. Well, now remember, Lucas, he wore that jean jacket with the UEO on the back so you can accessorize and style. Well, the 90s are coming back, right? So you could do the denim, the whole denim look. That's my plan is the jean jacket. There you go.
Speaker: And, and there was one other, I forgot to mention the short build baseball hats. I actually was in contact with a company in China. I had them produce 100 of the hats as close as I could get them to what the show was using. And unfortunately they couldn't give me like a fitted style. So I went with a Velcro. A lot of customers were asking for like like a Velcro backing so they could make a tighter fit. And I've been embroidering the logos on them nonstop for a couple of weeks now. I got a pretty ample stock of like the UEO and the Sequest hat. And these things look like they were used on the show. So it was that that was another big ticket item was to get that short brim, not the big long baseball cap. So the short brim is what was used on the show? Correct. OK.
Speaker: The long brim is what you could buy through the studio, like when they had their merch. Right, the gift shops, yeah. Yeah, I think I got one of those at a conventional event. Oh, you got yours at a convention? ah Yeah, but it was the long brim, so I'm kind of excited about the short brim. I wanted to ask real quick, so you mentioned doing the embroidery. do yeah How much do you actually do in -house? Do you do any of the embroidery in -house, or do you outsource that as well, or what's your process? So far, the only thing I have out -processed is going or outsourced is going to be the UEO patch for the back. Everything else I do here, I slap the images into Photoshop, I get them to where I want, I build a digitized file myself, which at first I didn't, and I got tired of paying someone to take the artwork and make it into a digitized file.
Speaker: and keep screwing it up. So I taught myself how to digitize. So now I take the images, I do the digits digitization. And I started with a single needle, single thread Brother PE 800 embroidery machine. It's about 850 bucks. That was the first investment I ever made in this. And it used to take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes just to make one very simple patch. Because I would constantly have to babysit and trim and change the color myself. So it it was a process of love. You know, it was dedication. Because I'm a very busy person myself. And to come home tired and and see that, oh, look, someone bought a patch off Etsy and like, ugh.
Speaker: Because I knew what I had to do to get it done. But the whole point of doing this was once I made all the patches that I needed for the uniform,
Speaker: for my pandemic project, I was like, man, I spent way more money on this than any normal person should have. How can I recover some of those funds? And that's where the idea of the Etsy story came from. It was originally designed to get the money back that I invested into the equipment. And then secretly, I was just gonna shut it down. Like once I made my money back, I was gonna stop. No.
Speaker: oh And well, we all know that didn't happen. It's kind of a double -edged sword, right? Yay, somebody bought something off my Etsy store. But now I actually have to make it. But yay, I'm putting more family. There's an hour of my day I'm never going to get back for $15. But that's why it's a passion project. Yeah, and and it really took off. i A couple of months ago, I was just trolling the old interwebs in a Facebook marketplace about an hour and a half away from me there was a business that was selling their six needle big monster machines like dirt cheap they got replacements they didn't need them anymore and the company that was supposed to take them from them said keep it so they they sold them real cheap so I've got I got like a ah nine thousand dollar machine for like pennies
Speaker: and I've just, I've graduated over to that. It's amazing. I can, do you remember them old commercials, like set it and forget it? Now i I can make six or seven patches on the large frame in about an hour and a half when that would have taken me close to three hours. And I don't even have to babysit it. You know, I go in, I set it up, make sure that it's got enough bobbin thread, everything's working good, tension's ready to go. I press play and I go in and hang out with my daughter.
Speaker: And every once in a while I'll peek over or she'll peek over and we'll check it out and just keep on going. Cause I have this whole thing set up in my living room. Oh, that's so cool. What does your daughter think of it? Does she ever ask you to make her patches for, you know, whatever she's into? Oh, absolutely. Um, for starters, I made a C -suit for her for Halloween two years ago. Awesome. Her size, I scaled, I scaled the patches down to her size.
Speaker: everything looked right and appropriate to her size. And she wanted to be Commander Hitchcock, so I made her Commander Hitchcock. The best? That's awesome. I love it. Yep. So she went to school and she wore that. I let her use one of my screen used hats and the the one model, because I have two model V -Pals. So I gave her a V -Pals to go to school with and the headset. So she was just all tricked out, you know, 1993.
Speaker: And she came home and she was so excited to tell me, she's like, daddy, almost all my teachers knew who I was. That's awesome. That's so cool. The Questis are out there, man. We might be a little quiet, but we're there. Exactly. She's like, daddy, none of my friends knew who I was, but my teachers did. And one of my teachers gave me a high five in the hallway. I'm like, that is awesome. Oh, that is so special. That's helpful. But for other stuff, because I have a sewing machine as well,
Speaker: Um, we'll make Barbie dresses and I'll put an embroidery design on the fabric first and then we'll cut it out. We'll zip it up. And then boom, she's got like a ah new prom dress for one of her Barbies. So she, she loves hanging it out with me and doing this stuff. And I get to teach her how to do it all. And yeah, she really enjoys it. That's really fun. Just imagine a few years, she's going to have a fantastic cosplay and she's going to put it in your hands and say, dad, I want to be this.
Speaker: make it happen. Yeah. In a few years, I'm going to handle the machines and say, handle it yourself. Smart. but So you mentioned, um you know, somebody ah saw Ted Ramey or in the shirt and he was impressed. Where's, where's the most interesting or surprising place where you've seen your creations appear? Is there like a convention moment or a photo you're really excited about or thought like, man, I never thought we'd get here. So there's,
Speaker: There's a couple of them. The first one was the first C -suit that I ever sold. These flight suits are very generic in and random in in size. So you get like a range, right? It's kind of like one size fits most within this range. And in the beginning, when I was making all the patches, my, you know, 15, 20, 45 minutes at a time, it was almost a six to eight hour process to make a C -suit.
Speaker: And to do all that work and to slap it all together for the first time for somebody else, cause you know, there's no greater critic than yourself. I must've ripped and restitched and done so many things because every time I take a step back, I see something that I didn't like. And I was so nervous and I put it in the box and I sent it to him and like pins and needles for days waiting to hear back from the individual.
Speaker: And when they left their review on my Etsy store, that's when I, it was, it was so surreal. And just, you know, their their comments, you know, the attention to detail is, is, is um is amazing. And this fits like a glove and all this other stuff. And I'm like, Oh, finally, like the 500 pounds on my shoulders can go away. Cause it, I, it's a lot of money. You know, it's a lot of money. I've been charging $400 for them in the past.
Speaker: just because of the time and the materials and tracking everything down and making it as screen accurate as possible. And I was just so nervous and so worried because the worst thing that could happen to me is I want to refund. And then that would just absolutely destroy me.
Speaker: Uh, I, I pretend to be an artist sometimes. Um, but that's always the most nerve wracking part, right? For me is ah putting so much work and effort into something and then presenting it to somebody else and kind of putting your baby in their hands and ah waiting for them to decide if they like it. So I can, I can definitely sympathize with you on that. And everything was going great until, uh, one of our Facebook group members ordered a suit and she is a very small petite individual.
Speaker: I built her three C suits.
Speaker: ah The third one finally fit. yeah but so i had So I had two of them in my closet that I couldn't use, couldn't do nothing with. And I had spent so much you know of of my money now at this point. I wasn't making any. It was just I wanted to make sure that she has something that fit her and that's what she wanted.
Speaker: And when she got that third one and she put it on and she's like, oh my goodness, you know thank you so much. She was, you really didn't have to do this. I'm like, actually, for my own sanity, yes, yes, I had to do this.
Speaker: but
Speaker: ah So so that was that was the first real big thing for me. um The second, the one that really kind of hits home is Mr. Lakin was really excited about going to this convention in London.
Speaker: to meet Captain Hudson. And we were thinking of all different ways like he could do this. And I built him a season two offshore, like the tan shirt with pants like uniform. And I got a hold of a guy that makes the name that makes name tags. And he made it spot on, just like the show. like It was great. And then all of a sudden, he goes, hey, can you send me a captain's patch? Because he had ah commander.
Speaker: was it Commander Scott? He had his one of his uniforms from season two. So he he he decked it out for you know as a captain to go see the captain. And I thought it'd be cool. I'm like, hey, when's the last time Michael Ironside ever really saw anything sequester talked about it? So I made a bunch of patches for him to put in a frame because it was just cheaper to send the patches and then have him put it together. So he he put it together as a display.
Speaker: And he gave it to Michael Ironside while he was, you know, signing stuff for him and talking to him about it. And this whole encounter, this whole engagement, you can see on the, on the Sequest Vault, um Martin put it up there. But to see my patches in Michael Ironside's hands, like to me right now, that's the top of it. So far, everything I've done, nothing's going to top that. who that Right in the captain's hands and himself. How amazing. Yep. Super excited.
Speaker: We have a lot of, um, you know, cast and crew and former production staff in there. I was just asked, wondering like how many of them have seen the work and if any of them have provided feedback on, you know, what, you know, what they remembered about it or what they requested or anything. So Marco Sanchez, uh, he, he commented on some stuff. He said he he really liked some things and that it was neat and that, you know, we're kind of not really bringing it back from the dead, but just giving it a little bit more of a revival. And he he's been it very secluded. And he does answer some things on the Facebook group when we do talk to him. And and we try not to bother him. We try to respect people's privacy. And it's just cool that they're hanging out with us. like Even if the guy says hi, you know how awesome is that? you get you know But I think like my biggest success story in that regard would be with Don Franklin, ah Commander Ford.
Speaker: He was like my idol as a kid. you know he He was the boat's XO. He basically ran the thing when when Roy Scheider was off running around. you know He really was the command like the commander of Sea Quest. And his character, at least in the first season, was very cool, calm, collected. And you know he he had a like a very decisive military -focused mind.
Speaker: and It was a huge inspiration to me and it actually affected how like how i how I grew up and and and joining the military and and stuff like that later on down the line. But actually being able to sit down and have a conversation with him ah via Facebook Messenger and texting back and forth over the page has ah it been awesome. And it led to some some conversations, some personal conversations. and and
Speaker: talking about you know just lives in general and my admiration for him and and stuff like that. And it culminated to me acquiring his uniform that he had kept in his closet for almost 30 years. Wow. That's amazing. You must have been so thrilled. Oh my goodness. And did you run home and try it on immediately? Well, let's just let's just say it when I got out of the box The next thing it touched was me. Like I immediately put it on. I got the zipper up and I was just so excited. And yeah, I'm like, this is awesome. And my daughter was here. So I'm like, Hazel, you got to take a picture real quick. Oh, I'm not sure you would have gotten it. But it was just so exciting.
Speaker: That is. I think I remember you posted that picture, right? Yes, yes. i It actually fits you really well. The only thing is, is that he is much taller than me. So there's like six to eight inches of fluff on the bottom of each leg. yeah That's like my uniform. but I have the same problem. I'm swimming in it. I'm like, this is a man's uniform. And I had to like hem the bottom part in order to cosplay because I was terrified to cut off any fabric. I'm like, that's not happening. So.
Speaker: No, it was it was just really exciting. And I ah made him an offer. um If he ever wanted it back, that he could have it back at the same price in which I purchased it. And I have no intentions of ever letting this thing go. In fact, um Mr. Laken and I have been in contact with the Sci -Fi Museum in London, as they have all different kinds of shows. And I've been trying to...
Speaker: with Mr. Lake and try and get a sea quest like two or three mannequin things set up and then I would put it on display there but other than that it's staying right here. To loan it to the museum. Correct. That's pretty cool. Yep I'd put it on loan and then if Mr. Franklin ever wanted it back I told him I'd give it to him.
Speaker: That's awesome. ah What do you think it is about Sequest and the fandom that keeps people coming together after almost 30 years off the air? I mean, we've got this group on Facebook, ah you know Sequest is we beneath the surface What is it about the show that just keeps bringing people together you think? Well, I think it's a couple things really in the early 90s Star Trek was a real big thing it was starting to branch out into multiple shows people were really starting to dig that sci -fi vibe and with that Star Trek was just, it was too far out into the future, right? It was fantasy. It's what could happen. Sequest was so close in the future that it was using technology and stories, at least in season one, that you know what, hey, that really could happen. And it was kind of showing the world in chaos and it was showing how everybody minus the bad guys, right?
Speaker: we're coming together as a world pretty much unifying under a banner, which is the UEO, and policing it up, cleaning it up, and just making that that better and brighter future for everybody. And what's more attainable, going a couple of thousand feet below the surface or traveling to Mars, right? So the reality, to me at least, was this was a very close future that we could do if we actually set our minds to exploring our own oceans, taking care of our planet and working together as a global community. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even today, we're now in the timeline of SeaQuest and we are seeing things that SeaQuest kind of called that are kind of coming to fruition now, whether it's technology or environmental issues. SeaQuest, like you said, was so close to the future that it actually kind of became the future in a way. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, as a, as a kid, I was, um, I, I loved Star Trek and I wanted to be a marine biologist. So when SeaQuest came out, it hit all my sweet spots. I was hooked. I was in, but one of like the most fascinating things about it for me is that, yeah, it is so close. And you think about the things at the time that we were just beginning to discover, um, you know, the, the things about the Mariana Trench and SeaLife and how we're, um,
Speaker: learning about all the undiscovered things under the sea. but Bob Ballard and then finding the Titanic. Right. oh But, ah you know, just having it be that tangible and that close and then seeing it now and going, you know what, Sequest had it right all along. Maybe they knew something. um They could have warned us about 2020 though. But maybe, you know, but we we were so close on this kind time then. They kind of did in season two. But but they did. They did in season two.
Speaker: Ah, they really did. Season two, playtime. Everybody was inside and playing with games. So yeah, I guess, um, but I did that with Animal Crossing, which I feel is a lot less destructive than, than giant battle mechs. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, taking out entire cities, you know, just, just to get that one guy. Oh my goodness. So, um, yeah. Well, I wanted to ask, um, apart from sea quest, is there any other fandom that you've ever wanted to like dip your toe into? Or is there something that maybe you're personally into that is a, you haven't gotten to do yet? Is there another fandom? So.
Speaker: but Like I alluded to earlier in the very beginning, I'm a member of the 501st Legion up and up here in Northeast Pennsylvania, a member of it's called Garrison Corita. Great, great group of guys and gals. And we just love Star Wars and doing Star Wars stuff and hanging out with the kids and going to museums and science centers, libraries, you know, dressed up in costume. I haven't been fortunate enough to actually do like a hospital visit COVID kind of stop that but yeah it's just been I don't know I don't i don't really know if I want to do anything next I kind of want to stay where I'm at and and ride the highs you know like this is the last two years have just been absolutely incredible the the friends that I've made the experiences that I've had um I really got to give a shout out to to Mark Bradley and and Martin Lake and these two have been like my best friends when it comes to anything Sequest or
Speaker: or any other future projects that I'm working on. ah We have a little mini Facebook Messenger group that we go back and forth on all kinds of stuff. Whatever idea anybody has, no matter what fandom or what what topic it is, we're always like brain trusting each other and and throwing stuff around. And that led to an opportunity of a lifetime for me, ah really. we We started talking about it years ago, and then this past year, actually this past summer,
Speaker: Martin and his family were going to be making a trip to Florida as a family vacation. And Mark, lives down in that area. So I was like, oh my goodness, two of the three are going to be within a half hour. I got to fix this. So wow we we talked about it. We planned it out. I hopped on a flight, grabbed the hotel room, and the three of us got together and hung out at Mark's house. And we went through totes upon totes and and books and bins and files of just everything that he was able to
Speaker: to salvage from the production before the auction happened. So all kinds of paperwork, inter office memos, um the original floor plans, ah blueprints for the sets, blueprints for the sea crab, the sea launch, all these things from season one that got sent from LA for them to reproduce in Florida. like He had all this stuff.
Speaker: And I'm like, this is the Holy Grail because if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to take these blueprints. We're building Sequest. Yes, we are. Oh, you were literally in the Sequest archive. That is meant amazing. That's amazing. I was, we were digging in it. I was more, it was just so, our personalities are are just so awesome and and they all compliment each other. So Martin is just so focused on like the artwork.
Speaker: and the paperwork and the who's he what sits in how and And I'm really into like the uniforms, the patches, the what artwork led to patches and stuff like that. So when we started flipping these bins open and going through it like kids in a candy store, we were each looking for our own thing and kind of like we're not in each other's way.
Speaker: So anytime I would be, I'd be digging through something and I find something like, Oh, Hey, Martin, you got to check this out. And I just hand it off to him and go right back to digging into the box. And I i didn't even know what it was. I just gave him. And, and we did that. i love We did that for a couple hours and we had a great time and we we took a ah group picture and you know, like it was, it was great. We went out, we had some, some barbecue afterwards, you know, we went to dinner and it was just a great time. And I was, I'm very thankful.
Speaker: to have these gentlemen in my life. And I'm very grateful that Mark was so warm enough to invite us into his home. He had never met us before. you know we We were just all just people over Facebook. And I think to add some more humor to this story, we picked up, my my girlfriend and I, Jennifer, we picked up Martin from Disney World. yay Guys just walking around in a parking lot and I'm sitting there in the car, our rental car, and he's wearing the,
Speaker: the Sequest duty shirt and I'm like, how's it going? And what we immediately went right into a hug and then we just started talking and we didn't stop talking till we got to Mark's house. Like it was just it was just like that. it was The bond was was that quick and it's amazing. It was one of the best times I've ever had. That's awesome.
Speaker: I really think that that is part of the magic behind Sequest, um the the friendships that have forged with everybody. Cora and I have known each other for 20 some years, and it was Sequest that brought us together. And there are two or three other members of of the group um that we're all friends with. And you know I can say that it was Sequest that brought us together. And some of us haven't met in person, but we our personalities click. We talk. We've been friends for years.
Speaker: We root for each other in in their lives. um And I feel like everybody that I've met that is a questee sort of has that vibe. We're all very caring and passionate and, um you know, friendships are forged easily among us. Yeah, you you took the words right out of my mouth. That was exactly what I was going to say is is the friendships with Sequest are easy and they're amazing and they're long lasting. I mean,
Speaker: Like you said, I've been friends with you for a couple decades, and like I have a friend that um I met all the way back in my freshman year of high school. I was on a field trip to Florida, and I was wearing a Sequest a sweatshirt, sure and she came up to me. We're in Busch Gardens. I had already gone to Universal Studios and spent practically all my money on sequas merch, whatever was there. And she's just like, oh my gosh, you're a sequas fan? I'm like, yeah. And she's like, so am I. Like, we were both on class trips and we exchanged addresses because this was before, you know, the internet is what it is today. So like snail mail was still a thing. And we were pen pals. We would call each other, email. We shared fan fiction, artwork. And I'm still friends with her today. She, she went into the Navy for real. Um,
Speaker: And it's been like 20 some odd years that we've been friends. And it's just, and even with this Facebook group, you know, there are people in there, Jonathan, I'm friends with you. You know, Martin and I talked to him. We're all just this big group of questies. We just really all get along really well. There's no, even if we disagree about what season's the best or what episode's the worst or whatever, it's all. Season one. ah Season three.
Speaker: let's be Let's just settle that. Who's your favorite captain? Hudson. It's Hudson. We all get along. you know There's no epic fights or anything. so No, I agree. It's very cool, calm, and collected. Nothing really gets out of control. I think it's just because well we're all a very mature audience now in our lives. And most people, if they're just now discovering Sequest, are like in their 20s and 30s.
Speaker: So that childhood mentality of bickering and fighting and ah there's there's no trolls, there's there's nobody out there. And I think a lot of this has to do, um so CJ, I got to give him props too. He is the original founder of the Facebook group. I've been i've been a member for like 11 years, but i I didn't step up into an admin role until when I started all doing all this stuff.
Speaker: because I wanted to help out. And I think the best way to do that was with access to being with the community in an administrative level. And he was cool with it. He was like, yeah, this is exciting. And we gained, oh my goodness, we gained so many members over the last couple of years. I have to check the analytics, but I know it's a couple of hundred we've we've gained. Wow. But yeah, it's,
Speaker: It's really awesome, you know, and and people talk about other stuff outside of Sequesta in there too, and we're all about encouraging conversations and just, you know, that community. Yeah, absolutely. For anybody that um is new to, but like, may not be in our Facebook group, may not know about your store, what is the name of your Etsy shop so that they can find it? It is Heart the Art Studios.
Speaker: And the name of the Sequest group, ah for anybody who doesn't know about it, it's on Facebook. It's called SequestDSV Beneath the Surface. You have to type that in, that's the group, because there's more than one Sequest group out there, but we're the cool kids on the block, so.
Speaker: I mean, we're all the cool kids on the block because we're fans of Sequest. I've i've reached out to all the the owners and and operators of the other groups and I was like, Hey, just want to, you know, we're more than willing to welcome you guys, like absorb you guys into our organization too, ah simply because when you're trying to get the interest of other people for a while there, we were all trying to get like a reboot or or something.
Speaker: it was better to just be one force to be reckoned with than to have competing forces and to have one big giant Facebook group. And it worked. ah We did gain a lot of members, but they still kept their other groups. So you'll see like Martin and I and some other members, we're all members of the other groups too, like spies. If they got any good content, we gotta have it too.
Speaker: i Getting the intel, I like it. ah The other website that we should put up, ah that you mentioned, is the Sequest Vault, which is Martin's baby. That's SequestVault .com. Oh, yes. Oh, he would murder me if I didn't even try and put a plug in for it. we've We've done so much work. We've done so much work. When I say we, I mean Martin has done so much work to collect up anything and anything that he can get his hands on.
Speaker: and We're finding new stuff all the time. eBay, for me, has been a real good source of just the little stuff that people have that were remnants of newspaper articles, magazine articles, stuff like that. And i yeah if it's this recently priced, I'll buy it. I'll get some good images of it, and then I'll send those to Martin, and then he he'll put them up on the vault. So we've been amassing this big giant data storage and collection of just anything in print or or visual that represents our fandom.
Speaker: It is so amazing that we're able to access all of this now because, you know, the internet wasn't really a thing when Sequest came out. So these are articles that people have had and kept. And I know I've got a box of Sequest stuff from 94, but ah the fact that we're able to get all this digitized and archived and put in a way that is so much more accessible for a broader audience is really amazing. Well, yeah, because back in the 90s, internet Web pages were just links to hyperlinks to to pages and everybody was linking each other. So you click on one and you can go down the rabbit hole, Alice, and then eventually end up to a picture, you know, that somebody was able to to get from the screen onto the internet. so
Speaker: Mm -hmm. Yep. I had my GeoCities Tripod Sequest websites back in the day. I a flashing graphic. Yep. And Gen Z is going, Gen Z's like, what's GeoCities? I know, right? Hey, I still use my Hotmail account from when I was 17 years old. And my Yahoo.
Speaker: I still got AOL. I mean, I i still got my AOL. So, you know. Future projects? Yeah. What's coming up? What can we look forward to on the site coming up? What you got? So I don't want to jinx it, but I'll talk about it. I've recently made friends with a guy who dissects screen used uniforms and writes about them and then ultimately makes a pattern.
Speaker: so When he gets some time in his schedule, I'm going to send him two of the three sea suits that I have, one being male and the other one being female. And I'm going to have him make the patterns so I can start reproducing the season two through three sea suits. That has been like the number one request. Everyone wants that. That would be amazing. Yay! Oh, that would be fantastic. They actually want season two over season one.
Speaker: Yeah, the blue sea suit with the shoulder straps, everybody's in love with that. It's iconic. you know it It is sea quest. Season one was very, yeah it's militaristic. it's It's plain Jane to me like as a ah person who puts them together. yeah It's simple. There's not a lot of work that I have to do. The product's already created.
Speaker: i just i I have several failed attempts of taking jumpsuits like that in flight suits and trying to convert them into a season two. And I just cannot get the luck. I can't. I mean, it doesn't also hurt that I know absolutely nothing about being like a seamstress. So every, everything that I'm doing is just, you know, baptism by fire. Right. Well, that'll be exciting. That's the best way to learn sometimes.
Speaker: I mean, I would love a season two that fits me. So I would probably do that. Like I would like to have one that I can wear where I don't look like, you know, I don't know. You're wearing your brother's leftovers. Yeah, basically. Man, I think I think I would want the season two. If I were going to get one, it would be the season two. I don't know. I just like the style.
Speaker: Now, so I'm really excited about that. I am absolutely in love with this, this new machine that I have that enables me to make so many patches and volume to where now I can, I can put that time back to spending it with my daughter. And and ah and I've actually, if you've been following my store, I've lowered almost all of my prices on everything now that I'm not having to invest as much time. So now not only can you get what you want, but now you can get it cheaper because like I never,
Speaker: Again, I never went into this to make money other than to pay off the initial investment of the machines. So once that happened, it was just now I'm just here to help. it Well, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us. Really appreciate you talking about your creative process and sharing all the tips and tricks about the shop and a little bit about your process of designing. This has been an amazing conversation. Yes, thank you.
Speaker: Oh, awesome. though I'm gu glad you guys reached out to me. It kind of feels special to be number one. you know but you know Well, we have to start with the best. So what do we do next week, I guess? Let yourself down. I don't know. um A little while, that note.
Speaker: Well, hey it's been a pleasure. My daughter's been staring at me the whole time and making faces trying to get me to laugh. I'm just glad we're not doing it. I'm glad we're not doing any video. So I appreciate you ladies. And again, thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
