Confession: my first website was horrid.
Picture a pink and orange gradient with tiny dots floating everywhere.
It looked like early-2000s clip art had a baby.
But it worked.
The Sherika Statues sat right in the center with PayPal buttons that actually functioned. We had also ordered beautiful African batik journals at wholesale prices, and I added those too. Loud, bright, and fully functional. That site carried Mama’s art onto the internet for the very first time.
This all happened after a season of big transitions.
I left California for college.
Mama married and moved to Florida.
Life shifted.
Our vending years in Sacramento and the Bay Area settled into a long, quiet pause. Sherika Originals rested for several years while we found our footing in new states and new routines.
Even during the pause, I never stopped believing in Mama’s creativity. I always felt that her art deserved more eyes. I wanted people beyond local events to experience her work.
In 2006, I made a decision.
If visibility mattered, I was going to learn the internet myself.
What people do not always see is that even in this season, we were both working full-time. I began my career as a corporate trainer. Mama continued building her career at the post office. We had reliable jobs, and we still chose to create something of our own. Sherika Originals gave us extra income and a sense of security. It gave us something to grow with our own hands.
E-commerce required real skill back then, so I enrolled in a six-week HTML course. I bought thick textbooks and taught myself to code at night. I built the entire site in Notepad, line by line.
When it was done, we had our first Sherika Originals website.
Simple.
Functional.
Ours.
And it stayed online for years.
Then something happened that still makes me smile.
In 2010, while I was living in London, someone found that little website and asked about placing a large wholesale order of the journals. They eventually chose another supplier, but knowing that someone discovered us from across the world felt unbelievable. I remember sitting with that email feeling proud and a little shocked. My little HTML site did that.
That tiny moment reminded me of something we had always believed:
When you show up, even in a small way, doors open.
And for us, this was the beginning of coming back to Sherika Originals with new energy, new skills, and a renewed desire to build something lasting.
Mama’s creativity opened doors for our family. Now we are opening doors for other women. If you want to build a creative income of your own, join the One Bill Challenge or explore our membership.
https://mailchi.mp/dbe6dd41d7f6/oel4d3k3wf
Part 5 picks up with our return to selling, our Etsy experiments, and the beginning of SherikaOriginals.com 2.0.