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"  Jessica Rust honed her skills designing products for the likes of Jonathan Adler and Ralph Lauren. Then, in 2006, she and her husband relocated from New York City to Minneapolis for his job. Suddenly a stay-at-home mother of a preschool-age son, Rust found herself &amp;quot;going crazy cooped up all winter,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I wanted something creative to do that didn&amp;#039;t need a lot of space.&amp;quot; Her idea: Jessica Rust Designs, a collection of subtly customized ceramics. The Birch Tree line, for example, incorporates a small initialed heart \u2014 an inspired take on traditional monograms. Not wanting to take out loans, Rust started with just $300 for materials and used the local library&amp;#039;s computers to work on designs until she&amp;#039;d saved enough to upgrade at home.   LESSON LEARNED  &amp;quot;We grew really quickly, and it was hard. There were times I needed to admit we were sold out, but instead kept taking orders. That led to 14-hour days.&amp;quot;  KEY ADVICE  Know what the customer wants. &amp;quot;At first, I didn&amp;#039;t have the experience to understand what would and wouldn&amp;#039;t sell. Now I really try to stay on top of trends.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.countryliving.com/life/a2833/jessica-rust-designs-0609/>