We are so happy you are here.
To the left (if you are on a computer) or written above (if you are on a mobile phone) is a screenshot of a Facebook post on January 4, 2017 of one of Hana’s first manifestations.
Long story short…
THALKEN is owned and operated by a wife(Hana), husband(William), and toy/mini Australian Shepherd(Max) team. Hana makes most of the jewelry, William pours the candles every morning like donuts, they both create a lot of the cards and art, and the rest are things Hana and Will are just obsessed with… from cozy beautiful socks, to rustic organic pottery, to magic sparkly crystals, to natural hand-poured soap. Max can be found at the shop most days. He is our “sock connoisseur” in that he loves to show you his latest sock pick of the month by holding it in his mouth and “singing” it at you. We like to tell everyone that comes in that, “you never have to buy anything.” So, if you’re ever in the area, please feel free to stop by and say hi, even if it’s for a second. Never stop growing. Always remember to breathe. Go all in every time.
Long story long…
ABOUT THE OWNERS
Hana grew up in Huntington Beach, California and graduated from CSULB with a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science. The original plan of continuing on to become a PT or OT changed, and she decided to move up to Los Angeles to pursue a career in singing, songwriting and acting. William was born and raised in Portland Oregon and graduated with a degree in Business Management. William moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in art and hospitality.
HOW THEY MET
Hana and Will met in November of 2012 while working together at The Bar Marmont off of Sunset Blvd. They both knew the first day they met that they had met “the one.” For the first month of knowing eachother they would work until 2am-3am in the morning together, and then individually hurry home to their seperate residences to log on to Facebook to continue to Facebook chat until the wee hours of the morning. After getting married in 2015, Hana woke up one day and realized she wanted to buy a house. From this came further brainstorming and assessment of what both Hana and Will wanted for themselves and their lives moving forward. This is where the manifestation you see above came from that Hana posted on Facebook in January of 2017.
HOW THALKEN STARTED AND HOW IT EVOLVED
Hana had always made jewelry from a very young age. She sold her first piece of jewelry to a shell shop in Newport Beach at the age of 4. While looking back, she is sure that the owner was just being kind to a precocious kid, and that he wasn’t actually going to be making a profit from their business transaction, but it instilled an entrepreneurial spirit and pride in her that never left. At the age of 10 Hana started selling her jewelry in front of their families townhome. This is where “THALKEN EST 1994” came from. Her Dad saw that she needed a sign for “her shop”, so he made a sign that said “JEWELRY STORE EST. 1994.” Skip forward 18 years… After graduating college and pursuing some other artistic paths, Hana wanted to be able to make a living solely off of her creativity and went all in with THALKEN jewelry. It had been more of a hobby throughout her life, but she looked at the numbers, and saw that it had the potential to pay her bills if she really focused on it. Within a month she was able to quit her serving job and was able to make a living solely on her jewelry sales. After the manifestation mentioned above was put into effect, William and Hana moved to Broomfield, Colorado. The mission was to do as many markets and pop-ups as possible, but also to find a commercial store storefront that Hana and Will could afford for Thalken. Within the first month they came across what looked like an upcoming office space for rent off of a cute little main street in Louisville, Colorado. They did some digging and found that the space was not coming for rent, but that the current tenant wouldn’t be opposed to sharing the space. After some negotiations, this became Thalken’s first official storefront for the next 8 months. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Hana and Will would build the office into a store. Sunday night they would break everything down and restore it back to the previous tenants office, where she would then conduct her business Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This cycle continued every week for about 8 months. It was a lot of work, but it was a great way to experiment with having a storefront. It helped them gauge what they could afford to take on, and if this was even something they wanted in reality. As you might have guessed, It turns out that they loved it. TBC
Los Angeles Art Night Out February 12th, 2015. This is the first market/event Hana and Will did together. =)
The sign on the top was made by Hana’s Dad when she was 10 years old. He made a sign for her so that she would look more “official” whilst selling her jewelry in front of their family townhome. The piece of wood on the bottom is a jewelry making board her Dad also made for her. The organic shaped circles are for different beads, and the little piece of cork is where you put your needle.