The short one: (not me, well yes me but the bio)
Loren, is a South African artist, performer and entrepreneur. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Live Performance, Loren embarked on a global journey. Working for the largest cruise ship company in the world, she honed her skills in performance, stilt walking and event hosting, music performance, language acquisition, and later on, in digital signage creation. During this time, she met her Australian husband, Steve, an orchestra musician and she eventually immigrated to Australia where Steve joined the Australian Army Band Corps. Over the past nine years, Loren has navigated multiple postings, creating many opportunities for her to expand her creative endeavours. In 2021, after attending the Prince’s Trust Australia’s Launch Lab programme and winning the RSL Startup Grant, Loren, along with Lawrence the Laser, founded Now Now Foundry, an e-commerce store specialising in bespoke keepsakes, jewellery, wedding and party decor and business signage.
The long one:
Howzit, I'm Loren and welcome to Now Now Foundry! I love little treasures and trinkets especially when they have my name on them! - which is not often, if ever, - thanks Mom and Dad! So why not open an online shop where everyone's name can be engraved, cut or etched on their own personal keepsake? So here we are now! (now)
I grew up in South Africa wanting to travel the world. I ended up on cruise ships as part of the Cruise Director's staff (fancy way of saying the party, line dance, trivia hosting, bingo calling, stilt-walking parade performer, karaoke hostess, pre-show entertainer, big breath! staff member) I also ended up falling in love (can I get the Love Boat tv theme?) with a musician (not a guest! That is a big, huge no no), yes he is a tromboner (hey oh!) and also an Australian. After 6 weeks of sitting on cold floors outside crew cabins chatting the nights away so not to wake our roommates (believe me, cruise ships are not fancy beyond the "Staff only" doors), endless hours on the back deck and long afternoons in port discovering the Mediterranean; we had to part ways... until I found a love letter he sent me via my roommate (love you Laura) and so our 5 year long distance relationship started. We were ships crossing in the night, literally our ships sailed past each other in the night. We visited each other on vacations to Greece and Italy and travelled as much as we could in between contracts.
One day we decided, hey... let's go live in Australia where we can have windows and a couch and bank accounts!
So we here are 9 years later, currently living in Hobart via Canberra, Townsville and Melbourne. Now (now) I get to enjoy life on land with the very talented Tromboner and a little mini me who asks a lot (seriously- its a tremendous amount) of why questions, always keeping me thinking and I get to design and make products everyday.
Take a look around and I hope to meet you one day and you can tell me your beautiful story!