Holed up in her cozy cabin of a home, Hillary Jensen-Bergren fits into her wooded Raft Island surroundings well. And so does her business. She works as both an independent farmer and manufacturer of handmade vegan guitar and camera straps, and both pursuits have seen their local following grow in the past few years.

“People around here are really health-conscious,” Jensen-Bergren said of her Gig Harbor neighbors. “So you end up with really loyal and well-educated customers. And they tend to be recluses, like me.”

For a self-described recluse, Jensen-Bergren has been active – a California transplant who’s taken to the Northwest since her husband was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, she’s carved out a niche for herself as an independent businesswoman.

“I don’t feel like I’m working for the man,” Jensen-Bergren said. “There’s no boss hanging over me, worried about the bottom line. I have the freedom to choose what I want to do.”

For the past four years, that’s primarily been the operation of Peace of the Earth Farm, an organic farm in the Rosedale Valley. “That’s been my full-time job, and it’s a lot of effort and not a lot of monetary return,” Jensen-Bergren said.

But that’s starting to change. What started out as a side project, the manufacture of guitar straps made from hemp and other mostly organic materials has turned into a full-fledged business. Jensen-Bergren plays the guitar and had a hard time finding a strap she liked. A few of her friends had the same complaint, and Jensen-Bergren, who already was making bags, wallets and other items, decided to try her hand at strap-making.

“It very quickly became more popular than anything else I was making,” she said. She sells the straps from her Etsy website, Island Provisions, which allows her to interact with and sell directly to her customers. Etsy also enables trading with other artists in exchange for goods, a process of doing business that Jensen-Bergren enjoys.

“You can find anything you really want to find (on Etsy) just by being a regular person,” she said. “It’s real people dealing with real people.”

Island Provisions has become more popular as Jensen-Bergren expanded to make camera straps as well. She figured that, while not everyone plays the guitar, most people have a camera. Now she takes orders from all around the country and far-flung places such as Australia and Latvia.

Working for herself allows Jensen-Bergren a business ethos she said is important to how she wants to operate. She uses mostly local and organic fabrics, and she often shops for materials at thrift stores or places like Harbor Quilt in Gig Harbor. Using quality materials, Jensen-Bergren said, may mean a cut in her profits, but it also creates a better reputation for her business.

“I think people are starting to expect businesses to do this, or at least to make an effort,” she said of the use of organic material.

Jensen-Bergen hopes that, as her business grows, she can blend her work with her farm to create a larger agricultural and artistic atmosphere. “A lot of farmers tend to be artistically-minded,” she said.

Long-term, Jensen-Bergren hopes to bring more educational opportunities to her farm and build a kind of learning community with which visitors can engage. She’s in the process of setting up a screenprinting operation she hopes will be up and running next year.

Above all, Jensen-Bergren wants to bring to her business a mindset that mixes art and production, whether it’s on the farm or in her home. “I really like it when art can be useful – when it’s not just an item,” she said.