𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓙𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓮𝔂
How is it that my journey in business has taken me to so many places? Probably because I have been willing to walk through the doors as they opened revealing things that I never really expected, but worked towards. The journey is the best part, not the destination. Hand-painted T-shirts, dresses, purses, wooden pieces, and more sold mostly in Texas were the start of my business.
At one time we were designing for many of the Texas State Parks. I visited Texas Forts, Historic Trains of East Texas, Fort Leaton near the Big Bend, Caprock Canyon State Park, Gardner State Park, and many more where I received private tours that increased my appreciation of our over one hundred and twenty-five State Parks.
When my arm got tired of painting I sought a fabulous silkscreener to print my T-shirts and endured the vetting of over seven companies. Finally finding AJL in Austin which is the best silkscreening company I know.Â
Finding suppliers in China to create ornaments and sterling silver jewelry, I broadened my customer base by licensing many University logos. We are still licensed by many universities and find this process rewarding and challenging. Our products are in many University stores nationwide. For instance, we showed our products at the Club level at Memorial Stadium in Austin as well as in the Club level at ATM. Once I noticed all the people seeming to stare at me. To my left stood Willie Nelson. When we decided to create our cloisonné ornaments we traveled to China to vet our factories and have been there many times.
We found our suppliers, who create our ornaments, to be highly trained artisans. We are developing a new market for the ancient Chinese art form which is the National Handicraft of China and thus protected. The art of Cloisonné goes back thousands of years and when we visited China we were able to meet famous cloisonné artists.
The decision to focus solely on Wholesale has not been easy. We are still serving our retail customers, but just indirectly. It is wonderful to research what our wholesale customers want. In doing this we created products that can be found nowhere else. This week I reached the 18,000 number for individual designs created!!! Each number represents a different design in our retail or wholesale line. These designs will be available for our wholesale customers to order going forward. This redirect for our business also allows us to focus on my fine art with the offerings scheduled to increase next year. My fine art will be featured on our website, and fine art Giclee prints will be available.
As the journey continues we look forward to the opportunities as they unfold. Thank you for joining us on this journey. More to come as I welcome you into my world of creating fine art and that process.Â
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