Q: What brought you to Kansas City? A: I'm a Kc native, born and raised. Went to school here till college at UCM (CMSU at the time) where I got my Fine Arts Degree.
Q: What makes you stay? A: I actually really like it here, it’s a big town with a small town feel. Plus my immediate family are all still here. I love my day job.
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Wands |
Q: What do you make and when did you start? A: Around 2004 the city did some tree work on my Sycamore and since I have a fireplace I asked to keep the wood to burn. I wasn't thinking about wood work at the time but I was a pretty big Harry Potter fan and wanted my own wand. They sell these Resin cast replicas online but that's not what I wanted. I only had hand tools at the time so I literally whittled down this large sycamore log to make a wand for myself. That led to me making wands for my family members out of other local woods. Eventually someone told me that I should be selling them... It was all by hand in the beginning. It wasn't until (2008) I inherited my Grandfather's lathe that it really started taking off.
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Wizarding Clue |
Q: Hardest lesson learned? A: When I first started I was doing 100% custom wands, I had no social media, and my own website that I built myself, looking back, not a great business model. Since I didn't have that big of a back catalog it was really hard for customers to tell if I could do what they wanted and I had no way to direct people to my work. My first year I had 1 person buy a wand which is amazing because they just found me via Google or something. I didn't give up. I shifted models and just started making wands to list. Just E-bay listings at first, then added Facebook, Storenvy, Twitter, Instagram, craft shows.
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Crochet Hook |
Q: What motivates you to keep going when things get tough? A: I've had some dry spells, where nothing was selling. It was discouraging for sure. I didn't take it to heart because I believed in what I was doing, using only local sourced or salvaged lumber. I diversified what I sold, added more wood types, hoop art, art prints, key chains, and bookmarks.
Q: What are you currently working on in the studio? A: I got a Comic Con coming and there's always a stack of wood that needs milled into wand blanks. Comic Con is a huge motivation though, last year was my first and I loved it.
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