OUR STORY
CABINET | CUPBOARD | DRAWER
TRUST GOD'S PROCESS AND TIMING - HE'S GOT YOU COVERED ~ Diana Rolle
___________________________
Welcome to Handcrafted 360! Thank you for participating in our story! We are delighted that you are here!
WHO WE ARE:
We are the Smolik family :0)
My name is Teena. I am the primary designer of our products. I am also the person that will answer your questions and work with you on the details of your purchase.
Mike is my hubby. He’s the guy that has mastered the finishing process for all of our products.
Our three sons; Mike Jr., Andrew and AJ help to manage our supplies, packaging, shipping and heavy lifting.
Even the grandmas are part of the team. Marge and Dolores help with the handcrafting process.
Our business has completely developed out of faith. Each stage in our journey has evolved through prayer. God has led us to and through this business. He has answered every question and every request along the way. He has given every provision needed. It has not always been in the answer that we had hoped, or in the timing that we would have liked. But every answer, every insight, every provision has been exactly what was best for our family and for this company. We have learned to wait. Wait on his leading and blessing. Wait for the perfect answer and the perfect time.
Every decision that we make is with this one idea in mind: This is God’s business. We work for him. Everything about this company is a reflection on who He is. We take that very seriously and have found it keeps our integrity and business practices exactly where they must be!
OUR JOURNEY TO 360
WE ARE TRYING TO PAY THE LIGHT BILL:
My husband and I began selling various products online in 2005 to supplement our income and allow me the ability to stay home with our young boys. We quickly discovered that this could become so much more than a supplemental income. After much prayer, we set our goal in place to turn our journey into a family business by 2006.
WE ARE TRYING PAY MORE THAN THE LIGHT BILL:
Its been a crazy journey. We started with used clothing on Ebay. Then transitioned toward home decor items found on sale at local retailers. When our main retailer announced that they would be closing their doors, we prayed for another direction. It seemed like the answer took forever. That was a scary time in our history. It was not until the week before we would lose our main supplier that I had stumbled upon a tiny link in a community blog about a local family wallpaper shop. Wallpaper????? I thought. But, we put the address into map quest (it was that long ago) and off to the wallpaper store we went.
WE ARE WALLPAPER:
That was the beginning of our path to here. We began, with much reservation, offering wallpaper by the yard in our Ebay store. I remember thinking it would never work. Wallpaper wasn’t even a thing anymore. But, it was what God had given us. And frankly, it was all we had at the moment.
Well, the by the yard took off HUGE! Our business quickly outgrew the tediousness of Ebay. We went to prayer again. We needed something better. Etsy would come up time and time again in my search for another venue. But, I would wright it off every time because Etsy was that ”handmade site”. “Im not miss crafty”, I thought to myself (haha…God can have a real sense of humor sometimes). God continued to bring me back, time and again to Etsy. Finally, after a year of fumbling with Ebay and having found nothing in way of other venue options, I decided to take a closer look.
WE ARE WALLPAPER ON ETSY:
It did not take me long to realize that Etsy also offered craft supplies. It hit me that about 90% of our by the yard customers were crafters and upsellers that purchased our wallpaper for their projects. Could I sell our wallpaper as a craft supply??? Again, I remember thinking this would never work (I tend to argue with God at times). But, again, I had no other options in the wings. So was born our Etsy shop in 2013, “WallpaperYourWorld”.
WE ARE WALLPAPER ON ETSY…AND DRAWER PULLS:
So what does all of this have to do with handcrafted drawer pulls and home goods?
I’m glad you asked! Everything!! I never like having all of our eggs in one basket. So, I began to pray for an idea for another product line. This time, the answer came quite quickly (Thank God!!). Drawer Pulls. Handmade drawer pulls made with our wallpapers for our wallpapers. As a coordinating accessory. Well, to make a long story short (I know, too late), the wallpaper idea was horrible. The patterns were too large in scale and the wallpaper was too thick. But I fell in love with the idea of hand crafting unique drawer pulls. So, I decided to teach myself graphic design. So became our line of handmade drawer pulls. I created my first handmade drawer pull listing on January 1st, 2014! How’s that for sticking with a New Year’s resolution!
So began my love for the circle. The circle is my canvas. I love creating these little works of art and I love how, when applied to an everyday ordinary item, they become a work of art that is useful for every day life.
WE ARE HANDCRAFTED 360:
Today it is 2016. I am writing this right now, having begun to design Handcrafted 360 last week. It is currently a collection of empty categories, waiting for our products to be added. I am waiting for our branding designer as I write. Handcrafted 360 is literally just an idea in our minds right now. Our future goals are to bring in handcrafted wine stoppers, magnets and drink coasters. But, right now I have a lot of work ahead of me to bring you all 663 of our current drawer pull creations. I've got one listed so far.....The other products will have to wait.
By the time you are reading this, Handcrafted 360 will be fully established and we will be well into the next stage in our journey: “You've built it, now they'll come”.That is where you come in.
YOU ARE OUR NEXT CHAPTER IN THIS AMAZING JOURNEY! Thank you for participating in our story! We are delighted that you are here!