MEET! Mari from 3 Sisters Studio

February 25, 2014 karen bennett

Each week in our MEET! Blog Series, we introduce you to the dealers behind your favorite products and spaces at Woodstock Market. This week, we'd bet you've already met the person we're interviewing because she's one of our store's owners!

Mari's showroom sits right behind the register and is home to her handcrafted jewelry line, 3 Sisters Studio.

WM: How did you become a jewelry designer?
Mari: Ten years ago I took a beading class with friend. I really enjoyed it so I decided to take a semester of metalsmithing. Since then everything I've learned has been self taught. It's like I always say, "Learn and burn!"
WM: Tell us about the upcycled or repurposed items used to create your jewelry designs.
Mari: I work a lot with vintage flatware and gemstones. I like to take gems out of old settings and work them into something new. In fact, I just reset my great grandmother's engagement diamond into another ring for me. I also use a lot of vintage leather belts for cuffs and bracelets.
WM: If you could only make one of your designs from now on, which would it be?
Mari: I really enjoy one of a kind pieces and most of the time I don't want to make designs over. I love to make surprises inspired by friends for them. But if I had to choose one genre, I'd only do memorial jewelry. It's so meaningful.
WM: How has living in the Atlanta area influenced your design style?
Mari: You know, I'm originally from Long Island but I really came into my own style at age 40. I decided I just wasn't going to be a soccer mom anymore. Atlanta gives you the freedom to be you. There are so many mucho talented people here! And being in the South, it's so much more accepted to theme pieces around hymns and spirituality.
WM: You manage one of Atlanta's best monthly antiques shows and you're one of the handcrafters that makes Woodstock Market special for shoppers. What advice can you give other entrepreneurs who have to shift between two roles?
Mari: Time management is not my friend. You can't be creative because you're off on Monday from 9 to 4. Sometimes a design comes to you in the middle of the night. The store has to come first. That's my goal for 2014 to become better at that. Without all of the awesome people we have working here, there's no way I could do it all.

Be sure to follow 3 Sisters Studio on Facebook. Mari will be sharing her latest design there soon: Photo Jewelry that translates a customer's original photo into a sepia tone or black and white image set in a sterling silver bezel with a quartz cabochon.

MEET! Angela from Treasured Again Designs

February 21, 2014 karen bennett

On the back wall of our store is a large showroom with burlap covered walls and chandeliers dripping with crystals. Treasured Again Designs is filled with high quality furnishings repurposed with care by Angela and Tim Cantrell.

WM: How and when did Treasured Again Designs begin?

Angela: We started in March 2012. We wanted to start a business that we would enjoy and get our Adult Special Needs daughter involved in. We love working with the furniture. Although it is hard work it really is satisfying when we see the end result. However, we have not been able to get Amber interested in it.

WM: Treasured Again Designs specializes in Country French, Shabby Chic and Cottage decor. What appeals to you most about those romantic styles?

Angela: We have found that it is fairly easy to find good old furniture at a low price at resale stores. Then when you know what you can do with it and you have a vision for re-purposing a piece whether it is complete or missing parts, you can turn it into a beautiful design. We just love the painted look which is found in those styles.

WM: The Cantrell family turns out a lot of beautiful, re-purposed furnishings. Do you and Tim do all that work side by side or do you each have your own areas of expertise?

Angela: There really are a lot of steps that go into it, starting with finding furniture, working with it, taking it to the Market, and displaying it. We spend a lot of time at the fabric store, Hobby Lobby, Lowe's, and then of course all the resale stores. We have a shop where Tim does most of the work: painting, upholstering, woodworking. He does it all himself. I like to design and decorate mostly, although I do have to work on the website and Facebook page.

WM: We love seeing your daughter Amber at the store. Tell us about the items she sells at Treasured Again Designs.

Angela: Amber likes to come to the Market mostly during the Monthly Market Shows. She likes to shop and she has made some ribbon key rings that are displayed at our spot.

WM: What are your goals for Treasured Again Designs in 2014?

Angela: We hope that this type of painted and re-purposed furniture will be around for a long time. One thing we have noticed when we go back to when we started and look at our early designs is how much we improve over time. We really want to turn out good quality furniture that will last a long time but at the same time make it affordable

As mentioned, Treasured Again Designs has a website where they list many of the items they create and prices too. We hope you'll like their page on Facebook!

MEET! Valentine's Edition: Levi and Bonnie

February 10, 2014 karen bennett

This week in honor of Valentine's Day, we're introducing you to TWO of our dealers, a husband and wife who each have their own distinctive space at Woodstock Market.

Levi and Bonnie Hughes have been with Woodstock Market since the very beginning. Levi has a showroom aptly called Levi's Junk Store. Bonnie's showroom resembles a Victorian bungalow and is called Blue Cottage.

WM: Give us some background on yours and Levi's marriage. We want all of the details like how did you meet? How long have you been together? How many kids and grandkids do you have?
Bonnie: We have been married 53 years. When we met I was working at a Kay Jewelers that was on the Square in Marietta. Levi was in the Air Force stationed at Dobbins Air Force Base and was a customer at Kay's. He would come twice a month to make payments on a watch. I always remembered his name because I thought it was very unusual. A girl I worked with started dating Levi and eventually they would double date with my boyfriend and me. The other girl ended up finding a new fellow and asked me to go with Levi to a special activity at the base in her place. That is how it started, we were just friends but that changed slowly into the Great Love Story!! We have two children, a daughter Katherine, and a son Kerry. Our daughter has a son, Brandon, who has a set of twins, a boy and a girl, that will be a year old in March and a daughter, Sara. My son has a son named Levi after his grandfather.
WM: Do you search for merchandise together? Would you say your picking styles are similar or are you opposites?
Bonnie: We are usually together when picking merchandise but not always. Levi generally goes for the more rustic, manly things for his booth, but I also like some of the same things. I go for the antique furniture, paintings and glassware, however Levi also likes antique furniture. Sometimes I put a piece of my merchandise in his booth or he puts a piece of his in my booth if it would sell better in that setting.
WM: Are y'all competitive when it comes to your spaces and sales?
Bonnie: We are a little competitive but only in a fun way. Sometimes he will sell more than I do and sometimes I sell more, but there are no hard feelings involved. We do however keep our antique money separate, he pays for his, I pay for mine. That prevents arguments. We each decide what we are willing to pay for an item and the other one does not interfere. I think that is the best advice for couples working together in antiques, but it may work better for those of us who have been together for a long time.
WM: Do you two have any special Valentine's traditions?
Bonnie: We used to go to dinner and dancing in our younger days. We still go to dinner, but not usually on the 14th because it is crowed in most nice places. Sometimes there are flowers with a funny poem, but Levi likes to do the unexpected, so I'm never sure what he will come up with.

Here's a slideshow of items from both Levi and Bonnie's storefronts:

We hope you will follow Bonnie on Facebook as Blue Cottage.

MEET! Rachelle from Beyond The Mossy Tree

January 24, 2014 karen bennett

Rachelle and Tim Goering joined the Woodstock Market family in the spring of last year with the launch of their company Beyond the Mossy Tree. Tim constructs the canvases, so to speak, of the art that Rachelle creates on rustic and often reclaimed wood.

Beyond the Mossy Tree's one of a kind designs have attracted quite a following in ten short months.

WM: We have our favorites of your designs. Your regular customers each have their favorites too. Can you pick a favorite of your designs?
Rachelle: Oh, that’s tough. Each design is special to me for its own unique reason, but if I had to choose I’d say I have two favorites. The FAMILY piece was the very first one I ever designed to sell. I loved it then and I still love it every time I paint it. My other favorite would be the Psalm 37 piece. Inspired by my niece, Lauren, it just makes me smile.
WM: Beyond the Mossy Tree is asked to create custom pieces for customers frequently. Tell us about the types of occasions your pieces are commissioned to mark.
Rachelle: I’ve had the pleasure of making pieces for weddings, anniversaries, new babies, graduations, new beach houses, old lake houses, and just about everything in between. It’s fun getting a sneak peek into a customer’s life in order to create a one-of-a-kind piece for them. One of my favorites to do was an anniversary piece which featured the lyrics of a song the husband had both written and sung at their wedding. It was special. As much as I love doing the commissioned pieces for celebratory occasions, I am also deeply honored to have done quite a few memorial pieces as well. Creating art based on loss is emotional, but I am so thankful for even a small opportunity to walk beside families and hopefully be an encouragement to them during their time of grief. I pray the pieces I make will point others to the comfort offered only by the Great Physician.
WM: You've created a number of pieces for small businesses in the area. Tell us about where your art can be seen around town.
Rachelle: Yes, some of our most challenging but fun projects have been pieces commissioned by local small businesses. Our biggest piece to date is a huge 8’ by 5’ piece completed last summer for Righteous Que – a BBQ restaurant at the corner of East Piedmont & Roswell Rd in East Cobb. We jokingly call that BTMT corner because right across the street from Righteous Que is Smallcakes, a cupcake shop which also commissioned a large piece to serve as their store’s branding focal point. These pieces are HUGE so I would be remiss not to mention that my husband, Tim, is the muscle behind BTMT. Without his engineering, construction, and installation skills, these projects would never happen.
Beyond the Mossy Tree has also been commissioned for projects by Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs, Inc., named just last month as one of Atlanta’s top twenty interior design firms. Most recently, we worked with them on a particularly fun project designing mirrors for Mimi & Emma’s, a mobile boutique. Who knew a Winnebago could be elegant?!
WM: Beyond the Mossy Tree does a great job of utilizing social media. Particularly Facebook. What does that extra engagement offer small businesses and their customers?
Rachelle: We love using Facebook to “socialize” with our customers and Facebook makes that so easy with comments, tagging, and messaging. We also LOVE when customers share photos of BTMT pieces in their homes and tag us in the photos. It’s fun to see where our pieces find a home. Plus…..our favorite part about Facebook is GIVEAWAYS & FLASH SALES. We’ve always done monthly giveaways, but flash sales are kind of new. We offer a specific piece (or two) at a special sale price, you email your order during the sale, and then you pick it up at the store later. They’re lots of fun and they’re only for our Facebook fans so if you don’t follow us on Facebook, that’s one good reason to start!
Oh, we’re also on Instagram but are just getting the hang of it. So for customers that LOVE Instagram, follow us there and help us learn the ropes!
WM: Due in part to your series of posts on your blog in honor of National Adoption Day last fall, many people know Beyond the Mossy Tree sprang out of your family's adoption journey. People will have to read the full post to know the effect your daughter's adoption has had on your family and particularly your son. But we want to hear your explanation of the effect art can have on a heart as it processes a beautiful gift or even a loss.
Rachelle: Oh, wow. This one is tough because art means something different to every person. To me, art can express sadness, share joy, provoke thought, challenge sensibilities, or capture the essence of single moment – whether beautiful, painful, or both. I think what I love about what I do is that it uses literary art – letters, words, and thoughts - to create visual art – forms, color, and texture. I think they both speak to my soul – literary art (particularly scriptures) leading me to focus on the purpose of my life and visual art appealing to my emotions, moods, and experiences. It’s a perfect blend. And the wood canvas……I just LOVE it!
WM: What can customers look forward to in 2014 from Beyond the Mossy Tree?
Rachelle: We’re so excited and thankful for the opportunity to be doing this! 2013 has been such a surprising blessing. Going forward, we are working on the launch of our all new website complete with online shopping and shipping to friends who aren’t able to visit one of our retail locations. In the meantime, we’re planning our first ever email coupon offer so be sure to sign up for our emails to get the scoop on coupons and upcoming sales. You can sign up via our facebook page or send an email to contactus@beyondthemossytree.com. Of course we’ll still be running occasional flash sales on our Facebook page too!
Oh, here’s one teaser though……be on the lookout because in the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing BTMT on more than just the walls!