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| Name | Blenda Risteen |
| Business Name | The Orange Chair Studio |
| Business Website | www.theorangechairstudio.com |
| What do you make? | I make paper lamp shade night lights, drum lamp shades and switch plates. I make almost all of my products with handmade papers or nautical chart images. |
| Country | United Stales |
| City, State | Rockland, Maine |
| Social Media Links | https://www.facebook.com/TheOrangeChairStudio https://twitter.com/orngchairstudio www.theorangechairstudio.etsy.com https://www.pinterest.com/orngchairstudio/ http://wanelo.com/store/theorangechairstudioetsy google.com/+Theorangechairstudiogoogleplus |
| More About Me | I live a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in a northern climate where we have snow for several months of the year. I'm passionate about supporting small business, especially fine artists and craftsmen, and local farmers. Our town has a thriving community of people who feel the same way, which is why I moved here! My favorite summer activity is to walk to the farmer's market (which is on the waterfront - did I mention how much I love this town?) with my husband and our 7 year old son. We get brick oven pizza, coffee, ice cream, cheese, yarn, blueberry tea, and maybe some more yarn for good measure - all of if it is roasted/grown/sheared/cooked/etc within miles of our house. Then we take a walk on the boardwalk to a local beach and playground to burn off some of those delicious calories! (On these days I feel like the luckiest person alive. Working from home and homeschooling my son allows me to create our own schedule and gives us the freedom to make these sorts of activities our priority, which is one of the reasons I love having my own business!) |
| My areas of expertise that apply to handmade business: | I went to school for fine arts, but didn't learn a single thing about how to make a career out of doing what I love, so I'm teaching myself as I go! I worked as a Product Coordinator at a gallery and fine craft store for many years. My responsibilities included all aspects of managing stock from both our wholesale and consignment vendors/artists, including: ordering, processing invoices, pricing, creating and managing our inventory database, and coordinating our yearly inventory count for tax purposes. I also worked "on the floor" with our point of sales software, facilitating custom orders between our customers and our artists, shipping, creating storefront displays, curating shows in the gallery and of course customer service. I've also done a ton of research for our shop on Etsy and am learning a lot about running a Shopify store as well as using Facebook, Pinterest, and Wanelo to promote our work. |
| theorangechairstudio@gmail.com |
