The last couple of years have been a blur of business plans, Kickstarter projects, Refresh Everything campaigns, grand openings, late nights, holiday rushes, dirty jobs and dirtier diapers. Homespun: Modern Handmade turned two years old this month, an important piece of trivia that was obscured by the rush to open our second location – Homespun: Workshops & Gallery.
Homespun was initially conceived as a boutique, gallery, and workshop devoted to contemporary handmade goods. But the we quickly learned that the demands of retail made it impossible to move forward with the gallery and workshop space in the same location on E. Washington St. So we decided to get the boutique part right and launch a workshop and gallery space at a later date. Last year you helped us win a Pepsi grant to cover most of the cost of opening a second location, we found a space close to the store, and we’ve spent the last five months getting it off the ground. We’ve held a smattering of classes there but our formal grand opening is this weekend.
We grossly underestimated the time, energy, and expense required to open a second location. When we opened Homespun I was working from home, Amanda was unemployed and pregnant. Now I have a much less flexible job, Amanda has a busy shop to run and our son is nearly two. We would not have been able to launch Homespun: Workshops & Gallery without the assistance, technical and moral support of Ryan Page, Angela Garvin, Rana Striedinger, Ivy Klein, Joanne Ash and the various friends and relatives they enlisted to help clean, paint, and do odd jobs to help us inch closer to opening day. Without your votes on our Pepsi Refresh page and the hands-on work of the people listed above, Homespun: Workshops & Gallery would not exist. So thank you. Sincerely. We hope that it’s well worth everyone’s time.
PS: Special thanks and a fond farewell to Aubrey Chaney, Homespun’s first employee and one of our first champions. She has moved on to bigger and better things but we’re confident that her Backwoods Belle hair accessories will continue to be top sellers.
