ELSEWARES

We are Rhonda & Elijah Wyman. I (Rhonda) will be answering most of the questions, but Elijah will proof read and make this more interesting in the end I bet. We were married in 2004 in an apple orchard on the hottest day of the year. He was 19 and I had turned 23 two days prior. He was still in college and I had graduated one month earlier. We ran a brick & mortar shop in 2005 and hated it, so we decided to focus on my metalsmithing. Figs was born via text message in mid 2006. We were featured on Etsy very soon after that, that feature led to tons of press for some magical reason, and things haven’t slowed down since. We started doing wholesale shows last year and were able to both quit our crappy jobs and work only on Figs. We have a great advantage being able to both work on Figs, it makes growth much easier. And we like each other a lot, so it’s fun doing what we do, even when we want to throw pens at each other.

We’re both. I have a degree in Jewelry & Light Metals from Rhode Island School of Design, and also studied in Florence, Italy at Alchemia School of Contemporary Jewelery.  Elijah is a singer/songwriter and has no training in art or business, but there is a lot of carry over from running a small business to being an independent musician. It’s perfect, he is super personable and convivial. He’s a great performer and people just love him. It’s kind of funny, he’s a cute guy, so at indie craft shows he has some ‘followers’ (he’s going to hate that I wrote this). I don’t know if they know I’m his wife, but when he’s not there they come up looking all expectant, then they see me and ask where Elijah is and when he’ll be back. [Rhonda thinks I'm hotter than I really am. I'm cool with it. - Elijah.]

It wasn’t till we were married that we both realized how important caring for the environment is. I’m not sure if it had something to do with a new stage in life, or just growing up, but the environment really started to matter to us. If we are to have a family someday we want our kids to be able to see the pretty things we’ve seen. We started educating ourselves on what was happening to our waste, and once we learned, there was no way to ignore it. We changed lots of things about our life pretty quickly.

This was around the same time Figs was born and we decided that if we couldn’t do things in a responsible way, we wouldn’t do them at all. We had a line we were making out of laminated paper, and it was doing really well for us, but we had to cut it as it didn’t align with our new ‘green goals’. It’s been challenging to find cheap eco-friendly alternatives, but we stuck by our plan. Things like spending a little extra cash on recycled business cards printed with soy based inks have been easy moves while figuring out the most sustainable ways to make our jewelry is a process we’re still working on.

We’ve let some really great ideas/designs go because they couldn’t be executed in a responsible way. We do understand some people really can’t afford to go the green way on every decision, and we don’t judge. It’s just been one of our only ‘plans’ in our ‘business plan’, so it’s been super important to stick to it. As far as impacting our business, it’s been great! People appreciate our transparency. Claiming to be eco-friendly should not be taken lightly and ‘green’ companies should be super honest about how and why they are ‘green’.  The people we sell to, like us, really care.  We feel obligated to constantly be on the lookout for how we can make our business cleaner.

Oh geez… when we have time we work on our house a frickin lot. We bought our all concrete home sight unseen a year and a half ago. We’ve pretty much gutted it and I finally was able to unpack some of our art work and put it on the wall last weekend! It’s been so much work, but we really enjoy it. With Spring coming we’re turning most of our yard into vegetable gardens. Elijah is obsessed with mopeds and just started kayaking. I well…I’ll watch movies, but make clasps while doing so. Figs sponsored a volleyball team this Spring, and I want to start canoeing with our dog, and rock climbing. Asheville has so many options, we love it!

Coming to realize that we are indeed a production company, albeit a very small production company. We love to go to as many shows as possible, but they tend to fall on the same day, so we’ll have friends that help out and do the show for us. It makes us sad not to be there, but we kind of feel good about providing some work for people. Our biggest challenge though has definitely been keeping stock on hand, as Elsewares has experienced a few times! Because we travel so much we have to take weeks off at a time meaning no one is in the studio to make, or ship things, so we get super behind. We just hired a studio manager though and the plan is that she’ll be able to handle the orders while we’re traveling. We’ll see how it works out this year though!

Yup, we made a very simple line of Circle Necklaces & Earrings that retail at around $40. They have been doing extremely well. Our price points were at about $20 and then $65 so the middle ground is taking over. I think we are selling more product this year so far, but making about the same as last, maybe a smidgen more.

Well, Elijah was diagnosed with a rapidly progressing kidney disease in February 2006 and almost died. He was only 21 and had never ever been hospitalized before, it was completely random. Luckily our dear, dear friend donated a kidney to save my hubby in June 2007. The same day we closed on our house. With Elijah being so sick and not working, and the cost of medical stuff, and rent, and everything that is involved with living in New England, we needed a break. I’ve always loved Asheville, the mountains and artists and whatnot, so we did it.

Everything was so scary and uncertain at the time that we decided to just do it and buy a house! It took our mind off of what was happening and helped us look forward and be excited for the future rather than dwell on the unspoken fact that we may not even have a future together. The house was super cheap (hence the major renovations) and our mortgage was less than our previous rent. We were living with Elijah’s parents to help with expenses and care of Elijah, and I was working 50 hrs a week, plus about 20 a week on Figs so we were able to save up. We moved down after Elijah’s 6 month recovery which brought us to December 25, which happens to be Elijah’s birthday! His middle name is Ebenezer, crazy right?

Asheville, NC (viewed from space)

Now Elijah is doing excellent! He’s on some meds, we’ve got some issues with our current health care system, but he’s feeling great and our life has never been so wonderful. We absolutely love Asheville with all of our heart. We love that we can afford to both live off of Figs and have a simple low maintenance life. Our friend Jason (who donated the kidney) visits a couple times a year and his record label “Grinding Tapes” is doing great, which means Elijah’s music is doing great. We really have no complaints!

Price & design accordingly! Lots of crafters aren’t pricing their products right to sell in a wholesale market. If they’re not interested in wholesale then it’s not a problem. But we hear lots of our crafty compatriots upset about getting half as much, but Figs grew 400% in one year once we started doing wholesale. it’s more work for less money, but when you’re getting orders for a bunch of pieces it makes it way worth it.

We travel a ton to different indie and traditional craft shows. I think that’s the best way. We get to hear feedback directly and it’s fun to meet our ‘show friends’ in different parts of the country. We sometimes advertise in places like Readymade or Bust. But that’s about it. Most of our press has been from blogs which we now actively search out.

There are so many. But I’ll only list 6 in no particular order.

Foundling
Aster + Sage
Aeolidia Web Design
David Civitrice
Jen Corace
Rebe clothing

We really love Elsewares! We think you guys do a great job with your shop and are super happy to be a part of it all!