In 1995, I was a young mother with a five year old daughter and a husband whose work often took him away from home for weeks at a time. We needed 2 incomes. I was working as an outside sales rep in the gift and garden industry for 3 years prior to her birth and had a 400 mile territory.
I traveled with my daughter, Nickie, to the many kid-friendly buyers’ meetings at which she was happy to play quietly with her books and toy bag. Plus it always meant jumping on the hotel beds at night and eating fast food! She loved our road trips and we enjoyed our time together. My family worked it out that when my husband was home, he stayed with our daughter and I attended the meetings at which a child’s presence would not be appropriate.
By the way, that 5 year old is 22 and just received her Master’s, Summa Cum Laude. There are rumblings of a doctorate in the works.
Update, Nickie is now a Kindergarten teacher here in Southern Oregon for 48 (that’s right) little ones.
In July 2015 wedding to an equally wonderful and talented man!
ANYHOO……….back to the 90’s
Then she, Nickie, was about to enter kindergarten. A traveling lifestyle with Mom was no longer an option. Uh oh….what to do? I was doing one of our 3-time yearly trade shows in Seattle. While I was wandering the 20 some floors of a wholesale gift mart, my eye caught this little stone, about 5” in diameter that had the word “imagine” engraved on it. I went in to ask if the Seattle rep knew where I could purchase one of these stones locally. I was directed to the Seattle Wharf and handed over $23.00 for almost the same wonderful stone with “imagine” all in lower case.
Just a rock…$23.00??!! A plain simple river rock had me mesmerized. I felt the power of it and was comforted by both that and the simple word that was deeply engraved upon it. I smiled at what I held, and the value the message had for me. I was locked in to what my future would consist of…I will learn this craft. Whatever I was to become, I would be good at this. My love for nature, the natural, the organic, the simple and an overwhelming entrepreneurial spirit would fuel this goal. Since I was 4 I had been entertaining the ice cream man with a short song for an ice cream and raising guinea pigs & rabbits, publishing manuals and many other pursuits. I have an art background and have been a quote collector since I could remember. I could do this, and do it well. Perfect! Now what?
I began my research at memorial headstone businesses. Their guidance was valuable and it gave me some information but I knew that natural stone handled differently than polished marble and granite. I then hit Google. I found 2 others that had similar ideas about stone engraving but it was not of the quality that I wanted to achieve. When I spoke to both men they were very reluctant, to say the least, to offer me any information. Game on! This is why after 17 years in the natural stone engraving business I am so excited about writing an actual natural stone engraving manual – the first one in existence. We feel that there is enough opportunity for every entrepreneur across the country to do well with this business with a bit of gumption, focus, long hours, and hard work. Even if you just stay in your town between the vets, memorial homes, cemeteries, realtors and craft and growers markets, you can do great. These were my beginnings.
We are now in our 19th year. I will not proceed with the details in-between: we went bigger, we went bolder, bigger shops, smaller shops, built shops, hired and fired web masters, we went mobile, went “postal”, we went smaller, we added wholesale, dropped wholesale. What a journey!
Northwest Stone Wise Team
Our team included 4 full-time & 6 part-time employees; 2 of which are “Master Engravers.” They have combined over 31 years’ experience with engraving stones, including my sister Laurie for 4 years at with me.
To date, our team has engraved over 140 tons of natural river stone; over 952,000 stones for companies like Ford Motors (they ordered 325,000 alone) and over 85,000 gift, corporate, weddings, anniversaries, celebrations, proposals, commemoratives, memorials (people and pets), cornerstones, family stones, address stones, affirmations, meditations, contracts….the list goes on and on. See the gallery in the back for examples of our work.
All engraved stones were completed at our facility to our exact standards. To meet our customers’ requirements, the graphic design, stone selection, engraving & packaging is completed entirely by our staff. We are sure our customers will be satisfied with their custom engraved stone.
In September 2012, I have sold the business to the artisan Tonia who has been with me for years. She has taken over Northwest Stonewise with an army of family members with areas of expertise that all work well together in this still growing business.
We have expanded, learned and grown so much over the years.
I now have the time to develop the natural stone engraving manual. It is what I wanted to do all along but could not get to it after so many 12-14 hour days. I remain the pinch hitter for the new owners at StoneWise if needed. I wish them the very best with all my heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears that went into the creation of this wonderful business and now the manual. I have enjoyed immense personal and professional fulfillment working with nature’s finest canvas. Stone, Rock, Simple and Symbolic.
I wish every success for you too.
