Meet Brandy¸ creator and owner of Rustic Treasures. She creates handcrafted furniture, such as benches, coffee tables, shelves, side tables, and so forth. Her favorite material is cedar wood.
Brandy got her start when looking at a garden calendar and noticed a bench in the photography. “I thought, ‘I can build that,’” she explains. She’s been building ever since. Brandy doesn’t use any plans for her Rustic Treasures – “just my good old imagination,” she says. Each item is unique and one of a kind.
She finds inspiration and ideas looking through magazines. “I can always find at least one thing interesting. If it is a color, pattern, style...something always gets my attention,” she says.
Brandy’s favorite part of her work is the process itself: “I enjoy building so much. When I am outside building ... I am happy. I find peace and serenity in each and every piece.”
Her favorite piece so far is the fan back bench (below).
Brandy’s biggest challenges include finding ideas for new items, and learning how to use different tools. On her to-do list is learning to operate a scroll saw.
The busy mother of three (ages 3 to 6), Brandy says, “I feel very blessed to have found something I am passionate about and can make a living doing it to be able to stay at home with my children.”
Brandy was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and lived there until the age of 12. She returned at 21, and “found the man of my dreams,” she explained. Brandy and her family now live on Lake Bistineau in Doyline, Louisiana.
Her best piece of advice for other sellers is this: “Never stop creating -- even when it doesn't sell. There is something for everyone.” When she first began building items that were very different, someone might say, ‘Nobody is going to want to buy that!’ “They were always my best sellers,” she says.
She sells both online and offline to people in her area. “Almost everyone on my street owns something I built,” Brandy says. She is also ready to put some pieces in a store on Texas Street in Bossier City.
To learn more about Brandy’s Rustic Creations, visit her Etsy shop:
http://www.trueconnection.etsy.com/
Brandy also enjoys painting and photography and has set up a second Etsy shop:
http://www.birdcottage.etsy.com/
Lovely work and great feature!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't her work amazing?! Incredible that she doesn't use a pattern...
ReplyDelete