Describe your business:
We are a family owned craft business that creates products made from 100% wool felt balls and hearts. Our Comfort Hearts and Memorial Hearts are intended as a tool to help families comfort children in times of separation and loss. We also create colourful felt ball jewellery, trivets and heart shaped wedding ring pillows.
Where does your inspiration for this business come from?
My daughters inspired this business.
My youngest daughter was struggling with anxiety about starting kindergarten and I was struggling with finding a way to ease her anxiety. On the first day of school I tucked a felt heart I had made into her pocket and told her that it held Mommy and Daddy’s love and that she could take it out and give it a hug anytime she needed us. Thankfully, it worked and she was comforted that Mommy and Daddy’s love was carried with her in her pocket every day at school. It is still something she carries when she feels anxiety about new situations. A few months later when my Dad passed away both of my daughters insisted on giving Grandpa a comfort heart at his Memorial so that he could take their love with him forever. They each gave the heart a squeeze and a kiss and gave their comfort heart to grandpa. It was a very touching part of the ceremony and the idea for the Memorial Heart was born.
One day I decided I wanted to attempt felting as a craft with my girls and we went to the yarn store and bought some raw wool roving. We spent hours making different sized balls and their creative minds took over and together we explored the possibilities of the versatile material and we fell in love with it. My girls inspired the jewellery designs and together we researched the necessary materials and explored the possibilities. We still have a list of projects we would like to create and I am sure we will have more products in the near future to share.
What has been your greatest achievement thus far? We are very new to selling our product however it has been almost a year of creating, photographing, researching and development. So the launch of our website was exciting and the best moment was our first sale. This affirmed that someone else had a need for what we were creating. It was a very exciting moment. My girls were happy to hear the story behind why this person was buying their hearts. It made us feel good to play a part in making someone else smile and this made everything we’ve worked towards this year even more worth-while.
What’s your advice for someone who is just starting out? It’s not new advice but it’s very good advice. Love what you do and believe in your product. That said, there was so much more to starting this business than I could have imagined in the beginning. For example I am still learning how to take a good photograph of my product and I have also learned that one word can change the meaning of what you are trying to say and make all the difference. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and help from family, friends and others in similar businesses that can be your most valuable resource.
Want to know more about Take Heart Canada? Check out their website, or facebook page. :-)