Featured Artist: Little Sapling Toys

Good morning!  

I'd like to introduce to you Nick and Kimber of Little Sapling Toys on this fine day.  They make all kids of wonderful natural wood toys including those ASL blocks, I included in a post a couple of weeks back.   If you would like to purchase anything from their Etsy shop, use the code LUVBLO10 to get a 10% discount between now and August 15th.

On Etsy

What do you make and what was/is the inspiration for your shop? We make wood teethers, blocks and developmental toys for young children. Our beginning inspirations included the thrill of entrepreneurship, beautiful design and our own young son.

What instances helped give you the confidence/motivation to pursue this as a career?  In 2005-2006, Nick and I traveled around the country remodeling bathrooms as an install crew for AmBath, LLC. While living in hotels and eating in restaurants daily, we would constantly talk about the businesses; what we would keep, change and how we would run things. This experience was the foundation for running a smart business with consumers in mind.

Organic Driving Toy

What is your vision for the future of your business?  We expect our retail growth to stay strong while we continue to develop new toy designs. We are currently scouting for locations within our beautiful city of Sheboygan, WI to set up our wood shop and have retail space available to the community.

What is your connection to the Deaf community? If none, how did you come up with the idea for your wonderful ASL blocks?  We have used basic sign language with our children and loved using the ASL alphabet as a teaching aid. Our ASL "I Love You" teether was an instant hit with our customers, we made our beautiful alphabet blocks, then Braille blocks and ASL alphabet blocks were a natural to follow.

Are you trained as an artist?  If yes, what degree(s) or certificates do you hold and where did you earn it/them? If no, how did you learn to make the items you offer in your shop?  I design the toys with no formal artistic training. I can just see the beauty and utility potential when I imagine the wood. Nick runs the shop and makes toys with a degree in Historic Preservation and Restoration Carpentry. He also worked as a cabinet maker at the time we started Little Sapling Toys. We are a brilliant team.

Personalized Camera

What is one thing you will be going out of your way to learn more about in the coming year to benefit your business?  Law (namely intellectual property and safety standards)

What steps are you taking to ensure your products follow applicable child safety laws?  We've had our toys XRF tested (by ESSCO Safety Check) and we are working on getting certified testing later this year. One of the reasons we invested in a laser engraver is so that we can label our toys in compliance with CPSIA standards.

Here are myriad of  places you can find Nick and Kimber on the web:

www.littlesaplingtoys.com                       

www.facebook.com/littlesaplingtoys

www.littlesaplingtoys.etsy.com

www.littlesaplingtoys.tumblr.com/

www.twitter.com/littlesaplings

www.littlesaplingtoys.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/littlesaplingtoys
www.pandora.com/people/littlesaplingtoys
www.pinterest.com/saplingtoys

Bloom: Lessons in Grace...

I had the honor and privelege of being chosen to team interpret the Independence Day celebration at my church on the 3rd of July.  It was a challenge, because I have recently re-entered the Deaf world after about 5 years.  I was involved in the Deaf Community in San Diego before I had my kids, but when I got pregnant with the first one, I slowly and steadily started losing my ability to understand signers and produce understandible signs to the point that I just had to step away because I couldn't communicate at all and it was very embarassing. 

Image Courtesy: Little Sapling Toys

Anyway, as I look back on this experience, there are a couple of things that stand out that I wanted to share with you all:      
     1)  God's grace is sufficient for me (and you).  This is a pretty elementary concept, if you have spent any time in a good church, but I was reminded again of it because I was so nervous and though I prepared thouroughly and did try very hard, there are definately signs I was a little unsure about and things I had glossed earlier that didn't flow off my hands quite the way I had planned.  But in the end, I received several compliments from people in the community and I knew that what I had done was enough.  In years past, I would have been stressed out about it after the fact, but I was able to have peace about it because I understand that God turned my effort into something that honored Him and really, that was my goal to begin with.
     2) Nothing any of us do will ever truely be perfect, because we aren't perfect... none of us(!)  We can be really, really, really good at something, even really, really good at many things, but until we can walk on water of our own accord and have it hold us up... all we can do is to do our best and forget the rest. (Thank you P90X man, whatever your name is). 
  
I hope this will be a comfort to someone out there who struggles with perfectionism... because I know it can be pretty demanding and devaluing.  But there is one who is perfect and He wants to clothe us with His perfection and hold us close like a dady holds his precious child.  Will we let him?

Keep it thought-provoking!
Kristin