Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwen Brown
Gwen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
One could say my journey into fiber arts started when I was a child making weird clothes for my dolls, but really it began in earnest during college. At 19, I taught myself how to knit and later that year took a drop spindle class. These two activities quickly turned into several more including weaving, felting, and dyeing. I tackled these various hobbies independently, accumulating yarn and tools, making a mess in my parents kitchen, and generally having a grand time. After graduation, I expanded my hobby into a wee business. I sold hand-dyed fibers and handspun yarn at fiber shows along with finished items during the holiday season. This continued for quite some time until the end of 2016 when I decided to move my business from “home-based” into a brick and mortar shop. I found a nice spot on Main Street where I set up my little shop! It’s been eight years and we keep growing with new products and classes all the time. I contribute a good portion of the inventory through my own efforts. I carry a large selection of hand-dyed fibers for spinning and felting and a range of hand-dyed yarns. Additionally, I offer tools for spinning, weaving, felting, knitting, crochet and a few other yarn-related activities. I love notions, cute little things, and fun tools, so there are plenty of those too! Basically I stock whatever I find appealing, so if we have similar taste, you’ll be golden! It’s not a huge space, but I’ve crammed a lot of interesting things in there. Plus, I can help you on your journey through classes, both private and group, so you have no excuse not to try something new!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not been smooth. In fact, the eight years I’ve had my brick and mortar shop, we’ve encountered quite a few different challenges. When I first opened, there was a lot of uncertainty due to the political climate. Within a few years, we were smack in the middle of a global pandemic. Many businesses struggled; some closed, some stuck it out. Business has never been booming, so we just scaled back on buying and focused on the most popular items. Thankfully I had enough support to make it through, but then we were faced with increased shipping costs and scarcity of products. Things leveled out for a while, but now we’re back into uncharted territory. Unfortunately yarn is not a necessity and when the cost of living is high, one must cut back!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My shop is not a standard yarn shop. Because I do my own dyeing, you’ll find a wider selection of unique items and one-of-a-kind colors. Personally, I love to jump between several different fiber arts (knitting, crochet, weaving, felting, spinning) and so I offer products and classes on all of these things. Customers don’t have to wait for an expert on that topic to be in the shop on a certain day; or find that the staff doesn’t know how to use the tools. I am the expert and the staff and I’m there every day! I won’t stock a product without using it or having knowledge about it.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I would like to say I learned something from Covid-19, but I’m not really sure that I did. Even in my personal life, I made the necessary changes to get through the day, but when we were able to return to a “normal” existence, I did just that.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwenerin.naturalfibers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gwenerinfibers
