I don't remember going to the store and buying a pair of pliers, wire and beads for the first time. They say that when you are really good friends with someone, you never remember meeting them and I think that is how my beading story happened too. Rosary making is just something I've always done.
What I do remember is the first Rosary that I ever made. It didn't look so good, and that's an understatement.
I made that first Rosary when I was ten years old. My father noticed my interest in making one and he introduced me to his friend, an eighty year old lady who had made thousands. She has a heart of gold and has sent them to missions all over the world. She taught me how to make loops and "bows" and where to buy parts for them.
I've never been a person to merely dabble in such activities and so I immediately made ten or twenty Rosaries.
One of the first Rosaries I made.
I was intent on making something really durable though. I didn't like the idea of going through all the work of making something that my little siblings could destroy in a minute flat -- besides, a Rosary should be something they could handle too.
TheRosePicker started when my Dad shared a picture of one of the Rosaries that I had made on Facebook, a friend from college commented "I would buy one!" and my Dad immediately made me an Etsy account.
I figured out how to stock my new shop very quickly and my friends and family purchased several of them. I knew I had a great business future ahead! But that dream quickly fizzled out when I realized that my relatives weren't planning on continuously buying Rosaries for the foreseeable future.
I realized I would have to "find" customers somewhere but I just didn't know how.
My first wire-wrapped Rosary.
Nothing really happened in my little corner of Etsy until I was 13. I used that "dead" time in my business to learn how to wire wrap beads, and I listed the first wire wrap Rosary I ever made.
One day, out of nowhere somebody bought a Rosary! And we didn't have the same last name! From that point on I was hooked. I knew there was a way to somehow find customers. At the time, I had a job working as legal assistant at my family's law office and I used the money to invest in advertising. I purchased advertising space on a Catholic blog that I had followed for sometime and almost immediately the long awaited sales began to gradually come in.
A year or two later I had a consultation with an Etsy marketing expert who helped me learn a little more about how Etsy works and it helped TheRosePicker immensely!
I dream of someday getting to operate TheRosePicker as my full-time job. We are not there yet (!) but I've always felt so blessed to work with Catholic customers! I love experimenting with beads, designs and different methods of making Rosaries and I love having at least a part time job that allows me to spend time doing what I love the most!