We recently connected with Jeremiah & Heather DeLoatch and have shared our conversation below.

Jeremiah & Heather, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

The first market we participated was a Lush Art Maker Market that I (Heather) helped organize. It was the Christmas after Covid and the local small markets were all still closed. It was intended as a way to help our staff of makers get the word out about their individual projects and make some extra money during the pandemic. It seemed like a prefect opportunity to try to sell our own products for the first time. We did a bit of advertising through own our social media pages and the response was amazing. We sold all of the cutting boards during the market and had several people come straight to our table to purchase the items we advertised on social media. It was really the springboard that encouraged us to continue making!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Jeremiah is an aircraft and avionics specialist with Robins Air Force Base as his main job. He was TDY in Louisiana, and started watching woodworking videos to pass the time. After returning home, he decided to give it a go himself. We started small, making a coffee table and other template led projects and then began experimenting with cutting board patterns and charcuterie board shapes.

I (Heather) manage and teach at Lush Art Paint Studio in Perry. I have always dabbled in different types of art, but found a love for lettering during the pandemic. I also started experimenting with watercolor, making cards and mini art pieces for markets.

While we have created a LOT of different projects, we used 2022 as the year to narrow down our focus to handcrafted wooden kitchen items (boards, spoons, scoops, etc) and nerdy based items (chess boards, book grips, and painted / lettered pop culture inspired pieces).

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Making things (whether it is wood or paint based) has been increasingly difficult through the pricing ups and downs of the past two years. During that, we have focused on finding ways to make the most out of every piece of wood. We like to make sure that exotic and interesting pieces of wood are used for projects that will showcase their natural beauty. And that smaller pieces are used to create fun, new projects.

In the same vein, because the economic shifts have been rough on everyone, markets are never a guaranteed success. We like to see markets as an opportunity to make connections with people in our community, rather just on selling product.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think the best way to support local artists and makers is to just show up. Go to local markets, go to galleries, share their posts, tell your friends about them, etc. Any and all support is helpful; it doesn’t have to be monetary.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lumberandink
• Facebook: Lumber & Ink
• Other: Vendor Booth at Old Mill Market (Forsyth)