We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Ostby a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My business started as a hobby. While my husband was deployed and I had just become a new mom. I felt there were so many labels thrust upon me in that period of my life; wife, military wife, dependent, mom, etc. It was a very strange place to be in, not having my own identity. I’ve always been a creative person and felt myself when I was making things. To pass the time of a year-long deployment and give myself some “me time” outside of brand-new motherhood, I would create. Whether I was painting, sewing, crocheting, or teaching myself a new skill like jewelry-making or metal stamping, I regained a glimpse of myself again. After things started to catch on and I sold several of my items to friends and family, a new business started budding.

Several years later, a rebrand and refocus, my business has become my dream job. My creative outlet has become a way to contribute to my family, travel on occasion, work from home to be close with my children and still gives me the individual identity I’ve wanted outside of “wife” and “mom”. I love each of my roles but believe balance is important for everyone.

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?

At Little Wander Shop, I offer hand-crafted, nature-inspired and upcycled jewelry, accessories and apparel. My pieces feature found items and unique designs inspired by the world around us. While I find inspiration in nature, I also strive to do my part as a business owner and am a virtually zero-plastic shop. My packaging, down to the packing tape, is plastic-free and recycled/reused wherever possible. I offer items using upcycled elements such as vintage keys, bullet casings, arcade tokens, shotgun shells and vintage buttons to reduce landfill contribution as well as my hand-drawn recycle design on my best-selling canvas tote to replace plastic bags during shopping trips.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As most of the world knows, 2020 was a time of reevaluation and adjustment. No one knows it better than small business owners. I was one of the “lucky” ones who not only stayed in business, but found a path that allowed me to expand to new places. Like most, the beginning of the year was faced with so much uncertainty and unknown. Taking a good look at my business, I was extremely concerned with the cancellation of events piling up. About 90% of my income comes from in-person events and markets and without them, I was certain I would have to close. After a few weeks of reflection and research, I began to expand my wholesale catalog and joined a few wholesale marketplaces. Within a month I was receiving orders and shipping stock to other small businesses across the globe. By taking a step back and assessing before closing up shop, I was able to create another stream of revenue that continues to help in my off-season.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I hand-make every item in Little Wander Shop, with the exception of the screen printing of my hand-drawn designs {which is done by a local, small, woman-owned business} Each skill has been self-taught with little to no instruction or assistance. My learning style is best described as a hands-on, trial and error and the learn-as-I-go method. I love to challenge myself and think of new ways to bring something new to my products. I have a background with art and design classes which help me with some of the graphic design aspects but each of my other skills begins with a few prototypes and research. Many hours goes into finding supplies and testing and trying them. I share one-of-a-kind items with my group on Facebook or in my social media stories as market research. Being able to test my creative boundaries and skill-level is one of my favorite parts of my job!

Contact Info:

• Website: littlewandershop.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/little.wander.shop
• Facebook: facebook.com/thelittlewandershop
• Twitter: twitter.com/wander_shop
• Other: facebook.com/groups/littlewandershopwanderers