We recently connected with Artisan Elements and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Artisan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In 2016, my daughter, who was 8 at the time, was almost killed in a boating tragedy, which left her a double amputee. As I navigated how to care for my daughter after a 6 month hospitalization, as a single working mom, I had ventured into the world of essential oils. Post-Injuries, my daughter, who had lost the entire left side of her body, was now reacting to everything – and I mean everything. I had to hand make our body wash, dish soap, laundry detergent, household cleaner, shampoo, etc – everything that she came into contact with, was now an issue. The chemicals HAD to go.
Already moving towards the chemical free household before the tragedy, I jumped into the endeavor and taught myself everything from what the core principals of essential oils were, to the perfect recipe for everything we needed so that my daughter would suffer less in her every day life to how to read the lab results of the oils and even became a certified Aromatherapist.
By mid 2017, I had become such an entrepreneur of the craft at home, that I decided to start selling some of the creations that I had made using recipes created for my daughter, at events and shows and I officially started my own business for her! After a year of doing that every weekend with my daughter, it became too much on top of her 7 plus medical appointments a week, my full time job, court battles, sports, therapy and running a household full of animals.
I decided it was time to look into a storefront – In my quest, the universe brought to me a house in the village that was vacant and needed occupancy. So, I moved in. And I opened up shop, selling all the things that I made for my daughter and more, out of my home. I continued to do limited shows and events, but primarily focused on building my local clientele rather than event clientele.
Word spread and I quickly had several handmade creators contacting me about setting up shop with me! Before I knew it, my house was full of crafted items and I knew that this adventure could become something more – Something that our village didn’t offer and something more to help me continue to pay for my daughters medical care.
Early 2018 I began looking for a commercial space for a new storefront and found one – which was in a new building development and wasn’t quite ready just yet. I worked with the property owner and prepared the lease. it was really real – I was going to have my very own storefront in an up-and-coming building with lots of other local businesses and social programs! Now, just to wait as they build it all out for me ….
By early 2019, I had signed the lease for the property and was ready to go – And then – A global pandemic, The entire world as we knew it shut down. Construction stopped, and I was told that because of the government closures, the property wouldn’t be ready until late 2020.
Total let down – All my dreams seemed to halt entirely. However, I decided I wasn’t going to let this stop me from moving forward – I NEEDED a space for this business because I quite literally had an arm and a leg to pay for on my own. My daughter was watching me and I wasn’t going to give up!
So, I continued to sell out of my home, although it was now only no-contact sales allowed. My business was essentially shut down, unless I could get online sales. And so … I did just that. I sold and I sold and I continued to sell, adding more vendors, and then started the property hunt again!
2019 forced so many businesses out of their locations, that I found myself touring many vacant properties I couldn’t keep them all straight. A few months of searching, touring and meetings and then – There it was!
Just down the street from my house, that had everything I was looking for – Selling space, private space for wellness services, and even a loft for some of the programs I was hoping to create! I was excited to finally be moving to a larger location in a commercial district, where this hobby was going to become a reality! Still working full time and raising my daughter, I was nervous, but ready to help create a better future for us and the community. As soon as I signed the lease, I felt accomplished. And then the planning, creating, advertising and business operations started. Slated to move into the new storefront early 2020!
We moved into our new commercial location in June of 2020 and remained there until November of 2022. Our first commercial property had become dilapidated and needed so much work; We had outgrown our space as we continued to grow in business, didn’t have parking, and knew that we needed to relocate … Low and behold, fresh to the market, a beautifully updated property with an attached apartment, just down the road, again!
In November 2022 we opened in our current and “forever” location at 77 S West St (Route 281), after a month of renovations, and plan to continue here for the duration of our business plan in the Village of Homer, NY.
Now, we house over 70 local family owned companies, crafters, artists, creators, wellness practitioners, events facilitators and more! We are the largest company in our village and we employ more families than any other business in our county. We provide an affordable, modern and practical storefront and center for our community to make an additional living, attend events and wellness and host community programs. I have developed Employment Readiness program for our high school students, taken on several Interns from SUNY Cortland Marketing departments and have singlehandedly funded this entire business without any pandemic funds or grants.
Our journey from creation to merchandising has most certainly had some really hard times, but we’ve established ourselves through the obstacles in front of us and look forward to the next 3 years of business in Homer, NY!

Artisan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

From the conception of Artisan Elements in my notebook, it has been and will always be my mission to create an all-inviting space for those that have a passion for creating and practicing a craft. We currently house more than 70 different, unique and local businesses that offer handcrafts from bath and body products to clothing, jewelry, candles, decor, furniture and everything in-between! We are always hiring new crafters and creators to keep our inventory fresh and relevant.
Our Wellness center currently houses 6 different practitioners offering the community healing and self-care sessions including Reiki, Massage, Herbalism, Psychic Readings, Meditation, Sound healing, tarot Readings, Shamanic Journeys, End of Life Doula, Officiants, Ordained Ministry and so much more! The Art Of Wellness Center at Artisan Elements is a private suite building for professionals looking to build their clientele and earn a living by helping others to heal and recover!
In our Events Lounge at Artisan Elements, we offer many forms of events, programs, clubs, classes, workshops and more – From homeschool groups to corporate business parties to baby showers, we have a plethora of packages available for almost everything you would need a space for! We also host several events from our monthly vendor & farmers markets, to large scale vendor events and parties, too!

Personally, I am always looking for creative ways to help engage and build our small community, since the resources for our little village seem to go to the Bar & Food industry, there isn’t much at all for our youth and families to engage in, unless we create it! Inside of the collective storefront, we feature youth vendors, who is anyone under the age of 18, that creates and wants to sell their creations! We also offer FREE family and adult events throughout the year to provide another form of activity within our community! We work closely with entertainment vendors, musicians, beer & wine and food trucks, snacks and treats vendors and more – So there is always something different and unique happening here!

We are a one-of-a-kind space for our location, focusing on Community Ove Competition, always!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our social media presence started with a cell phone and a quick post here and there, in text – Overtime, after taking several classes and learning from others, downloading apps and programs, I learned the algorithms and made it a daily task to post, create and advertise by joining relevant groups and pages and continuing’s to share others, interact on our feeds and following current trends and topics. it is a MUST in todays culture to be present and active on all social media platforms – It often feels like a full time job, but it is absolutely worth it in the end! Now, we post ore than 5 times a day on all platforms and continue to add additional postings for further content circulation!

Social media, especially in the micro-business world, is not for the weak and feeble. We have had many sideways comments and entitled behaviors over the few years of business and upon taking the risk of responding back to those who choose to act so brazenly, it has done wonders for our social media following.
Our followers do not want to see us sit back and take such unnecessary comments from keyboard warriors and we have grown exponentially from posts or interactions where we have bluntly but professionally taken the time to remind internet folks that their comments do not go unnoticed and that they also, wont be tolerated.
I have an absolute ZERO tolerance policy for anyone, in store or online, who has the audacity to disrespectfully attack us, our vendors or our community. Having an opinion is tolerated, but feeling privileged enough to insult others while expressing yours doesn’t have a home here.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties, is the definition of Resilience. I’ve never known true resilience, until I held my daughters hand through her recovery journey after almost being killed in 2016. She taught me everything there is to know about perseverance through hardships, and because of her magical ability to influence everyone around her with her beautiful and insightful demeanor, she in turn helped me continue on with this business after the Pandemic hit, and I feared that my entire business plan was going to entirely flop. Even at 10 years old, she was able to sooth my fears by reminding me as I always reminded her, that you must look for the silver lining and focus only on the light rather than the difficulties. There is always a way to overcome hardships and that, is the mindset of Artisan Elements in all of it’s capacity.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @artisanelementshomerny
• Facebook: @Artisan Elements
• Other: @ARTISAN ELEMENTS – Business Facebook @ArtisanElements – TikTok

Image Credits
All photos done by Amber – Artisan Elements Owner