We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Birdie Galbraith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Birdie below.

Birdie, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

After over 20 years of making my art, I am hoping to either be able to get back into an existing store with my creations, or open my own gift shop

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my small business, Bear River Barn, about 12 years ago in Northern California. After moving to the San Diego area in 2020, during the middle of COVID, I decided to take a short break from my designing. My granddaughter, Leilani, started to show interest in my art and I took my love for making beautiful creations and shared it with her. We then decided it was time to come up with a new name for the business. YB Normal Designs describes our style the best. After all, why be normal? We attended our first-ever event in February of 2022, at Pacific Islander Beer Company with the Pacific Coast Market team. Since then, we’ve regularly attended craft events and are always looking to expand our designs. Our inventory changes constantly and is greatly influenced by our customers and the requests we get from them. We look forward to each and every event we attend because meeting our customers in person bring us such great joy. Hearing their feedback and suggestions is always informative. It helps us grow as a small business and allows us to stay up to date with current trends. We create jewelry, accessories, and home decor. Some things, like the driftwood sun catchers, have been a great hit from my early days in NorCal and will likely be in our inventory for a long time to come. We are eager to expand our business in SoCal and are looking forward to growing our clientele in this area.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Moving from Northern California to San Diego was somewhat of a setback for me. My pieces were in a very unique and eclectic shop in Auburn, CA for the last five years. I had a regular clientele that knew exactly where to find my one-of-a-kind creations. After our move to SoCal, it has been a slow process to try to build our clientele up again.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing my customers so happy with my designs is such a rewarding experience. When they find that perfect piece of jewelry, accessory or home decor, it is such an awesome moment to share with them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ybnormaldesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ybnormaldesign
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6pz0pIUSgbqiUtm_qZcs9g
• Other: My website will be up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Image Credits
Birdie Galbraith