Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emma Garcelon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emma, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

After graduating college in 2018 I got a job as a product photographer at a shop in my town that sold locally made gifts and home goods. Creativity, in one form or another, has always been an important part of my life, but it wasn’t until working at this shop that I got to meet artists and makers who were working full time as creatives. Seeing the wide range of functional art that is made right here in Maine was so inspiring and got me thinking about the many different forms art can take on.

One of the first items I purchased from the shop was a one-of-a-kind mug. Every time I used it, it brought me a little moment of joy, and I realized how much meaning normal, everyday objects can have when they are made by someone in your community. At the time, I was struggling to figure out how to maintain an art making practice outside of school. I fell in love with woodblock printmaking in college, and going from having access to a studio full of presses and printmaking equipment, to small desk in my apartment was a big adjustment. The idea of turning my designs into something functional gave me a new purpose.

Tea towels felt like the natural place for me to start. Growing up, my mom always had a big stack of colorful tea towels, and she passed her love for them on to me. I started testing out some of my carved blocks on fabric, and not long after I launched my website with a small collection of block printed tea towels.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create a quality product that could truly be useful, not just decorative. I spent a couple years doing a variety of pop-ups and markets to test things out and see what customers responded to. I got samples from lots of tea towel suppliers, worked with different screen printers, learned about types of ink, and spent way more time thinking about tea towels than I thought possible. At the beginning of 2022 when I felt like I had a solid foundation for my business, I relaunched my website and rebranded as Woodnote.

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?

My business is called Woodnote, and we create small-batch goods that bring moments of joy to everyday life by being both artfully designed and functional. Our patterns and designs are inspired by nature, and our products are created with a sustainable mindset. Currently our two main product lines are tea towels and napkins, both of which are made of natural, organic cotton and hand-printed in Maine with water-based inks.

We are based in Portland, Maine, an amazing place to be as a small business, and we ship our goods all over the country through our ecommerce website and Faire Wholesale. Our focus right now is on expanding our tea towel and napkin offerings, but we plan to add other products like Swedish dishcloths and cotton tote bags to our collection in the future. One of my favorite aspects of owning a business is getting to meet other business owners and makers, so we also plan on working with other small Maine businesses to add unique gift bundles to our website.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Shortly after I started selling my block printed tea towels, I realized that my process wasn’t going to be sustainable if I wanted to scale my business and expand to selling wholesale. At first, I really struggled with the idea of handing over production to another business. As an artist, it felt really weird to have someone else be making my products, but it ended up being the best decision. I now have my textiles screen-printed by Creation Lab Print Shop. It’s really the best of both worlds because my towels and napkins are still hand-printed in Maine and I can focus my time on creating new designs and actually running my business.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I have a Shopify website and an Etsy page as well as an account on Faire Wholesale. I maintain my Etsy page because I want to take advantage of the customer base that already exists there, but my priority has always been on my website. Having a space for my business that I have ownership and creative control over is important to me. With platforms like Etsy, as well as social media platforms, if your account gets suspended or hacked you could be completely cut off from your customer base in and instant, and not have any control over it. I also just love nerding out over web design, so for long term growth, focusing on my website makes sense for my business. In terms of wholesale, I am still fairly new to Faire, but so far it has really helped me reach new retailers so I’m excited to expand on that this year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopwoodnote.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop.woodnote/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shop.woodnote
• Other: Faire Wholesale: https://woodnote.faire.com