We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joel Lockridge. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joel below.
Alright, Joel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
BourbonPens.com was created through an idea for recycling, a love for fine bourbon, adoration of woods with a story, and a love for woodworking.
The entire business sprouted from an accident. I had a table saw accident, and while I was healing I went to a turning demonstration. I said “that looks like fun,” and bought some equipment. I bought a lathe and some turning tools. I was making pens and other items from everything I could get my hands on. A friend from Kentucky sent me some barrel staves and said “make me some pens out of these.” When I did, the entire shop smelled like bourbon. I started getting wood from various distilleries, and letting people choose their favorite bourbon and style of pen is when it really took off. I have now shipped my work to 76 countries.
Joel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I enjoy wood with a story and finely crafted handmade items. I currently have barrel wood from 16 different bourbons. I like to say I specialize in wood with a story. One wood I have on hand is 6,000 year old wood called “ancient bog oak,” which comes from the peat bogs. Peat absorbs oxygen so things that fall into the bog don’t decay. The acids and tannins in the water darken and harden the wood over the centuries, so it will range from a chocolate brown to nearly black. When these trees were alive, the pyramids had not been built. I also have wood from battleship decks, famous movie locations, olivewood from Bethlehem, exotic and domestic woods.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I was a graphic artist for 25 years. When the last company I worked for closed down, it would have been the fourth time I had to start over in my career. Graphic design can be a tough business. When hiring someone, they won’t pay for 25 years experience, they want to pay for new college graduate rates. So I made a hard choice and walked away from it. I went to “full time artist” for five years. I traveled from art show to art show, returning home after each one to build inventory and mail out new orders. In 2018 I was away from home for 44 weekends, and that was too much. I took the business back to part-time status and did some local work with a contracting company, doing everything from installing appliances to kitchen cabinets. Lucky for me I did take that job, because 2020 and COVID happened, and there were no art shows. I still had some orders coming from the website, but it wasn’t like full time.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
I do sell and maintain a shop on Etsy, and did some sales on Amazon before all their changes. I maintain my own website, and some of the one-of-a-kind items I make are hard to keep up with because they come and go so quickly. Those items I tend to put in my Etsy store. The ones I can duplicate and make multiple items of, I list on my website. Etsy makes listing a one-off item easy, but I admit I need to improve on my photography for uploading photos.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bourbonpens.com
- Instagram: @bourbonpens
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourbonpens
- Twitter: @bourbonpens