Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Reed.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m originally from Germany, from a small Island called Amrum. I came over to Atlanta in 2012. I was married to my husband who’s a very creative soul himself and we visited Penland school of crafts in fall 2013 ). I was only joining him on this trip and with a lot of time in my hands I spend some time in their little craft supplies shop there and found a book about knife making. I always wanted to make a knife for myself and so I bought the book. I borrowed the old farm forge from my neighbor and got some basic knife making tools like files sandpaper metal saw, metal etc.
I made my first knife, filing everything by hand and heat treated it my self, doing the leather work for the sheaths as well. I fell in love with this work and kept on doing it teaching myself everything and also started to make some custom orders. In between, I founded my company Kalbadur. Live happens and my husband and I got separated and I moved. I needed to give up the knives making business lack space and tools. I really enjoy to work with metal and create things so I needed a solution!
The small place I rent now allows me to have a work table, and so I got tool by tool together and I started to teach myself how to make jewelry. I started first with beads and wires to learn how to work with my tools and about Oktober 2017 I got into metalsmithing. And that’s what I’m doing now.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The whole journey of teaching yourself a craft and setting up a business is a big challenge. I’m working full time in a restaurant and with limited time and money on my hands, everything takes a little longer and it requires a lot of patience.
My goal is to work from home only doing my craft, still a long way to go. I had a good inventory together to attend craft shows and sadly I got broken into a couple weeks ago, and they stole most of my tools and almost everything I made.
Well, I’m starting over again. Good no one can steal your talent!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Kalbadur – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My jewelry business is a one women operating company in its baby shoes. I have my little workshop at home where I spend most of my free time to create things out of metal. I work mostly with brass silver and copper and I work with different elements like stones and sea glass into my work.
I design while I work on a project and so most of my work is very unique and will not be made again. My style is more on the rustic side. I don’t like shiny things too much so I work a lot with tarnishing my objects to give them an antique look.
I’m proud to say that all of my work is handmade stuff and that I developed a unique style through teaching my self-everything. Most of the pieces I sold through my first year were custom orders and I attended a couple of craft shows.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I don’t have any big plans. I will keep on working to improve my business and when I have a better income I definitely will travel more and maybe in a few years move to the mountains. But I pretty much go with the flow and see where life leads me.
Contact Info:
- Email: kalbadurknives@gmail.com
- Instagram: Kalbadur
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