web01.fireside.fm Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:43:03 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Sustaining Craft - Episodes Tagged with “Sustainability” https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/tags/sustainability Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:00:00 -0400 Sustaining Craft started in 2016, when Elizabeth Silverstein, a writer, found herself discouraged after a move and a divorce. To find a little encouragement for herself and others, she decided to talk to people building businesses in creative fields. en-us episodic The stories of those making a living with their art, craft, or passion. Elizabeth Silverstein Sustaining Craft started in 2016, when Elizabeth Silverstein, a writer, found herself discouraged after a move and a divorce. To find a little encouragement for herself and others, she decided to talk to people building businesses in creative fields. no craft, art, small business, local business, creative business, stories, storytelling, content, marketing, business stories, creative, art business, craft business, passion, passion business, painting, writing, drawing, henna, woodworking, animals, opera, singing, music, welding, metal work, books, novels, flowers, floral arrangement, photography, photos, nonprofit Elizabeth Silverstein hello@hewandweld.com Episode 8: Tabatha Reeves: Storytelling with Candle Scents https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/8 d02921bc-ede5-41a6-95d5-9e315ccd53c4 Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:00:00 -0400 Elizabeth Silverstein full Elizabeth Silverstein Tabatha Reeves started candle making as a hobby. The hobby became a family business when other people wanted to buy their no frill candles that focus on masculine scents, historical elements, and memories. 33:48 no And they keep their product lines interesting, even taking special orders. “We have these really unique niche scents in some of our candles, so they work really well for historical reenactors, but they’re not going to sell to somebody else,” Reeves said. “We have a state park that we contract to that deals with historical reenactors all the time, and one of their properties on the park is a jail. We designed an entire line of candles just for their jail, scents that would have been in a jailhouse in the mid-1800s to early 1900s when it was operational.” One of those specialty scents is called The Sheriff. “It kind of smells like this dirty man that’s been smoking a pipe,” Reeves explained. “When I smell it, I get the thought of the cowboy with his feet up on the desk, and the big sheriff badge and a hat over his face, sleeping while his prisoners are in the cells behind him. That’s what it conjures for me. Many of our scents are like that. You can smell it and you can conjure this idea of what it is supposed to be in your head.” But not everyone can smell the candles. “A lot of men can’t smell,” Reeves explained. “I didn’t realize this until I started dealing with men on a regular basis. Men, blue-collar workers, a lot of them can’t smell because they’ve worked around chemicals their whole life. Or they’ve worked around major smells their whole life. My dad is a maintenance man at a roofing plant. My dad can’t smell anything. Asphalt’s burned the inside of his nose. So he can’t smell candles. My dad can’t smell when something is cooking. And he’s not the only one.” Special Guest: Tabatha Reeves. candles, candles for men, novelty candles, arkansas candles, arkansas, creative business, local business, arkansas business, storytelling with candles, scents, memories And they keep their product lines interesting, even taking special orders. “We have these really unique niche scents in some of our candles, so they work really well for historical reenactors, but they’re not going to sell to somebody else,” Reeves said. “We have a state park that we contract to that deals with historical reenactors all the time, and one of their properties on the park is a jail. We designed an entire line of candles just for their jail, scents that would have been in a jailhouse in the mid-1800s to early 1900s when it was operational.”

One of those specialty scents is called The Sheriff. “It kind of smells like this dirty man that’s been smoking a pipe,” Reeves explained. “When I smell it, I get the thought of the cowboy with his feet up on the desk, and the big sheriff badge and a hat over his face, sleeping while his prisoners are in the cells behind him. That’s what it conjures for me. Many of our scents are like that. You can smell it and you can conjure this idea of what it is supposed to be in your head.”

But not everyone can smell the candles. “A lot of men can’t smell,” Reeves explained. “I didn’t realize this until I started dealing with men on a regular basis. Men, blue-collar workers, a lot of them can’t smell because they’ve worked around chemicals their whole life. Or they’ve worked around major smells their whole life. My dad is a maintenance man at a roofing plant. My dad can’t smell anything. Asphalt’s burned the inside of his nose. So he can’t smell candles. My dad can’t smell when something is cooking. And he’s not the only one.”

Special Guest: Tabatha Reeves.

]]> And they keep their product lines interesting, even taking special orders. “We have these really unique niche scents in some of our candles, so they work really well for historical reenactors, but they’re not going to sell to somebody else,” Reeves said. “We have a state park that we contract to that deals with historical reenactors all the time, and one of their properties on the park is a jail. We designed an entire line of candles just for their jail, scents that would have been in a jailhouse in the mid-1800s to early 1900s when it was operational.”

One of those specialty scents is called The Sheriff. “It kind of smells like this dirty man that’s been smoking a pipe,” Reeves explained. “When I smell it, I get the thought of the cowboy with his feet up on the desk, and the big sheriff badge and a hat over his face, sleeping while his prisoners are in the cells behind him. That’s what it conjures for me. Many of our scents are like that. You can smell it and you can conjure this idea of what it is supposed to be in your head.”

But not everyone can smell the candles. “A lot of men can’t smell,” Reeves explained. “I didn’t realize this until I started dealing with men on a regular basis. Men, blue-collar workers, a lot of them can’t smell because they’ve worked around chemicals their whole life. Or they’ve worked around major smells their whole life. My dad is a maintenance man at a roofing plant. My dad can’t smell anything. Asphalt’s burned the inside of his nose. So he can’t smell candles. My dad can’t smell when something is cooking. And he’s not the only one.”

Special Guest: Tabatha Reeves.

]]> Episode 5: Suzanne Godbold: Baking the Perfect Sugar Cookie https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/5 d0646cde-b0bf-42fe-940e-6af39b18a010 Mon, 20 Aug 2018 11:00:00 -0400 Elizabeth Silverstein full Elizabeth Silverstein In 2016, Suzanne Godbold, Chelsea Cook, and Sara Long were all busy with families and full-time jobs. Wanting to spend more time together, they created Three Best Bakery, a home-based bakery that provides cookies, cakes, and cupcakes. They divided up the responsibilities and got to work developing the perfect sugar cookie recipe. 31:41 no When Long moved to Florida, Godbold and Cook divided the remaining responsibilities. While they at first tried splitting the baking and the decorating, they found the workflow wasn’t efficient. Cook, who has a degree in business, took over the finances, taxes, and practical business needs. Godbold took on all of the baking, decorating, social media, and marketing. Along with refining her baking skills, Godbold learned that her customers weren’t on Instagram or Facebook. “At the beginning, I was trying to do paid ads and do all these things and market on Facebook but that really doesn’t sell for this market,” she explained. “Most of my customers didn’t find me on Facebook. It was word of mouth or they tried our cookies at someone’s event. Once I figured that out, it took a lot of stress off of social media. Social media is just fun. It’s a fun case to showcase our art and product and meet people.” Referrals turned into regular customers, and they also started selling cookies at the Me and McGee Market, a stand dedicated to local produce, meats, cheese, products, and crafts. “When we first started marketing, it was a little bit of a struggle trying to find who our customer is,” shared Godbold. “Who would appreciate what we do and who is looking for what we were offering because we’re not trying to compete with Walmart. We’re not even trying to compete with some of the other local storefront bakeries. You can’t call me up on a Tuesday morning and say, ‘Hey, can I have three dozen decorated cookies by this afternoon?’ It’s not going to happen because I need at least three days. It took a little bit, but once we really found our customer base, who understands us, they understand what we put into it. They know that I’m a stay-at-home mom and that I do this from 8 pm until midnight or sometimes later during the week. They appreciate our work and are willing to pay for what we’re offering.” Special Guest: Suzanne Godbold. local business, Arkansas, Arkansas business, bakery, cookies, sugar cookies, creative business, best friends, Three Best Bakery When Long moved to Florida, Godbold and Cook divided the remaining responsibilities. While they at first tried splitting the baking and the decorating, they found the workflow wasn’t efficient. Cook, who has a degree in business, took over the finances, taxes, and practical business needs. Godbold took on all of the baking, decorating, social media, and marketing.
Along with refining her baking skills, Godbold learned that her customers weren’t on Instagram or Facebook. “At the beginning, I was trying to do paid ads and do all these things and market on Facebook but that really doesn’t sell for this market,” she explained. “Most of my customers didn’t find me on Facebook. It was word of mouth or they tried our cookies at someone’s event. Once I figured that out, it took a lot of stress off of social media. Social media is just fun. It’s a fun case to showcase our art and product and meet people.”
Referrals turned into regular customers, and they also started selling cookies at the Me and McGee Market, a stand dedicated to local produce, meats, cheese, products, and crafts.
“When we first started marketing, it was a little bit of a struggle trying to find who our customer is,” shared Godbold. “Who would appreciate what we do and who is looking for what we were offering because we’re not trying to compete with Walmart. We’re not even trying to compete with some of the other local storefront bakeries. You can’t call me up on a Tuesday morning and say, ‘Hey, can I have three dozen decorated cookies by this afternoon?’ It’s not going to happen because I need at least three days. It took a little bit, but once we really found our customer base, who understands us, they understand what we put into it. They know that I’m a stay-at-home mom and that I do this from 8 pm until midnight or sometimes later during the week. They appreciate our work and are willing to pay for what we’re offering.”

Special Guest: Suzanne Godbold.

]]> When Long moved to Florida, Godbold and Cook divided the remaining responsibilities. While they at first tried splitting the baking and the decorating, they found the workflow wasn’t efficient. Cook, who has a degree in business, took over the finances, taxes, and practical business needs. Godbold took on all of the baking, decorating, social media, and marketing.
Along with refining her baking skills, Godbold learned that her customers weren’t on Instagram or Facebook. “At the beginning, I was trying to do paid ads and do all these things and market on Facebook but that really doesn’t sell for this market,” she explained. “Most of my customers didn’t find me on Facebook. It was word of mouth or they tried our cookies at someone’s event. Once I figured that out, it took a lot of stress off of social media. Social media is just fun. It’s a fun case to showcase our art and product and meet people.”
Referrals turned into regular customers, and they also started selling cookies at the Me and McGee Market, a stand dedicated to local produce, meats, cheese, products, and crafts.
“When we first started marketing, it was a little bit of a struggle trying to find who our customer is,” shared Godbold. “Who would appreciate what we do and who is looking for what we were offering because we’re not trying to compete with Walmart. We’re not even trying to compete with some of the other local storefront bakeries. You can’t call me up on a Tuesday morning and say, ‘Hey, can I have three dozen decorated cookies by this afternoon?’ It’s not going to happen because I need at least three days. It took a little bit, but once we really found our customer base, who understands us, they understand what we put into it. They know that I’m a stay-at-home mom and that I do this from 8 pm until midnight or sometimes later during the week. They appreciate our work and are willing to pay for what we’re offering.”

Special Guest: Suzanne Godbold.

]]> Episode 4: Brittany Oaks: Painting the Miracle of Birth with Light https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/4 62ed4a46-4c8c-41ce-b98c-84f7bc2e4471 Mon, 13 Aug 2018 13:00:00 -0400 Elizabeth Silverstein full Elizabeth Silverstein Brittany Oaks had always loved the history of birth, reading midwifery books as a teenager and hoping to get a nursing degree. When she realized organic chemistry wasn't for her, she switched to a history degree. Then, while at a friend's home birth, someone stuck a camera in her hands. She launched her birth photography business, Wandering Oaks Photography, in 2017. 32:54 no Brittany Oaks made a few friends in Conway while a single mother and was invited to a home birth. “It was really, really incredible to see,” Oaks said. “And I’d given birth by that point myself. But this was an unmedicated home birth. She started out in the water and ended up going to her bed. And just the raw power and just the fact that she invited only those people she wanted there was really, really interesting to me. That’s who was in that house and I was invited. And someone threw me a camera while she was pushing and the rest is history. I was just in love with it. This is a story, and I want to tell this story. I want to capture these sacred moments because there are a lot of things worth capturing in life - momentous moments, but to me in that time, it made it really clear to me. I spent a lot of money on my wedding photography. The wedding was annulled. I can’t show those photos or care about them because you know. But it doesn’t matter what happened with that child. When you take photos of that new human being born, that’s always your child, no matter what happens. There’s nothing that’s going to annul that.” Oaks soon remarried into the military and was stationed overseas. Unable to work, Oaks practiced her photography skills, homeschooled her three sons, and traveled with her family. “But I knew when we got back to the states, I wanted to hit the ground running,” Oaks explained. “I knew what I wanted to do. So I did. We got back in August last year and I immediately filed for my business, got insurance and all the stuff that makes a business. … I knew what I wanted and I’ve been hustling ever since to make it happen.” Special Guest: Brittany Oaks. birth, birth photography, Arkansas, Arkansas business, local business, photography business, midwife, child birth, the story of child birth Brittany Oaks made a few friends in Conway while a single mother and was invited to a home birth. “It was really, really incredible to see,” Oaks said. “And I’d given birth by that point myself. But this was an unmedicated home birth. She started out in the water and ended up going to her bed. And just the raw power and just the fact that she invited only those people she wanted there was really, really interesting to me. That’s who was in that house and I was invited. And someone threw me a camera while she was pushing and the rest is history. I was just in love with it. This is a story, and I want to tell this story. I want to capture these sacred moments because there are a lot of things worth capturing in life - momentous moments, but to me in that time, it made it really clear to me. I spent a lot of money on my wedding photography. The wedding was annulled. I can’t show those photos or care about them because you know. But it doesn’t matter what happened with that child. When you take photos of that new human being born, that’s always your child, no matter what happens. There’s nothing that’s going to annul that.”

Oaks soon remarried into the military and was stationed overseas. Unable to work, Oaks practiced her photography skills, homeschooled her three sons, and traveled with her family. “But I knew when we got back to the states, I wanted to hit the ground running,” Oaks explained. “I knew what I wanted to do. So I did. We got back in August last year and I immediately filed for my business, got insurance and all the stuff that makes a business. … I knew what I wanted and I’ve been hustling ever since to make it happen.”

Special Guest: Brittany Oaks.

]]> Brittany Oaks made a few friends in Conway while a single mother and was invited to a home birth. “It was really, really incredible to see,” Oaks said. “And I’d given birth by that point myself. But this was an unmedicated home birth. She started out in the water and ended up going to her bed. And just the raw power and just the fact that she invited only those people she wanted there was really, really interesting to me. That’s who was in that house and I was invited. And someone threw me a camera while she was pushing and the rest is history. I was just in love with it. This is a story, and I want to tell this story. I want to capture these sacred moments because there are a lot of things worth capturing in life - momentous moments, but to me in that time, it made it really clear to me. I spent a lot of money on my wedding photography. The wedding was annulled. I can’t show those photos or care about them because you know. But it doesn’t matter what happened with that child. When you take photos of that new human being born, that’s always your child, no matter what happens. There’s nothing that’s going to annul that.”

Oaks soon remarried into the military and was stationed overseas. Unable to work, Oaks practiced her photography skills, homeschooled her three sons, and traveled with her family. “But I knew when we got back to the states, I wanted to hit the ground running,” Oaks explained. “I knew what I wanted to do. So I did. We got back in August last year and I immediately filed for my business, got insurance and all the stuff that makes a business. … I knew what I wanted and I’ve been hustling ever since to make it happen.”

Special Guest: Brittany Oaks.

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