GrampsWoodToys offers heirloom goods

Today we're visiting with Kevin of Fort Collins, Colorado. He owns GrampsWoodToys on Etsy and makes beautiful heirloom wooden toys for kids and adults to enjoy.

How did you find Etsy?
 
I actually found Etsy a little over a year ago through my daughter. She was telling me about how she was shopping on Etsy for her soon-to-be-born son. Sometime after that, I had built our soon-to-be-born grandson a beautiful wooden rocking biplane for his nursery. It was made from solid maple and walnut hardwoods.

Our daughter and son-in-law loved it so much that she recommend that I sell my wooden toys on Etsy. At the time I had been considering putting together a Web site to distribute my toys online. I checked into Etsy and found that this online marketplace may just be the ticket I needed to present my wooden toys. Since I didn’t have to put out much upfront cost and didn't have to fiddle with technical Web site stuff that I really didn’t want to mess with at the time, this Etsy site has been a great alternative.
 

When you began creating, how did it enrich your life? Do you recall the inspiration for your first creation?

GrampsWoodToys

Geez, When I began creating?

I had been fiddling with stuff since I was a kid. Sketching, building with Legos and Erector Sets as a child. But I do recall a point when I first moved to Colorado several years ago, I began doing a lot of hiking in the mountains. I would set out for what started out as day hikes, then eventually was taking longer hikes for days at a time, taking the opportunity to establish a closer relationship with my Maker and Lord of the world.

In doing so I really began to enjoy my hikes even more. I was really drawn to the places where I could enjoy the waterfalls. It didn’t really make a difference as to the size of the fall, I simply enjoyed the serenity of the waterfall itself. I enjoyed them so much that I wanted to enjoy them at times when I couldn’t get out to the mountains. I started collecting the materials that I needed to begin creating my own tabletop waterfalls that looked and sounded just like the real ones.

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I would spend several hours putting together rocks and using dried sticks as logs in my waterfalls. I would enter the world of the waterfall that I was creating using only my imagination and remembering the falls that I saw on my hikes. After several weeks of countless hours in the tabletop waterfall construction in my extra bedroom, which had been converted into a studio by this time, I realized that I had begun to acquire quite a collection of these things. So I began selling them to locals as a great way to relax.

There is also a more recent story of the mosaic birdbath that I built entirely out of scratch for my wife. Another story for another time.

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Where can members find your creations on other social media venues? Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? Wanelo?
 
The easiest and most convenient place to find my Heirloom Wooden Toys is on Etsy. That is where I seem to conduct the majority of my business. My wife and I do however, enjoy the craft fair circuit. We have just started selling my creations at some local craft fairs and I must say, we love meeting new people who also enjoy and appreciate the value of an heirloom wooden toy that can be played with, to have and to pass down to future generations.
 
People can see a slide show of our first craft fair that took place at the Abby Wine Fest in Canon City, Colorado just this last summer. You can view this show along with some great Glen Miller swing music on Youtube.  You can also see, Like, and follow me on Facebook.  My newest site can be found on Pinterest.

GrampsWoodToys

GrampsWoodToys