A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to the Old Town Flea in Clovis. It was basically a Shop Local paradise. I met so many vendors and crafters who had fun and interesting products. Today, I’m going to talk about my favorite company that I discovered: Anchor and Soul Crafts.
Anchor and Soul is a wonderful company that primarily makes beautiful painted wooden signs. And you can trust me when I say that I really do love them. I’ve ordered 7 signs in less than a month!
The company is the side business of three ladies (Emilee Slater, Alyssa Abbott and Denise Garcia) who met and became friends at work. They discovered a mutual creative passion and began having crafting days just for fun. They played around with different things at first. Then when a friend was about to buy a house, the ladies decided to experiment and make a sign for him. They posted it on a local Facebook home goods page, and started getting requests to buy it. The three friends followed this up by selling their work at a couple of local flea market events, and Anchor and Soul was born.
“We just did a lot of custom work after that ‘cause a lot of people ask us for, “Can you do a sign like this?” Alyssa said. “That’s pretty much how we got started.”
If you can dream it, Anchor and Soul can help you create it. They specialize in silhouettes and meaningful or fun words and phrases. Emilee creates designs on a special computer program, and then a machine cuts out a stencil that the ladies use as a guide when they paint. A recent favorite they showed me was a silhouette of Cinderella and Prince Charming that a customer brought them, which became a beautiful wedding present.
When the women create their own designs, they find inspiration everywhere from quotes and fonts and other things that they come across.
“We see quotes and stuff around and then we see words and things like that. … We’re inspired by fonts that are pretty,” Emilee said. “One of ours says, ‘Nope, not today.’ [It] was a sign that we made, and we just had a t-shirt that said, ‘Nope, not today.’ So we just thought it was a funny t-shirt, and we made it into a sign.”
It’s probably no surprise to you all that my one of my favorite Anchor and Soul signs is the California one with a heart where Fresno is. It’s the most adorable version I’ve seen of this trend locally. The ladies can do this for a variety of states. They can also do a USA sign with two hearts linked in different places.
Anchor and Soul has also started branching out into signs that have a more practical purpose, like one that is a card holder and one that has coffee mug hooks. Most of the signs are made to order. Whatever you may be dreaming up, you only have to contact Anchor and Soul to tell them about it! It’s the perfect time to get that unique holiday gift for someone; the ladies are still currently taking orders for Christmas! And let me tell you, their prices are ridiculously reasonable!
You can visit the Anchor and Soul Facebook and Instagram pages to get a peek at some of their designs. Then e-mail the girls at anchorandsoulcrafts@gmail.com to place an order or get started on a creation of your own!
“We love doing it, and it all started because we loved it,” Emilee said. “The three of us are really creative people so it gives us a chance to do that.”
Eventually, the ladies hope to actually get a chance to do signs for themselves, after they aren’t so busy!
“That’s a good problem!” Denise said.
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