A message from Amy...
Many of you have probably seen Amy's name on filled orders, admired the rag doll we featured earlier this year, or heard us rave about her over the phone. I've included a picture of the rag doll at right, just to remind everyone how cute it is. Since Amy's snowed out (the road to the headquarters is so bad that she can't get there today), she decided to take the opportunity to write a blog post for us instead. So here goes:
I've had the pleasure of working for Nearsea for almost two years now, and this message is long overdue. I don't spend much time with the computer, though I often thought about communicating with Nearsea's customers because working here is truly a unique and priceless experience.
Finding Winnie again (she and my sister were friends in high school) was the first pleasant suprise; learning about her business was the second. I work there two days a week, largely filling orders. I have loved cloth as long as I can remember, and as an adult made clothes for my family. I used a treadle machine for many years as I share with Winnie having made a challenging decision with endless effects: that of living and raising families far off the "grid". It is uncommon to find others who carried out this choice, and I believe it has added a dimension to our relationship.
But, to the point: the cloth, buttons, yarns, patterns, the swatches, boxes, and the company. (I'm not sure that's a sentence!) Every day we spend some or much time carrying rolls of cloth to the cutting table to get the pieces our customers want, thus I have the pleasure of handling these many and various examples of the mill industry. I have favorites of course, and we have in-house jokes, such as the word gravel applied to the amazingly tough (yet supple, how's that?) hemp cloths we cut. I have been given some very beautiful pieces of different kinds, and bought a few, like the blush jersey I used for my mother's nightgown. I've taken home many very small scraps I use to make dolls. During the holiday I made a hemp horse. I'll take him to work next week to get a picture for this site.
Winnie gave me a sewing machine, and I have a project going of course, to which I'd better return. The road to Nearsea headquarters is quite formidable and after the snow (34" here), well, this is the third week I've been unable to go in. There is also wood to fetch and guinea pigs to feed, but I thank you for the opportunity to express some of the pleasure I have in being a small part of this family business.
Sincerely, Amy Caldwell