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A lot of people don't realize what beachglass is,
its from all the garbage that was thrown in the ocean for so many years, and that garbage
was taken by the ocean
and the bottles and the pieces of glass were broken and sanded
so that the ocean has taken our garbage and turned it into something beautiful.
Im part owner of Hudson Oddities, between myself and my husband
we've created a business out of making
jewelry with beachglass.
Hudson Oddities started in 1999
when we started distributing the painted product
to different stores across Canada.
We didn't expect for our product to go so well.
After a couple years it got bigger and bigger
until we needed more space.
Since the beachglass came from the beach along the ocean,
we figured a lighthouse would be the perfect building to build.
We have a very unique product, its not something that not a lot of people work with
and every piece is hand painted so its actually a work of art on its own.
Last year I would have painted between ten and
fifteen thousand pieces of beachglass that was ready to be sent out to other
stores.
This year the number has risen to between twenty and
twenty five thousand pieces of beachglass. Also this year we've incorporated the
sterling silver wire to turn them into pendants and earrings.
I've always done all the painting myself for Hudson Oddities, although this year
the demand got a little overwhelming and my sister volunteered to help, so I paint
eleven designs and she paints five for me now,
which is great.
It takes me an average of five minutes, from start to finish, to paint one piece.
If i'm going to paint I will set out twenty five, fifty, or even a hundred pieces to paint one
design all at once.
The entire process of making one necklace
is amazing because you have to find the glass
then it has to be washed, then it has to be drilled,
then you paint your design on it and we paint both sides of the glass
because it gives it a 3D aspect to it which people think it really cool.
And once thats done, the next day it goes for its clear varnish and then it gets assembled into whatever
its going to be, either a necklace, a pair of earrings, or
whatever so every piece goes through its process.
Our prices are
very reasonable, they are very low
for the product that it is,
and people enjoy that.
That price market between five and
fifteen dollars and thats what people are looking for.
I think the best part of having taking the risk to build this lighthouse is the workshops.
Because people come in and you explain to them what beachglass is and they are
intrigued by it and then they actually get to pick their own piece
and they sit down and they paint whatever they want on it
and we go over and we help them and we give them pointers,
and once it's done we put a clear varnish on it
and it just brings out the colour, and they are so impressed with what they've done.
Then they get to turn it
into an anklet or a necklace or a keychain.
So they've actually created their own souvenir of being here.
It's not a big profit through the workshop.
For children its five dollars and
for adults its ten and that includes everything that they use to do the workshop.
Once we finally decided that we were going to go ahead
and build the lighthouse and take the risk we couldn't do it on our own, we needed help.
And we called the bank and told them, "I want to build a four story lighthouse and I make jewellery out of garbage I pick on the beach"
they don't respond very well. So we went to local organizations like Adelcan and Bucktouche,
and they've always been supportive of us and they've alwayshelped us.
They made the proper contacts with the Coah also. So we did it with their
help and with the help of everyone around us.
Marketing is a big part of a business in such a small area