Frond Design Studios is 10 years old Chapter 1

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What an adventure! Frond Design Studios started with a determined artist ready to put a “dent in the universe”, my favorite quote from Steve Jobs. That artist, me, knew nothing about import/ export tax, freight, pallets and even invoicing. I knew about putting fine art into fabric. It is still my passion after all these years. I will be blogging about the history of Frond through the years. It has been a tumultuous decade full of hope and heartbreak.

I turn and assess the landscape around me and that dichotomy has remained the same.

As I move to another warehouse location and sift through boxes, totes of sales samples, scraps and unfinished projects. (I’m sure none of you have those) Anyway… sifting through paintings and concepts and prints from other Frond artists is a roller coaster. I remember Frond’s first collection:

The Edible Garden and Plaster of Paris designed by me. These collections soared. I couldn’t keep up. Family and friends were coming to my first warehouse, a whopping 650 square feet full of shelves built by the can do man.

That man was Dale Bailey, my step father. My father passed in 1993 and thankfully my mom married Dale. I always compare him to Jack Palance. He could do anything and had the discipline and muscles to prove it. He built my shelves for that space and we waited for the first collection to arrive.

It arrived and promptly sold out. I had under ordered the goods. I made that decision out of fear. I swore I would NEVER do that again. I would never again make a decision out of fear but I did, time and time again because owning your own business is, well, scary.

So I hastily contacted my supplier and reordered. As a new company, I had a lot to prove. This just wasn’t done in fabric. Most of these fabric companies have been around for almost 100 years and have such an intricate history, now this artist wants to come in and make herstory?

The shipment was delayed because this order was in a container combined with other goods. The second shipment ever shipped to Frond was held back because the container had to be checked by Homeland Security. They can randomly pull over containers and they check them. Guess who pays for that? The companies. So any company in that container had to pay the fine to get the goods cleared to be shipped to their respective homes. So Frond, a seedling of a company had to unexpectedly pay for those goods to be released to get them to the shops asap! I did. The goods came and I promptly shipped them out working through a labyrinth of invoices and orders. The shelves were filled, then emptied again.

I was covered in dust from the boxes and wondering what had I done?