DovekienFinch

Hi from Pennsylvania! My name is Gwen. My husband, Nathan, and I started Dovekie & Finch shortly after some pretty major life changes. I was diagnosed in Aug of 2014 at the age 38 with Stage 3 Breast Cancer. After finishing the majority of my treatments I was at a place that although grateful for my insurance job of 17 years I no longer wanted to waste any more time doing something that I didn't enjoy and that didn't inspire me. I also was dealing with another side affect of treatment--anxiety. Who here can relate to that? Many of you I'm sure!

So I left my full time job and shortly thereafter we downsized from a 2,000+ sq ft town home in the city and bought a 230 sq ft Vintage Silver Stream and moved to the country. Living in our Tiny House gave us the opportunity to focus more on what matters most, which is our volunteer work and our family.

I started creating things mostly as an outlet then anything else and to get back in touch with my creative side which I had not explored in many years. And my hubby was inspired and jumped on board! Slowly it evolved into what is now Dovekie & Finch.

Over the last 4 years we have continued to learn more about creating with concrete and the science behind a quality artisan concrete piece. We continue to learn more about the concrete medium, honing our skills, dreaming up designs, and finding our niche. We love to incorporate other mediums like copper, moss, leather, gemstones and paint into our concrete creations.

We both have a deep love of plants so designing planters was an obvious choice and makes up a large percentage of our work. And because we lived in a trailer for almost 5 years all thing small especially appeal to us. But you will also find other fun home décor items like trays, ring holders, coasters, and even lamps. We have eclectic taste from modern and industrial to vintage and this is reflected in our designs.

One of our favorite designs focuses on the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which means “to find beauties in broken things or old things." This philosophy believes in acknowledging and even highlighting the breakage as an event in the life of the object rather than as an imperfection. This philosophy holds a special place in my heart. After going through breast cancer I'm left with many scars and deal with many left over side affects that aren't so "pretty". So one day when we made a batch of planters that did not come out "right" (smooth, no cracks) instead of discarding them I decided to highlight the "imperfections" with gold gilding and I instantly fell in love with them. Now we intentionally create planters with cracks, breakage and highlight that beauty with gold, moss, and other mediums. These creations have a special place in our heart and we hope they have one in your heart too. Their beauty reflects our beauty.

We feel blessed to pursue our dreams as a team and our grateful that others enjoy our items as well. Thank you for your support and for stopping by to check out our creations.

Gwen & Nathan