An unexpected beginning...
We are a husband and wife team (Doug & Ginny), living and working out of Southern California with our two beautiful, crazy kiddos. Our business is completely grassroots. We started building headboards in our free time (in a one car garage) as a way to furnish our house and make some extra money to pay the bills. We quickly found out, through a very fortuitous meeting with Meg from beardandbonnet.com, that there was a market for background props specifically built for food and product photography. What was once a hobby quickly became a business.
As we began to start listing backgrounds on ETSY and creating relationships through social media, we found the food photography and blogger community to be VERY supportive. We have made it our commitment to serve our customers in a meaningful way, with friendship and mutual passion for the products we create. We LOVE making our customers happy. It's the core of what we do.
In early 2014 we realized that we found a hole in the market that our product fills perfectly. We talked to as many customers as we could, and found out that a portable, affordable, durable, and cleanable photography background with an amazing finish is hard to come by. We heard from customers struggling with actual barn doors kitchen tables as their backgrounds. Lugging around 50 pounds of barnwood is a pain to say the least. Food photographers want to focus on what they do best: styling and photographing food.
As of January 2015 we have released 25 standard finishes and many more custom and one-off reclaimed and barn wood pieces. We make most our boards double sided, which is a tremendous advantage for the photographer or blogger on a budget.
In early January 2015 we created a newly designed board that keeps all of the same features of our previously popular boards, but with a few advantages that we feel are a game changer. Our new design is double sided, washable, and lightweight. It is now stronger and more robust, removing the issues of inconsistencies that come with working with wood. Humidity is a killer for wood, and because many of our customers come from areas that are humid, we knew that we needed a more consistent product that would have the staying power that our customers deserve. In March 2015 we moved to a larger facility and invested in tooling that would allow us to upgrade our product. All boards being sold after March 2015 will be the new Erickson Wood Works Version 2.
Because we have updated our manufacturing process, we are now able to offer a "planked" and "smooth" surface construction for most finishes. You can read more about this new design in the "About" section of our newly designed website.
We are excited for the future of our business and look forward to creating more relationships with great food and product photographers. Keep in mind that we are able to create custom pieces (size, colors, materials, etc). that are not listed on our website.
What started as a hobby has become a flourishing business. We never thought in a million years that we would be selling photography backgrounds for food and product photographers. When our friends ask us what we sell, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand the market. They don't quite understand the business or the customers that buy our product. Most people don't know that people make their livings photographing and writing about food.
We love that our passion for customer service, woodworking and finishing is being appreciated by our customers. We are loving the crazy adventure of building and running a business together. A lot of time, love, and hard work goes into each wood board that Erickson Wood Works creates. We hope you love them as much as we do!
Doug & Ginny
Erickson Wood Works
