We're a husband / wife team from Cincinnati Ohio. We started with what we had - a need for extra income after our last baby, and random thrift shop finds. When our 4 kiddos and dogs were in bed at night, we started upcycling frames, painting / restoring them and filling them with prints of my digitally created art.
While it was mostly cute or inspirational quotes at first, it became a way to turn something old an abandoned into something useful - especially when we turned a large piece into a calendar or menu for a family's planning area. We sold at local markets and Etsy and as often happens - I got tired of 2D pieces, so we started adding images to apparel. We have released 15-20 designs that we screen print by hand over the past 2 years, one of which landed us on the front page of a couple of papers; a local brewery map tshirt (for the Cincy area) that just EXPLODED. That project has afforded us the opportunity to open a new space in our small town where we offer a place for all people to come to make & play.
We opened our studio, McHarper Manor, last August (2017) and we've worked with a dozen local artists that teach with us to provide just about everything under the sun to our customers and community. I'm super blessed to have such a rounded experience all from just making & hustling our love of creating. Purposefully Restored rebranded to McHarper Mercantile so that we can present more of a cohesive brand :) We're excited to add some new places to our map of shows this year!
All of our framed pieces are Tabitha’s original designs. I draw / draft digitally and then preserve digitally for printability. The frames used are sourced from local donations / trash finds / yard sales / thrift shops & restored / repainted by hand with our house made paints & waxes to lower carbon footprint and keep prices low.
Our upcycled planters are filled with home grown / propagated succulents & desert plants.
Our apparel is hand printed (with our original designs) on handmade screens (photo emulsion process) on the finest tees we can source. Bella Canvas is our primary apparel company, USA made, with fair wages & ethical practices!