Our Etsy shop started in June of 2009 because of a garage sale. Bernard came home with a basket full of miscellaneous jars. When we looked them up, we found a complete subculture of Ball jar collectors! That intrigued us and the more we studied, the more fascinated we became. So we decided to become collectors ourselves.

That's how we started buying jars. But you can't buy just one. They come in boxes, jumbled together with barn dirt and mud. That's why we decided to try an Etsy shop. We wanted to sell our extra jars and make some money to fund our habit.

As our jar obsession began to take hold, we wanted to incorporate them into everyday life. Standing at my kitchen sink, I looked at my plastic soap dispenser and thought, “Why can’t a Ball jar be a soap dispenser?” We had never seen one but my creative husband went to the basement and came back with a pump lid to fit a jar. He just does that. Give him a problem and he solves it.

Our hanging jars developed more slowly. We’d seen other hanging jars but didn’t like the way they looked. Eventually we came up with the chain and wire combination. His years of making bassoon reeds came in handy–working with wire and pliers is second nature.

At an auction in 2010, Bernard bought a kiln on a whim. That was the biggest thing he had ever brought home! He wanted to try melting jars, and through trial and error, he came up with his design. No one had melted mason jars like this before! His process keeps the adorable jar shape. I immediately said, "Spoon rest!"

Our soap dispensers continue to improve. Our first ones were made out of antique zinc lids. I loved the look, but they didn't last long. Rust. Then we moved on to coated lids and they worked well with some liquid products, but not my harsh dish soap. So then I decided we needed to go 100% plastic to avoid the corrosion of metal lids. But it had to look nice, mature, stylish. I wanted all black. Turns out those aren't readily available, so we found our own parts and made our own 100% rustproof and all black. Love it!

Many of our ideas come from our customers. That's the fun of Etsy...the give-and-take between buyer and seller that brings the joy of community into something that is so much more than a business.