Meet Ashley Enroth | Crafter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Enroth and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
In all honesty, Gnome Nook didn’t start as a business idea. To me, the business portion was created by several amazing communities here in Colorado. Making these little guys was a relaxing creative outlet that I could do around my young daughter, as a single parent that became important for any activity I was spending time on. Not only was I able to craft around her, but she got excited about them as well. She would help me choose my fabrics and beard colors. Then after I worked on them there would be a tangible result from our working together. She was also vital to quality control, each one of the gnomes had been hand tested by my toddler. Pretty soon our love for this activity started to create a sense of magic in our lives. It brought us so much joy and excitement.
Within a few weeks of starting this endeavor, I had neighbors asking me to create specific gnomes for them or if they could take some of our previously made gnomes home. Eventually, people started talking to me about selling them. It took them a couple of months to wear me down into trying to see if people would want to purchase a gnome of their own. This lead me to make a Facebook page to see if there would be any interest, within a couple of weeks we got invited to our first craft show in Louisville Colorado. Unfortunately, there was a hail storm during the show and we weren’t exactly successful, our total sales were $0. It didn’t seem that Gnome Nook was meant to take off.
So my daughter and I went back to making random gnomes of our choosing, which began drumming up more attention. We would have people stopping by on social media requesting personalized gnomes. Soon we got picked up by the Horizons Artastic show and have been going for the last few years. Their community kept our business going, they showed me excitement about our creations I never would have imagined. They drove us to keep thinking of new ideas.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We make little gnomes for the home. It started out as a craft for the fun of it. Soon it grew into a soothing activity I could share with my daughter. It took us a couple of months of being worn down by neighbors to be open to selling them, as we didn’t really know how popular they would be. It wasn’t always easy there are times when there isn’t much interest and craft shows that we weren’t successful at. I’ve learned to keep an open heart and to keep trying, there are so many beautiful things out there and everyone has their own style so you can’t get disheartened if people don’t love your idea. I also learned that these little guys can be useful in my own daily job. As a teacher they are great tools for positive reinforcement, they give the students something tangible to earn and take home. They are also weighted so I have found them helpful for my students who have sensory challenges. These help my students not only strive for goals but settle themselves too. Our small business has transformed throughout the years and I think we are so blessed for how it has changed.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I grew up in Superior and had easy access to Boulder and the surrounding areas. As a Buff I, of course, enjoy walking around campus, The Sink is always a fun unique spot to go to. I also spent many summer nights on Pearl Street watching the street performers. We would probably spend time on campus and on pearl street, plus you never know what exciting activities might pop up!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Horizons K-8 was such a pivotal point in our business. They got us excited about creating more and spreading joy through our gnomes.

Website: www.gnomenook.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gnome_nook/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gnomenookcustom/