Help Courtney's Artisan Venture Thrive

Hi! I'm Courtney Colletta, I started my business in September of 2023 & since starting I have seen a lot of growth & success. I started my business to help with my mental health & to work for myself after the traumatic pregnancy & labor of my son in May of 2022. I am a solo mother who built this business from hard work, dreaming of a better life & chasing what brought me joy.

I am looking to raise money for my business as I have just gotten a space that I am outfitting which has been rather costly. Not to mention the rent, security deposit & associated fees. I am also working on getting into a couple local collective gift shops around Rochester. I am in The Artisan Cove already & am trying to get into similar places, which means managing a bigger inventory as well as having my own shoppable retail space in my working studio I'm now renting. So I need to make a ton more products! Plus expand my collections, I do have a new line coming out soon!

There are a few things for the space I need, I want to be able to have classes/teach my process to people too, plus apply to vending opportunities which the fees for pop-up shows are costly. Not to mention I am hopefully going to Salem, MA in August, so this fundraiser will help facilitate this much needed journey.

On top of all of this I have also been planning, organizing & running The Village Makers Market of East Rochester. This charitable fundraising pop-up has been successful so far we have raised substantial funds for 2 local organizations now & I am so proud of that. But I am not paid for the massive amounts of work I put into these events. This is entirely voluntary on my part & I have invested a lot of my new businesses funda to make it all happen seamlessly. I have now also been asked to help organize & run a local Farmers market in town as well. All of this is because word is spreading about my work & it's all been so positive! I am grateful that I can be asking for help NOT because I'm in dire straights or scared of shutting down, but solely to expand greatly!

I would be using these donations to pay for vending events & the fees associated with them to have a fully booked summer, to order more beeswax which I have found a new supplier for within Monroe County, which is a little more expenise but I'd rather support hyper local beekeepers rather than out of state suppliers as I have been, I need a printer so I can continue to design & print all my own fliers/business cards/labels/price tags/shipping labels/ECT, I need to stock up on silicone so I can continue to make my own candle molds, I also want to get much needed comfy seating for my studio space, I'm having some mural work done in my space that represents my brand/company & put also to put "Fernwick Artisans" on the space outside of my space(I have 2 local artists/dear friends I'm working with to accomplish this).

Obviously $5000 is a lot to ask for but the reality all that I just listed isn't including my monthly costs to run my business, restock my wholesale goods & all my supplies. Plus the reality is that $5000 it won't even cover what I have already listed. But I am seeing success with my business. I haven't asked anyone for anything expect when I was starting the Village Makers Market of East Rochester I did raise $200 from family to help with the $1350 it cost me just to rent the space I hold my events in for 1 Saturday for 9 months of the year.

I started my business by raising funds by planting, growing & selling seeds I had saved & hoarded over the years in several plant sales & also I had a couple garage sale. I purchased wax, silicone to cast my mother's glassware to make my unique candles. After months of trial & error & testing I did it! I had good products that burned beautifully & my family & friends loved! I had my first pop up shop at The Yards on September 1st of last year. I've been doing weekly pop-ups pretty much ever since. I've had a handful of online sales & I hope to expand that greatly in the future.

For those who don't know here is the short version of the story of why I started my business:

Through my pregnancy I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum & lost 15% of my bodyweight very quickly. I never got it back by the time I had him 10 weeks premature. I was hospitalized twice during my pregnancy for starvation & dehydration. Having my son come 10 weeks early was scary enough, but being diagnosed with Covid immediately after, before even having been able to hold him was devastating & downright terrible. My first 2 weeks of motherhood was watching my 3lb 12oz son being cared for by strangers (but they were angels too! NICU nurses are champions!!). I finally got to hold my son when I got to the hospital l, at this point he has actually been transported to a different NICU that was better suited to accommodate some treatments he needed early on.

After 55 days of some hard NICU living we made it out. We made it home. I was a mom at home with my son! Very quickly it was apparent I was a hyper vigilant parent. I took my son NO WHERE, was obsessed if he was breathing or not, & still am, as I saw my son turn blue many many MANY times A DAY through it all. I cannot express to you the turmoil I still hold within me from these experiences. Needless to say after these horrific months of early motherhood I was in intensive therapy to help me manage all this.

After about a year of that I was able to get back to myself a bit more, I realized I needed to do SOMETHING. But I couldn't just do anything & I wanted to be home with my son. I am a crafter & urban homesteader so I turned to my beloved hobbies & had some ideas that I made happen. That's all the short story of how Fernwick Artisans came about.

Thank you so much for taking the time! It means the world to me that you even read all this. If you choose to donate that would be even more meaningful & impactful to this ambitious mama