Jeff runs the online business and wood shop. He is the designer, producer, shipper, and customer service specialist.
Kate is a part-time pharmacist and inspiration for a vast array of our products. She's also the one that keeps Jeff on task!
INTRODUCTION TO THE CRAFTY SMITHS:
We are Jeff and Kate Smith! We are a husband/wife home business specializing in heirloom woodworking, including CNC machining, laser cutting and etching, and all the hand-tooling you can think of. We started The Crafty Smiths in 2011 (we originally called ourselves JSK Creative Designs, but no one could remember it). We sold small crafts before investing in a hobby-grade laser cutter so we could cut out paper snowflakes and engrave simple wood signs. We discovered that our wood snowflakes were a hit! Those were the early days of our business, when both Kate and I had separate full-time jobs that we enjoyed, but wanted to find something to do in our spare time that could actually help pay for our hobby! We figured it would be great if someday we could quit our jobs and work together from home on a business that we created from the ground up.
In March of 2012, just a few months after we started the business, Kate landed a new job in Phoenix, Arizona. So rather than try to find a new job in a new city, I chose to pursue the growth of our small business. After a month of living in Kate's parents' house and not having much access to our tools (all of our equipment was in a storage unit!), we finally bought and moved into our first home, which had a spacious 2.5 car garage. This meant we had plenty of room to set up the tools in the extra half-car portion of the garage while we managed to fit both of our vehicles inside too. That didn't last long as our online sales really took off and by the end of 2012, we had upgraded from our cheap hobby laser (it got the job done, albeit slowly and inaccurately) to an professional-quality laser system with a significantly larger capacity. Our new machine was incredibly accurate and many times faster than our hobby machine! Fast forward a couple more years and we had two of these lasers running non-stop to keep up with orders and enough woodworking tools to push my truck into the driveway.
After 7 years in Phoenix, we made the move back to Washington state and purchased a home with a huge shop in the backyard. It took Jeff nearly two years to get it usable with an office loft space for the laser cutters, a massive woodworking shop space, plus a dedicated photography room and ventilated spray room. In 2024, Jeff purchased a CNC machine to work on new projects in tandem with his lasers and woodworking machinery.
NOTHING MAKES US HAPPIER THAN A SATISFIED CUSTOMER!
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Definitely contact us if you would like to learn more about us or our products, or are interested in wholesale pricing for sale in your own retail location! We can't wait to work with you!