About Needleboxes Etc.
As long as I can remember I have always painted, sewed,
stitched
or did crafts such as ceramics and pottery. I continued this in High School and
while attending the University of Saskatchewan, where I took fine arts as an elective.
It was after my move to northern Canada that I began to get heavily involved in crafts and needlework, as there are long winter nights to sit and stitch. Slowly I began to concentrate more on needlework and began to take courses through Embroidery Association of Canada and Embroidery Guild of America.
While I attended EAC and EGA’s conferences, I began to sell my boxes and kits at merchants night and in 1990, with the help of my husband Wayne, I began a part-time home based business with the hope of having an opportunity to travel to shows and workshops around the world. I began Charted Imagery (a needlework related business) in a very small-scale way that I hoped to slowly build until I had a viable operation at the time of my retirement in 2005. As it sometimes happens, best laid plans do not work out and the business grew faster than I had anticipated.
To date we have been able to travel to shows and teach around Canada, USA and to England and Wales.
We are located in the Whitehorse, Yukon, in northern Canada, and also operate out of Alaska. This allows for our Canadian orders to be shipped direct from Canada and US orders from the US.
Our company is a family-based company and in order to maintain the quality of the product, all Needleboxes and kits are manufactured on site. I design and produce the boxes, write instructions for the kits and my husband is responsible for the production of the kits, which I cannot say he always does with a smile. My sister also helps, with a band of merry friends, to produce box parts and boxes… a true family business!