Art Is For Everyone: The Walking Sun Studio

I founded The Walking Sun in 2016 as an e-commerce selling handmade tee shirts and decor. Our forte was offbeat quotes with real-life humor, based around parenting. I started my shop as a source of income to supplement our household, and to combat my severe postpartum anxiety and depression. I thought such a project would keep my mind busy while home with our two young daughters, but quickly realized it would become our absolute livelihood. 

I poured myself into my shop, starting from a small sewing station in my closet, to taking over a whole room as my workspace. After 3 years of working out of our house, I was ready for an expansion and a wonderful opportunity arose to rent a space in America’s oldest woolen factory. I jumped in feet first, just knowing I was doing the next right thing for myself, my business and my family. Thus, The Walking Sun DIY Art Studio was born on February 9th 2019. We currently offer 14 different projects for ages 1+ to come in and create themselves. We have a wide array of crafts on our menu, from wood signs to paint pouring to canvas painting and so much more.

The first year has been an incredible learning curve of patience, planning, research, creativity, and dedication. Selling online to a brick and mortar was no joke. It was an absolute reset, and our family hit a lot of walls this past year. As much as this year has changed my life for the better, I have to admit it was also one of the worst.

November 8th, 2019, after 22 straight days of migraines, a spinal tap revealed my spinal fluid levels were too high and the pressure on my brain was causing stroke like symptoms. I was diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri in December after several tests and evaluations. Long story short, my body mimics symptoms comparable to that of a brain tumor, without a brain tumor present. Migraines, vision loss, visual disturbances, hearing loss, dizziness, sensory deficit and more has become a new normal for me, and honestly, it’s wearing on my family. I’ve had to learn to live with a chronic illness that affects just 1 in 100,000 yearly, in my first year of brick and mortar ownership, and I’ve become unreliable in studio. Luckily, we have some pretty awesome friends and family to help out on the fly with workshops, private parties and open craft hours. We have completely reorganized our schedules to ensure the help needed for the studio to thrive, but we’re reached a new crossroad and need your help.

With dedication and passion, our studio has grown tremendously in just one year, regardless of my medical condition. By providing an accessible and affordable creative outlet for everyone, we have become a family-owned staple in our community.  I started my studio on a shoestring budget and by reinvesting, outgrew our first space and had to move to a bigger suite, due to the overwhelming support of our town. 

I have decided to crowdfund the money needed to obtain and formally train full time employees, so our friends and family can have their lives back without worry if I will suffer a migraine and be left useless to the studio during an event. We also are in need of new inventory and machinery to streamline our workshops, providing a better experience for both guests and employees.

You can imagine the emotional pain of handing over my business responsibilities, a business I have started from the ground up and poured every ounce of myself into, but I’ve reached a point of dire necessity. I love The Walking Sun, but I need help maintaining it so I may focus on my health.

If you are able to, please consider contributing to my family’s campaign. No donation is too small, and will be put to use securing our studio’s livelihood and future. This year has been a rollercoaster, but my overwhelming gratitude has never wavered. We thank everyone who has helped financially, physically or emotionally during the best and worst year of our family’s life. Here’s to year two and bigger, better projects for The Walking Sun.