It’s hard to believe I started my journey into the martial arts nearly 30 years ago. Like just about everything else I’ve ever done in my life, my journey has hardly been typical. Most people take one of three different paths: They either try it and move on for one reason or another after they’ve advanced a couple of belts, they progress steadily through to their first degree black belt and decide that’s as far as they need to go, or they make martial arts a lifelong practice. I thought— scratch that, I was certain—that my path would be the third. Instead, I took none of these paths. I started training in martial arts in my hometown, La Grange, Texas....
In preparing blog posts, newsletters, and Instagram posts to celebrate our 9th year in business last month, we pored over hundreds of old photos of pieces that we’ve done over the years. It made us realize just how much we’ve changed over the years and just how many pieces we have sent out into the world.But once those pieces are out the door, we rarely ever see them again. That’s where you come in. We want to see your H&H pieces in your homes, offices, or wherever you have chosen to display them. What can you do to help? Glad you asked! For a chance to win $25 in shop credit, you'll need to: 👉 Follow us on Instagram here! 👉 Share photos of your...
Beginnings Hemlock & Heather had existed for about a month in August 2012 when Kelley and I dreamt this headboard up. This piece came about because Kelley had a family quilt that was falling apart, and she had the idea to recreate the pattern in wood. One weekend while she was away, I went into the garage and started trying to bring it to life. I used some reclaimed beaded oak that was given to me by a remodeler back when I was working in the building industry. I spent all weekend in the garage working on that headboard. The star pattern consisted of 96 parallelograms that had to be individually cut and laid in place. But I loved the...
To celebrate 9 years in business, we thought it would be fun (interesting?) to take a look back at our history—how we got started, and how we ended up where we are today. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this. It’s not in our nature to talk about ourselves or in any way brag about our accomplishments. We hope this doesn’t come across that way. Thank you so much for engaging with us on social media, and, most of all, thank you for your (almost) decade-long support. We wouldn’t be here without you. *** We are Kris and Kelley Denby, a husband and wife team, living and creating in Austin, Texas. We started Hemlock & Heather in...
Over the last few years, discussions about our business and our creative lives have begun to turn to the topic of Next Chapters. We had (and continue to have) a lot of ideas and ambitions within and outside of Hemlock & Heather, but throughout those conversations a definitive theme began to emerge: A need for community and a sense of belonging among us small business owners. As entrepreneurs, we often feel like we are on an island. Our problems (and there are many) seem unique to us. And the solutions? Well, the internet is full of information, but it’s not always obvious how to tell the good info from the useless. We realized that one of the things we look...