Apr 06 2010
Stacey’s “Get Ready to Learn Mom” Guest for 4/7 is Ellen McCaleb of FishCarvings.com and GrowthChartArt.com
Join us on 04/07/10 with Ellen McCaleb of www.fishcarvings.com and how she took her love for art and fishing and made it into a business. She will be talking about her new business launch, www.growthchartart.com too!
The History
In 1997, Ellen quit her corporate job to combine a few of my passions into a means of earning a living. In short, she became an artist and trophy fish carver. Over the years, her work has been featured in magazines like Country Living, Coastal Living and most recently in ForbesLife Magazine - November 2009.
The Inspiration
One day, Ellen’s children were tinkering around in her painting studio and admiring a very large (48”) Atlantic salmon. Her daughter Evelyn, (then five years-old) exclaimed, “Nathan (just 22 months), you better eat your protein if you want to grow as tall as this fish!” A light bulb went off. They had just painted over the lead-based paint in their old New England home and painted over her daughter’s height marks. Fortunately, she had copied them down just in case she found a growth chart that when with our décor. Ellen scoured the internet and could not find a chart that was “adult friendly” – something she could look at for years to come. So she made one!
Their family loves nature and loves to fish, so it was only natural that she made us a fish growth chart. Ellen chose a muskie because it’s long and thin and its beautiful olive greens and reds go with their décor. Her neighbors loved the idea, so she created more designs and shared them. They ordered charts for their children. Now they order them as gifts for their friends and family.
The Business and the Mission
Growth Chart Art TM is a woman-owned, family-friendly company. It may sound cliché, but they want to do well by doing good. Our definition of GOOD is: offering “mothers’ hours” for our employees; making our products out of environmentally friendly materials, post consumer wood products, soy based inks and post consumer paper/packaging; and supporting children by donating 10% of their proceeds to groups that help children grow up great.
For more information, please CLICK HERE.
