Today we’d like to introduce you to Helen Yetman-Bellows and Jim Bellows.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Our official company photo above was taken the day we launched our company. We went out on a limb when we joined the ranks of the self-employed. We have never looked back and we haven’t fallen out of the tree. Squirrel-Eze is a nutty idea that worked!
It all began one fateful day in 1995. Life was good. I was both a professional horseman, having earned my Horsemaster’s in 1978, and a yoga instructor. Business was good. That morning I damaged a pair of earrings that had great sentimental value. Frustrated by the tangled mass of earrings before me, I ran out to the local hardware store and lumber yard, returned home, and built a jewelry stand. That weekend, pleased with my efforts, I showed it off to my friends at my birthday party. Instead of exchanging pleasantries, as I had expected, they offered to buy them for themselves or as gifts. They were serious and placed orders. Inspired by their reaction I signed up for a local craft show, Jim helped me build a sizeable stock pile. I had to come up with a name for our company, getting nowhere, I stared out the window and watched a squirrel gathering and hoarding her treasures. That was my Eureka moment…with my jewelry stand women could squirrel their jewelry away with ease and so we became Squirrel-Eze, and our tag line: a nutty idea that works! Work it did, sales were brisk. So I signed up for another show with the same results. This continued for some time. In solving a problem of my own (organizing my jewelry) it seems I solved a universal one as well. Little did I know it was the beginning of the end of life as we knew it!
I was teaching yoga at Hewlett-Packard and one of my students, a company patent attorney, heard what was happening and came to our next show. He watched our sales and it was then that he handed me the phone number of a private sector patent attorney who could help me get a patent. I was stunned, but I followed his advice, and must say I enjoyed the process.
We continued to sign up for craft shows using my personal jewelry for display on the stands, until an irate customer gave me heck for not selling her my personal earrings. Not wanting to repeat that experience, we took silversmithing classes at the Worcester Center for Arts & Crafts, the oldest school of its kind in the United States. Another problem was solved, and our jewelry began to sell. We found we enjoyed our weekend forays into the craft show and festival world, and a big world it was. We ended our first year at a large show in Boston, where again we were well received. One of our silver suppliers, who had taken us under their wing, suggested we try the Tucson Gem & Jewelry Show, the largest jewelry show in the world. They called the promoters, got us into the show, and they gave us upscale displays to use! We were excited by the possibilities and hooked by the open road.
I was granted a patent and here we are, over two decades later, full time business partners, with our own distinct lines of jewelry. I am a happily retired equestrian, still teach yoga, an author, an artist, and I have started a growing line of textiles. I incorporate my paintings into my textiles and also use them to illustrate my writings. Both our jewelry and my paintings have been in exhibitions. Our works are in shops, galleries, and museums. We sell retail, wholesale, and own a seasonal artisans boutique Squirrel-Eze & Friends, which showcases our works as well as some of our fulltime artisan friends. It is a gathering of talents in a little shop with a lot of heart!
Has it been a smooth road?
For the most part yes it has been a smooth road, only a few bumps along the way. We attribute this to our loyal customers as well as our Type A work ethic. The biggest ongoing challenge we, and many self-employed people face, is not enough hours in the day.
We did make one very tough decision around ten years in. Our jewelry stands that started it all, were too labor intensive, and as our jewelry lines took off, we choose to put them aside and focus our energies on our jewelry. A sad day indeed but the right decision. Customers and their friends still call wanting them for gifts or for themselves. Here we are into our second decade and folks still call looking for our original product. We take pride in that, and hope someday to bring them back.
One winter our area was hit with a major ice storm. We and the surrounding towns were without power for several weeks at the height of the retail holiday season. For us, and many stores in the area, it was the retail season that wasn’t. Thankfully, and with gratitude, we have a landlord/mentor, Evans on the Commons, (also in retail,) who unilaterally reduced our rent for that season. Because our business is diversified, with shows up and down the Eastern seaboard, an internet presence, and wholesale accounts, our boutique was able to survive that season.
Another winter, 2015 to be exact, New England was hit by several back to back Nor Easters. Our two story house was engulfed, with the first floor and 3 skylights obliterated. That made for a lot of shoveling and a slow winter at the shop. However, a dream was born, our expansion to Florida. Can you say business snowbirds?
We are blessed to have a strong customer base so when the recession hit and silver and gold prices went through the roof, we modified our designs, and without sacrificing quality or esthetics, kept our price points as low as possible for our customers. We supported each other through those tough economic times, and tough they were for all!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Squirrel-Eze – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Primarily we are a jewelry company with a budding textile line, but we also create other specialty items for our brick-and-mortar store.
Having hiked the Appalachian Trail, Jim’s work is bold and dynamic. He specializes in elegant chain maille jewelry, once worn by knights for protection now refined and designed for women’s jewelry. Jim forms, cuts, and hand weaves his own rings. His mesmerizing designs look like lace, drape like fabric, and feel like silk. To wear a piece of chain maille is to wear a piece of history. King Arthur would be proud to give these pieces to his fair maiden.
My jewelry has won regional and trade magazine awards, and been national finalists. Our company, my jewelry, and articles I have written, have been featured in national trade magazines. My works are also posted on a prominent goldsmith and tool inventor’s web site.
I specialize in stamping, etching, chasing and repoussé, the earliest forms of metalsmithing. Using simple hand tools, my signed original designs combine ancient techniques to create intricate, complex results. No two pieces are exactly the same.
Best known for my Wilderness and Tree Collections, which are inspired by decades of experience as a professional horseman and yoga instructor, my love of nature and simplicity shows in the 3-D pictures I draw one line at a time in sterling silver. I hope they remind people of places they’ve been or want to be.
I also own Yoga Unfettered®, a program free from the restraints of mats, spandex, and studios. It is Functional Yoga™ for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Yoga that is practiced in the performance of daily activities to improve and strengthen ones everyday movements without disruption to one’s schedule. I offer clinics, to art/trade schools, corporations, conventions, equestrian centers, festivals, and other large groups, which I customize to focus on the motions most often used in their particular field of interest. I have published a book and weather impervious flash cards that details my program which works the whole body without trauma. I also have several non-fiction books in various stages of editing, one about the art of being a fulltime artisan.
What we are most proud of is also what sets us apart:
1. Our ability to recognize and follow through on opportunities as they arise without hesitation or fear.
2. Our contagious, unbridled passion for what we do and sharing that passion with our customers, customers who become friends.
We put our hearts and souls into our creations, and think of them as our children. When someone takes one home, they take a piece of us with them. We lovingly call our regular customers and patrons Squirrelettes, and they love it when we do. We are well aware that without them there would be no Squirrel-Eze!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We like Boston for the unlimited opportunities it offers us both for our business and pleasure. It is also a nostalgic trip down memory lane. As a couple, we had our start there. I worked for the Boston Mounted Police and Jim was the general manager of a downtown company. We lived in a small studio apartment on Newbury St. and enjoyed exploring everything Boston had to offer two 20 somethings. I received my engagement ring 36 years ago in the venerable J.C Hillary’s Restaurant on Boylston Street. This year we are featured artisans in both the Artisan Promotions Inc. Spring and Christmas Festivals. We will be at the prestigious 31st Annual Boston Holiday Christmas Festival (booth # 232) in the Seaport World Trade Center, a venue that is not far from the location of our first Boston show 22 years ago. Boston: What’s not to love!
Pricing:
- We have something for eveyone, with retail prices ranging from $25 to $1,500.
- Helen’s Yoga Unfettered® book and Yoga To Go, weather impervious flash cards, are $20 each or $35 for the set.
Contact Info:
- Address: Office: Squirrel-Eze, P.O. Box 817, Pepperell, MA 01463
Boutique: Squirrel-Eze & Friends, 18 Highland St. (Rte. 13), Townsend, MA 01469 (a seasonal shop) - Website: www.squirreleze.com www.yogaunfettered.com
- Phone: (978) 433-9962
- Email: sales@squirreleze.com helen@yogaunfettered.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Squirrel-Eze-124985384226020/
- Other: Show schedule: https://www.squirrelezeshop.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=10
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
