PEOPLE OF INTEREST
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planters from recycled pallets. She also placed some furniture
in a consignment store in Stuart and then got ideas for some
smaller items she could create and sell at the market.
Thus, Cottage Crates Crafts became a business. Jeremiah
works with her in creating the pieces and manning the booth.
He built the website, CottageCratesCrafts.com, and maintains
it. The two make rustic wall sconces with vintage industrial
lamps, using barn or pallet wood, with plumbing pipes for
Àtures and industrial globes.
“I like to use the Edison light bulb,” she said. “It throws a
really warm light.”
Her creations run the gamut from toilet paper holders to
hutches, including coͿee tables, bar stools, picture frames
and other smaller items, like 6-inch-by- 6-inch wooden
planter boxes, complete with rosemary seeds.
“There are a lot of children today who have never seen
anything grow from a seed,” she said, “I created the small
boxes especially for them.”
Gerard praised the City of Fort Pierce and its workers
when talking about entering the business world. She remarked
how helpful everyone was and how supportive the
city is of its artists. She is trying another venue: Main Street
Vero Beach Vintage Market, which is held in Downtown Vero
Beach on the second Saturday of the month from October-
March.
“I always knew that the smell of wood was special to me,”
she said. “When my older boys were small, I used to put them
in a stroller and walk to the Lowe’s near our home. I would
walk through the lumber aisles. The smell was wonderful.”
And, I am sure, the smells take her back to those happy
days working with her father in his little workshop.
Gerard combines her love of the planet Earth with her creative passion to
fashion unique wooden items from recycled pallets and wood scraps.
/CottageCratesCrafts.com
