Mrs. Jackie Valentine, a Wallingford local and third-grade teacher, and her husband Mr. Doug Valentine opened Words on Wood a little less than two months ago. She began making signs on wood in 2016 when one of her daughters went abroad to teach English in China. “When she first left, I missed her a lot. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I decided to teach myself how to make a wood sign,” explained Mrs. Valentine. “In the process of making the sign, for the first time, I wasn’t worried about anybody. I wasn’t thinking about my daughter in China, I wasn’t worried about my children here, I was just making this beautiful thing, and it was very therapeutic.”
Mrs. Valentine made her first wood sign for her daughter and, needless to say, her daughter loved it, posting a photo of the sign on Facebook. Mrs. Valentine’s business took off from that moment. She said, “[On Facebook] someone commented, ‘I love the sign!’ and the next thing you know, I’m selling signs. And a year ago, a friend suggested that we host a party where we’ll walk everybody through the steps of making wood signs. People started posting photos on Facebook, and the next morning when I got to work, I had six parties booked, having no intention of even starting this business.” Now, she employs 13 people throughout the East Coast who help her book sign-making parties in homes.
“Some people come inside and buy a custom sign, but more of our business comes from sign-making parties where people create the signs themselves,” said Mrs. Valentine. She explained the steps customers go through when designing a sign, saying, “They have an idea of what they want, they go to our website, they click on a link to whatever event it is they’re going to, they put in all the specifics of what they want on their sign. And then we prep everything — get the wood, stain the wood with color they choose, design and cut stencils — and when they get here, we walk them through the process of making it. Often, people are very apprehensive initially, but everyone ends up making a sign that they love, which is very rewarding and a ton of fun. And it is addictive, so most people who make signs become regular customers.”
One of the aspects Mrs. Valentine loves most about her work now is getting to meet new people and learning about their experiences. “Behind every sign, there’s a story,” she said. “People may order a certain quote to be in the sign. I don’t know what that means when I’m designing the stencils for them, but then, during the process of creating, they will share the meaning behind that quote. I love doing wedding signs and other family-related ones, because those are so celebratory.”
