While working in a corporate craft store fifteen years ago, I realized the ethical dilemma of sourcing art materials from traditional stores. I had already spent most of my life without access to expendable income and working for a craft store did not help matters. The craft store I worked at was in the state of Montana, which has notoriously low minimum wage. I took this job to pay for a student loan that I was unable to make payments on because of graduating in 2008. For those that were not alive at that time, or those that need a reminder, the economy became garbage. I could not afford to shop at the store I worked for. While working shifts for unloading and unboxing new products, I saw that the majority, if not all products came from China. It got old looking at what was likely the result of poor working conditions and pay. It was then that I began dreaming the dream of creating products that would provide ethical options for artists or those that simply love working with their hands. In 2026 I am relieved to see secondhand art supplies and seemingly ethically made products. I was often the person that swept the store at the end of the night. I was always on the look out for a stray bead, a glimmer of hope during those low years of struggling to pay my bills. A dream formed not only for a world with better materials, but also a body of work on the life and times of craft store workers. It hadn’t fully materialized until now, so here we go.