Local Mother-Daughter Duo Add to Art Business, Join Marshfield Downtown
Mother and daughter duo Teresa and Stephanie Schauer enjoy creating unique home decor for their side business “Pretty {much} Art” and have recently added a new line of product to their burgeoning collection, as well as a new local location for shoppers to check out their selection.
“The vinyl pieces are a very recent addition for us,” said Stephanie. “The vinyl artwork is something I’ve been toying with over the summer.”
With the new Marshfield Mercantile joining downtown Marshfield, the Schauers wants to offer something in addition to their burlap quotes.
“That’s when this venture in vinyl really started,” said Stephanie. “As is usually the case, my inspiration for starting the vinyl pieces came from a practical need. I recently purchased a house and it needed decorating.”
“I’m pretty picky when it comes to the artwork that I hang on my walls,” she said. “While I love to shop for home decor and artwork, I had a big blank wall in my bedroom that I couldn’t find the perfect piece for. I spotted a couple of vintage windows at a garage sale that were the right size for the space.”
Familiar with cut vinyl because of her graphic design job at Quik Print, Stephanie figured she could combine her artwork with her knowledge of cutting vinyl to create one-of-a-kind pieces for her room.
“Everyone who saw them loved them, and I knew I was onto something!” she said. “Plus Quik Print gives me a generous employee discount!”
Dedicated to promoting local artisans, Marshfield Mercantile was a natural fit for Pretty {Much} Art.
“I believe that it’s important for local artists/small business to have a platform to launch their art/business,” said Sean Stonham, owner. “By offering this platform, we help the artist/business showcase their art/product to a larger audience and in turn the community gets the chance to experience new pieces of art/products. It’s a win-win situation for the community.”
This buy-local mentality is important not only to downtown business, but also to Stephanie and other local artists and vendors.
“As artists, this is something my mom and I are both passionate about,” said Stephanie. “There’s something special about buying local. Because our artwork isn’t mass-produced, each piece is very carefully crafted. They take time and hard work, which means we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it.
“As cheesy as it sounds, we put love into each piece we make. That’s something that the big guys like Hobby Lobby can’t say. We’re proud every time we make a sale and we hope the buyer is proud as well,” she said. “Not only are they getting a totally unique work of art, they’re supporting the dream of a couple of local artists.”
Along with an Etsy shop online, Pretty {much} Art is sold locally at Marshfield Mercantile and Countryside Treasures in Granton, as well as miscellaneous sales like Lot 671, and even occasional trunk shows in the Schauer homes.
“The best way to find out about these sales is to follow us on Facebook. So far our vinyl pieces are sold exclusively at Marshfield Mercantile and at the miscellaneous sales as we work on growing that line,” said Stephanie. “The response to our vinyl work has been overwhelmingly positive and we thank everyone for their encouragement!”
