Three member businesses of the Flagstaff Independent Business Alliance (FiBA) set high standards in a variety of ways when it comes to craftsmanship, attention to detail and custom work. Gold Wolff Jewelers, The Print Raven and Warburton Woods – a creative trio of FiBA businesses – are producing fascinating and functional works of art in their respective fields for local and sometimes even for national customers.
Steve Warburton builds custom furniture to the customer’s specifications, one piece at a time, from his home workshop. “Virtually everything I build is to a specific need or to a specific plan,” said Warburton of Warburton Woods. “I just installed a hanging couch.” This custom-made piece of outdoor furniture, suspended from roof rafters, hangs from the customer’s porch on rails – so, the entire thing can move closer or farther away from an outdoor fireplace depending upon the season or need.
Warburton’s furniture-making roots grow deep. “My grandfather built furniture,” he said. “My father built furniture – I can recall him building furniture at home.” He also incorporates furniture-making history in his pieces and his company motto reflects intelligent craftsmanship: in utilibus pulchritudo, “in utility there is beauty, in function there is beauty,” said Warburton translating from the Latin.
While there is a high demand for designing and building custom furniture for customers, “once or twice a year I’ll build a piece to donate to local charity auctions,” said Warburton. “I’m the featured artist for The Arboretum at Flagstaff. I’ve been donating pieces for them for about five years now.”
Ed and Betty Goodwin of the Print Raven show remarkable, proven creativity and versatility in their local full-service printing and marketing business. The Print Raven moved this year to a more visible location facing Milton Avenue and has been serving Flagstaff customers since 2006. The Print Raven offers customers the advantage of being the only local printing shop that is open on Saturdays.
“We do everything from a single black and white copy to tens of thousands of flyers and brochures,” said Betty Goodwin. “We’re a full-service marketing resource for other businesses and organizations.”
A growing and less well-known part of the Print Raven’s business is in sublimation gifts. “Dye is heated to 400 degrees, vaporizes and goes onto the surface,” explained Ed Goodwin about the Print Raven’s ability to do custom printing on hundreds of products from mugs and steins, coasters, cutting boards, ceramic and slate tiles. “If a business wants their logo on the face of a clock, we can do that,” said Betty Goodwin. In addition to being an exceptional full-service printer for local customers, the Print Raven has been getting a few sublimation printing orders from customers in Indiana, New York and Florida.
Pete Wolff of Gold Wolff Jewelers has been making jewelry since he attended college at Northern Arizona University. “I’ve been creating jewelry since 1977,” said Wolff. But Wolff’s interest in art, in making things, extends back even further. “Back in high school I made the decision I always wanted to be an artist.”
Gold Wolff Jewelers makes rings, pendants, earrings and other custom jewelry and sells sterling, gold, platinum and titanium jewelry from a small shop in the Cedar-Safeway Shopping Center. Wolff says there simply isn’t enough time to make each piece in the store but he stocks and sells high quality jewelry. “I try to carry better quality – it’ll last longer,” said Wolff. “I try to have products in my store that an average chain store doesn’t have.”
Wolff enjoys the creativity in jewelry making. “It’s making something with my hands,” he said. “Other people go, ‘Wow! You did that?’” Wolff crafts custom bolo ties made from some unusual objects: a shark’s tooth, a petrified piece of sequoia and even a Paleozoic trilobite. Wolff said that the bolo tie is Arizona’s official state neckwear and bolo ties seem to fit Flagstaff since not many men wear ties but once in awhile will don a bolo tie.
Wolff’s basic philosophy includes being honest with customers and selling “a quality product at an affordable price.” FBN
FiBA is a coalition of locally owned independent businesses and community members working together to develop the economic vitality of Flagstaff while enhancing and preserving its character. Visit www.flagstaffiba.com for more information.
By Steele Wotkyns