In 1977 a friend took a Band Box class from Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. She taught me the craft and I was hooked. I began making boxes for gifts for all my family and friends. I later took a class myself and before long I was encouraged to begin selling boxes. Shortly thereafter, I started my own company, Boxes and Bows. My first wholesale order was for Jacobson’s Department stores in Michigan. They ordered 250 boxes to be delivered in 3 months. I hired a friend to cut for me and I did all of the assembling. With a little hard work, the order was completed and delivered. Over the years and up to 1989 I employed 15 young mothers who would take supplies home and return the finished boxes to me. I even had a retired architect doing some work. We were selling our boxes, wholesale, in the U.S., Japan and Puerto Rico. In 1989 we were transferred to Toronto. I went through a very lengthy process to prove to the Canadian government that I could make something no other Canadian was doing in order for me to obtain a green card and sell my boxes in Canada. This generated a lot of television and newspaper coverage for me. But alas, all the free publicity was wasted as we were transferred to Chicago after only 16 months in Toronto. Today we’re still living in Chicago and it is only me doing all the cutting, assembling and selling and shipping. Making Band Boxes for each special person is what I truly love doing.