About The Artisan Insider
The Artisan Insider features artisan and indie businesses of all kinds, from jewelry designers and perfumers to visual artists and natural skincare formulators. The Artisan Insider also explores topics of interest to small business owners, such as hiring employees, finding product liability insurance, and locating online groups of others in your tribe.
The Artisan Insider grew out of my previous blog, Perfume In Progress, which accompanied my artisanal perfumery called Sonoma Scent Studio. The blog began as a way to interact with customers and let them peek behind the scenes into the development of new scents. I also posted about my garden and the Sonoma wildlife that we see where we live, and about general perfumery and olfaction. I closed Sonoma Scent Studio in early 2018 in order to have more time for family and my health needs (I later sold the business to a new owner). My 14 years of building and running Sonoma Scent Studio gave me an inside look into being an artisan business owner, and that experience gives me a unique perspective from which to produce The Artisan Insider.
The older Sonoma Scent Studio posts from Perfume In Progress are now archived as a category under the Personal tab, and the older posts about perfume and olfaction can be found in categories under the Scent tab. The older posts about my garden can be found in the Garden category under the Personal tab, where I will continue to post about the garden from time to time.
In 2018 and 2017, the Perfume In Progress blog was a Top Ten Finalist in the Perfumed Plume Awards, and in 2016 the Perfume In Progress contest entry was named a Top Submission.
About Me
I created my artisanal perfumery called Sonoma Scent Studio in 2004 and ran the online business until early 2018. I formulated and produced the fragrances in-house with beautiful ingredients sourced from around the world, blended into a base of organic grain alcohol. Learning how to run an artisan perfumery gave me an appreciation for both the advantages and the challenges of being a small business owner, and the experience led to my desire to support other artisans.
My background includes attending Stanford University, where I earned a B.S. in Environmental Earth Science (with distinction and induction into the honors society Phi Beta Kappa) and M.S. in Geomechanics. Later, I worked for Sun Microsystems as a technical writer for one of their software development teams, writing a programmer’s manual for their windows system. I have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Home And Garden section, and I authored a cover story for the magazine Herbalgram. I also created and still run the website TendonInjury.org, which educates the public about tendinopathy and encourages research into treatments for chronic tendon injuries.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and have lived in Healdsburg, California since 2005. My interests include graphic design and website design, branding, organic gardening (roses, perennials, vegetables), perfumery, gemstone jewelry, reading, geology, and photography.
My Services
I created most of the branding items for Sonoma Scent Studio’s original packaging and website (when I owned the business) using a camera and Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator (an exception is the lovely oak illustration that I used in my logo, which was drawn by a talented local artist). I would enjoy helping other artisans with their branding design needs. I can create images and write copy for websites and packaging; for example, I can provide website slideshows, product hang cards, business cards, brochures, flyers for display at trade shows, box designs, and label designs. I also enjoy writing website content. When I first started Sonoma Scent Studio, I would have loved to have found a lower-priced alternative to expensive graphic artists for small design projects, and I hope I can help fill that need. Feel free to send me an email if you’d like to discuss these possibilities or if you are an artisan and would like to be featured on The Artisan Insider.
I hope you enjoy your visit to The Artisan Insider!
Laurie Erickson
laurie@theartisaninsider.com