About The Site And Author
About The Artisan Insider
The Artisan Insider features artisan businesses of all kinds, from jewelry designers and perfumers to visual artists and natural skincare formulators. We also explore topics of interest to small business owners, such as hiring employees, finding product liability insurance, designing brand identity, and developing websites.
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 run The Artisan Insider.
The older Sonoma Scent Studio posts from Perfume In Progress are now archived as a category under the Scent tab, along with the older posts about perfume and olfaction. 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. 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 recently created the site Artisan Brand Design so that I can help other artisans with their branding and websites.
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
During my 14 years as a small business owner, I did most of my own branding, packaging, and website work. When I closed my business, I hoped to offer design services in the future to help other artisans with their branding and website needs. The last few years I have taken design and web development classes to deepen my knowledge of the field and the tools. I just finished creating a website called Artisan Brand Design to present my portfolio and outline my services. I hope you will take a look if you need website development or brand design for your small business.
I hope you enjoy your visit to The Artisan Insider!
Laurie Erickson
laurie@insideartisan
hello@artisanbrand.design
