Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Meister.
Hi Michelle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
The Story of Gaia’s Workshop
When Michelle was in Middle School, way back in the 60’s, she wanted to play drums in the school band but was not allowed to because she was a girl. The vibrations of Drums, Music and Sound have been, and still are, an integral part of most every culture’s Sacred Practices, Healing and entertainment. She has spent her whole life studying the cultures and mythologies of people through time and around the world and her fascination with rhythm and vibration has been a lifetime obsession.
Michelle has been making Drums, Musical Instruments and other Sacred Art for over 30 years! She began learning these skills when working at a Native Business, but she wanted to create Drums that aligned more with her heritage, and since those weren’t part of the business model where she was, she began designing and creating Drums and selling them on Etsy in 2013. Every Drum that she sells has been carefully designed and crafted from and with Spirit, from her own research & inspiration and consulting with her percussionist husband for the ultimate sound experiences.
Michelle has created the business we have now literally from scratch. Despite being houseless and working full-time out of their van, because of her attention to detail and treating each item she makes as Sacred, her Etsy shop blossomed. She and her husband were able to find housing, and she worked from home until 2019 when her business was so successful that she no longer had the room and space for materials to work at home. In September 2019 she opened a brick-and-mortar shop with a workroom in the back where she makes all of her Sacred Art. She often gets people who are seeking something special and specific to their cultural practices that doesn’t yet exist or no longer is being made, and she thrives on being able to manifest those items for customers.
Since the storefront opened, she has put the majority of profits back into the business and built the merchandise from bare shelves to a fully-stocked Metaphysical Shop. With the help of her daughter Lorelei, they have created a shop that they wish had been around when they were first started studying Traditional Witchcraft in the 1990’s. Both of them have studied a variety of paths in their lifetimes. We strongly believe that all paths that lead to the Sacred are valid, with no gatekeeping or judgement.
Our shop is a safe and sacred space, where we love to answer questions and help people on their paths. We Welcome All Who Welcome All! Creating a community where every person can be 100% themselves without any fear of judgement is very important to us, and our work includes helping people undo their cultural programming to reach their true selves. Everyone who works in our shop and many of our customers are neurodiverse, so our conversations with our customers tend to be very deep and personal. We not only strongly support the LGBTQ+ community, we belong to it, and we are vehemently Liberal in our thinking and actions. Our community altar to Gaia (the Greek Earth Goddess) is used both by us and our customers for magical work, prayers and offerings.
We are a supply shop for all paths, carrying Altar Supplies and Tools, Jewelry, Housewares, Spell and Craft Supplies, Books, Tarot and Oracle Decks, Candles, Incense, Clothing, Beauty Products, as well as Practitioner Creations. We have over 250 Herbs, weighed and labeled for easy access. We also label each individual Stone (and we carry everything from Dollar Stones to fancy Showpieces) because we know how frustrating it is to get home and not remember what you bought!
Starting with putting her work in other metaphysical shops on consignment, we are proud of how she has built a thriving business with her Art. We feel that it is critically important to us to give back and support Local Artists. We currently have around 75 different Consignment Artists, with new people coming in all the time! They bring us one-of-a-kind Art and Sacred Items so our inventory is dynamic and constantly changing as Artists grow and bring new products in. We have new items on our shelves every day, so come in regularly to check out our new and featured inventory! We also have monthly Drum Circles, a Tarot Discussion Group, a Once-a-Month Featured Reader or Energy Worker, and a variety of different classes every month.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We started the business while homeless and living in a van, working out of a storage unit in 2013. Even when we were finally housed, we still had to work out of a 10′ x 40′ trailer (that we still occupy).
In the beginning, when someone ordered an item we had to order the supplies. We always were able to order just a little bit extra, so we slowly started building inventory. In the beginning, our sales were either on Etsy or from consigning our items in local shops. We eventually made enough items to be able to vend at festivals; at first, we frequently didn’t even cover our expenses but eventually people started getting to know us and our drums and rattles, and sales improved. Despite struggles (including being ill for a year and a half before finding out I had untreated Diabetes), we built a following, with customers worldwide. We also did drum-making workshops and continued vending. All our work was done in our trailer, with our woodshop outside on our covered porch. In the winter of 2018, half the roof collapsed on our porch because of a thick layer of ice (no insurance, of course) and space got too tight.
We decided that we needed a larger, more reasonable space in which to work, which led to us opening our brick & mortar shop in September of 2019, right before Covid. We were fortunate enough to get tons of online orders during that time, so by the time we opened back up to customers we had a reasonable amount of stock on the shelves. We continued investing every cent we could into making the shop better. My husband designed and builds our wood products like drum stands in our remaining half a woodshop, but over the course of time, he has become more and more disabled and I have been doing more of the woodworking as well. At 69 with psoriatic arthritis, sometimes the body just doesn’t cooperate with all the things that need to get done.
The last two years have been even more of a major struggle. Between climate change, wars and the general instability in the world, we had difficulty getting supplies and the current financial climate has reduced our sales to the point that we are hanging on by a thread and living off loans and credit cards. We know things will be changing for the better soon, so we’re hanging in there and just signed a new 5-year lease. We do have an excellent customer base, and support from our community, so we’re very optimistic!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We specialize in making and designing Sacred items which are not only designed by us, but customized and made only by us. Our products are so beautiful and sacred that we have a worldwide following and our products are used in specialized ceremonies like weddings and initiations. We are neurodiverse and all work together by utilizing our strengths, which makes for a harmonious and happy environment in which everyone feels cherished.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Not at this time, if you have questions please call or email us!
Pricing:
- gaiasworkshopdrums.etsy.com
- gaiasworkshop.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gaiasworkshop.com
- Instagram: @gaiasworkshopdrums
- Facebook: @gaiasworkshop @gaiasworkshopdrums
- Youtube: @gaiasworkshop2944
- Other: tiktok: gaias.workshop facebook group: Friends of Gaia’s Workshop
