How a Full-Time Business Was Born from COVID-19 Restrictions

Meet the brigade of little wooden desktop angels known as Toaty Wee Angel that are getting rave reviews on Etsy. Some of these cherubs are just generally adorable little figurines, others are painted to look like family members; there are nieces, nephews, grandpas and grandmas, little wooden nurses, doctors, and school teachers, along with a parade of pop icons.

Lynne Grier is the artist behind this army of angels, transforming little ubiquitous blank wooden peg dolls into characters full of personality, heart, and emotion. Each comes with a personal greeting card offering heartfelt words of love, gratitude, and encouragement. 

Based in East Kilbride, not far from Glasgow in Scotland, Lynne has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and creative soul. Between 2012 and 2017, Lynne operated a children’s art studio where she would sell some of her creations like jute bags and prints of her artwork on a limited basis. Upon closing the studio, Lynne decided she should do the practical thing and went back to college to train as a teacher. While looking over the courses, she couldn’t help but be drawn to the more creative classes. “I came across an art and design course and despite my head telling me to do the sensible thing and teach, I applied for art anyway.” Today she’s in her second year of schooling, studying for an interior design degree at the Glasgow School of Art.

“Being an older student and a full-time mum, I need to work to support my studies and my family,” explains Lynne. “I’m an entrepreneur at heart and I always achieve so much more when I work for myself. However, I was finding it difficult to find the right area of creativity which would pay the bills and fit in with my study commitments and homelife.” 

It wasn’t until COVID-19 hit and Scotland went into lockdown that a bit of serendipity happened. Suffering from a terrible case of insomnia, partly because she wasn’t busy enough during the day and also because of the stress of the pandemic, Lynne started scrolling online looking for some creative inspiration. “I came across some wooden peg dolls, which I ordered. 

When they arrived I painted one for each of my daughters with a rainbow on the front and I made a card to match that said, ‘You’re my rainbow’ and posted a photograph on my Facebook page. It was a keepsake to mark the times we are living through.” 

The next day Lynne had a bunch of requests from Facebook friends asking if they could buy a doll for themselves, she decided to paint a few more and put them online. “As soon as I posted a photograph there would be a request to buy. To keep track, I opened an Etsy store thinking it would go for a few weeks until things settled down, and in the meantime, it would earn me some extra money.”

But the orders haven’t stopped and Lynne is enjoying now working on the tiny figurines full-time. “At the moment I’m working full time which was more than I had ever imagined.” Looking toward the future, Lynne hopes to grow the business so she can afford to employ someone to do the admin and packaging, freeing her up to do what she loves the most: painting and being creative.

Each of the Toaty Wee Angel dolls is sanded and sometimes a design is sketched out in pencil before Lynne custom paints each doll with toy safe paint. The dolls are then lightly sanded again and another coat of paint applied, followed by a varnish of toy-safe sealant. Explaining the attention to detail when it comes to the paints she uses, Lynne says, “Although they are made as ornaments and not toys, I like to be safe.” It takes about three hours for her to create a doll from start to finish. She then designs a matching card, adding in any personalized message requests, and packages everything up in a little organza gift bag.  

As the demand for her little wooden dolls has grown, managing the time she dedicates to the business with her other commitments has proven to be one of Lynne’s biggest challenges.

“I have learned that no one can work around the clock so now I set my day up as a normal working day as much as possible. However, It can be exhausting with my other commitments, so when I know I have deadlines to meet I find myself getting back up during the night to work when everyone is asleep. This works for me as I love what I do and I enjoy the silence the night brings, it’s when I am most creative.” 

Finding space for all of her supplies and inventory was another issue. “My house just isn’t big enough!” So Lynne used some of her profits to build a workshop in her garden which gives her all the space she needs to grow her business, “and also that freedom to get out of the house and go to work... even during lockdown.” 

Her advice to other aspired creatives is simple, “Just go for it.” Lynne says that initially, she was very intimidated about shipping abroad. “I didn’t offer this at first as I was terrified of charging the postage from the UK to America. However, customers will pay it, and come back for more if your product is good.” Today, Lynne is proud to ship her angels all over the world and even has a large map where she pins all the countries in the world to which her angels have been sent.  

She uses Facebook and Etsy as her main ways of marketing her products and focuses on taking clear photos with good lighting to promote her brand. “I try to frame all my items the same so my brand is instantly recognizable.” A scroll through her Etsy page shows this to be true, with each wooden doll posed in the same position atop the greeting card it comes with.  

Another piece of advice Lynne has based on her business experience over the last year, customer service matters. “Communicate with your customers as often as possible, through Etsy, through social media, it not only helps grow the business but just gives you a fantastic feeling when they choose to return back to you time and time again. I have truly met some lovely people.”

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