A Woman Owned Business / April 2006
Candelier Window Treatments
Terry Bock
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By Pat Lawrence
Terry Bock heard about interior decorating on careers day in the second grade. She says, “I went home and told my mother ‘I want to do that!’ It didn’t seem likely at the time. We were a family of eight, living in a ‘holler’.”
But in junior high, Terry learned to sew. “From the first minute, I loved it.” Now she has her own business, creating window fashions and treatments, helping clients with their drapery and bedspread selections, assembling custom pillows, valances, and even shower curtains.
Originally from Charleston, Terry married, started a family and moved to Ohio, where her landlady had an upholstery business.
“She gave me an in-home drapery kit and taught me about upholstering.” When the kids were small, they moved to Parkersburg. “As the kids got older, I decided to work out side the home and worked at So-Fro fabric store, cutting fabric and waiting on customers. Soon, she was recruited by Penny’s who provided design training. When Stone and Thomas hired her away, she received more extensive training in window décor and was soon part of their Shop At Home staff, working with customers in their homes, showing samples and providing in-home consultations. She also met her mentor, Alice Terry. “She taught me about window coverings but more importantly, she taught about customer service.”
Taking time when she could spare it, between work and family, Terry also took an in-home study course of interior design. It took two years to complete. Sherry went to work for a local wallpaper and blind company and also contracted to provide window covering installations for two local companies.
It was time to start her own business.
“My mom gave me a $2000 loan. The vendors were very helpful-they gave me as many samples as they could. My only advertisement was in the Yellow Pages. And, I went door to door, hanging brochures about the business on doorknobs.” She kept installing for other businesses while her own was growing. One of them was Montgomery Ward. “If you called in to Wards for window treatments and decorating help, I was the one who called back.”
As the business took off, she moved into a Vienna shopping center, calling her new enterprise Classic Window fashions. She met her soon-to-be-husband working working with the Business Development committee of the Chamber of Commerce. Brian owned Candlelier, a candle shop on Seventh Street, and soon the two were operating a combination candle and window fashions business. When a fire from an unextinguished candle seriously damaged the building in June 2005, Jerry decided to focus on just the window fashions and the business became Candlelier Window Creations. During the reconstruction, she put in a work room and has since added a seamstress and two installers to the staff. Terry says, “The business has doubled every years since it started, but this has been our best year yet.”
The shop doors are open Monday 10 till 5 and Tuesday 10 till 7. “The rest of the week, including weekends, we’re consulting, designing and installing.” Candlelier Window Creations also handles commercial projects and bids on work from Summersville to Lewisburg. They have made the expansive stage curtains and created hard window treatments with shutters and vertical blinds. Terry represents five fabric companies, and offers “very, very nice trims, that aren’t usually available in the area”
She says, “I love colors, fabrics and sewing but I especially like people. I think people are fascinating. And, they are the important part of what I do.”
For more information, call Candelier Window Creations, 304-428-2306 or email Terry@thecandlelier.com
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Femme Fair 2006
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