BUSINESS: Sweet Peach Designs, LLC
MAKERS: Ashley Luke and Jessica Harvey
FOUNDATION OF FRIENDSHIP: Ashley Luke and Jessica Harvey have been friends for 11 years and counting.
鈥淚 met Jessie through my husband,鈥� Luke explained. 鈥淭hey all grew up in the small town of Coshocton, and were in school together.鈥� Through a traveling choir, the foursome met and became a secondary family unit.
Ashley Luke, Derrick Luke, Brad Harvey, Jessica Harvey [Ashley Luke]
鈥淸Jessica] was with me during the toughest times in my life, and I was with her during the toughest times of her life,鈥� Luke said.
Harvey echoes the sentiment. 鈥淎shley means a lot to me,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e known each other for so long, we鈥檙e practically sisters.鈥�
BUILDING A BUSINESS: Both Luke and Harvey grew up in creative households, with mothers that encouraged them to be artistic.
Their first joint crafting venture happened in 2017 prior to Harvey鈥檚 wedding to her husband, Brad. Harvey decided she wanted to have flowers that would last forever, so the two friends decided to make paper flowers by hand.
Jessica Harvey's wedding bouquet. [Ashley Luke]
鈥淓veryone at the wedding loved the bouquet,鈥� Harvey said. 鈥淭hey couldn鈥檛 stop talking about it.鈥�
With pressure from friends and family members to turn their new-found talents into a business, Sweet Peach Designs, LLC got its start in 2018.
FABULOUS FLOWERS: Luke handles the painstaking and intricately detailed job of making paper flowers.
鈥淚 look at pictures of flowers, draw the design for the template, upload it into my program, and turn paper into 3D objects,鈥� Luke explained.
While she makes it sound easy, even one layer of petals can mean hours of work.
Each petal of Ashley Luke's flowers are hand-rolled to give texture. [Ashley Luke]
TERRIFIC TUMBLERS: 鈥淎shley started with the flowers, and I was like, 鈥榃hat am I gonna do?鈥欌�� Harvey said with a laugh.
Through her self-proclaimed lack of patience that鈥檚 required for the flower-making, she came up with the idea of creating customized tumblers.
鈥淚 can hand-paint them, I glitter them,鈥� Harvey said. 鈥淭umblers were a big thing when we started out. So if we could paint them, and make them customized to what people want, then it should be pretty popular.鈥�
One of Harvey's hand-painted tumblers. [Ashley Luke]
KEEPING THE MOMENTUM: While Sweet Peach Designs, LLC is still a relatively new business, the growth both Luke and Harvey have seen in a short amount of time has been encouraging.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen steady, positive growth for the past two years,鈥� Luke said. 鈥淎nd that means that we鈥檝e done it together, and it鈥檚 been great.鈥�
But it鈥檚 the friendship the two share that keeps the business strong.
鈥淲ithout [Jessica] telling me we can do it, and without me telling her we can do it, we wouldn鈥檛 have done it,鈥� Luke said.
Harvey and Luke at a summer craft show. [Ashley Luke]
