NEWS

Two Black Sheep craft store opens

Jeff Barron
Reporter

LANCASTER - Citing a desire to be downtown, married couple Jeff Barber and Brenda Nelson opened the Two Black Sheep craft store in the Kirn building at 117 S. Columbus St.

The business was previously in the Plaza Shopping Center on Memorial Drive and known as Country Collections by Two Black Sheep.

"We think what they're doing downtown is really exciting at this point," Barber said. "And we'd like to be in on it. And also as soon as we saw the store and the brick wall and the hardwood floors, we knew this was the space that was right for our merchandise."

He also said traffic in the Plaza Shopping Center drops in June and July, whereas he said being downtown will draw customers from the Lancaster Festival, ArtWalk and other downtown events.

Barber said the store specializes in American-made crafts.

"We make all of the furniture ourselves," he said. "I build it, the wife finishes it. The same with the small arrangements. We try really hard not to buy anything out of a box and just put it on the shelf. We try to tweak it a little bit. We also buy local first, Ohio, U.S.-made. Of course, we buy some from China. That's our order of priority, when we can."

Two Black Sheep also sells paintings by Ohio artist Billy Jacobs. His work mostly is of various Ohio scenes.

Barber said the store's niche market is women in the 29 to 62 age range. But that, of course, is not exclusive.

"It's a good place for a man to come in and buy gifts," Barber said. "A lot of the women do come in and take pictures and text over to their husband a list of things. So that's kind of cool. At Christmas, it's fun to watch. (Husbands) come in with their phones and say: 'Hey, where's this?' "

Barber said he and Nelson got into the craft business because they were tired of working for others. He said he and his wife were the black sheep of their respective families, leading to the name of the business.

The new location opened Friday, and Barber said business has been good in that short time.

"We're very happy," he said. "We've got a nice crowd of people who follow us, and a lot came down on Saturday for sure. We're still a little tentative on our hours. The other stores around here are closed on Monday and we've always been open on Monday. I don't know whether we'll have to tweak that or what."

For now, Two Black Sheep is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

jbarron@lancastereaglegazette.com

740-681-4340

Twitter: @JeffDBarron

Like the arts? Here's another local store that has opened recently: http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/story/news/local/2016/02/02/arts-and-crafts-store-opens-plans-classes/79702034/