Hammer & Stain Hot Springs, a DIY workshop, was first opened in 2020 after Cynthia Hall visited a Hammer & Stain location in Texas, she said.
Although not a franchise, Hammer & Stain Hot Springs, 801 Central Ave., Suite 33, is a "conglomerate group of independent owners," with about 90 locations across the nation, Hall said.
"Mine started in 2020 as the result of a son that gave me a gift certificate to a Hammer & Stain in Fort Worth, Texas," she said. "I had no clue what a Hammer & Stain was, looked online, started getting interested, said 'We don't have anything like that in Hot Springs.' So, I've always had a craft or a creative side, so I was like, 'Well, this is what I wanna do."
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Hall, originally from Bryant, has lived in Texas and Louisiana, before settling in Hot Springs. Her parents moved to Hot Springs in the early 2000s, and she moved to be closer to them after her father got sick, she said.
Before starting a family, Hall worked as a florist for 14 years, she said. She later switched to managing the payroll and books for her family's company for 18 years.
"And then when this came about, it was like, just a light bulb came on," she said. "It was more like home to me, so that's what I jumped into."
Hall had been interested in art since she was a child, she said.
"My parents always laughed," she said. "As a little bitty girl, I would draw on the walls of the house. My mother would wipe them off, clean them ... and then she'd walk off, and then I'd go back in there and say, "look Mommy, pretty.' I did it all again.
"So, I've always done something with some type of art and craft all my life. My grandfather was very talented, so I guess it kind of passed on. I've always loved it. My parents always encouraged it, except for drawing on the walls."
Starting a business from the ground up comes with its challenges, though, especially as someone new to the community, Hall said.
"I didn't know a whole lot of people. This is a town where it helps to know people to start and to open, especially something that you're trying to pull in people. So, that was a scary thing," she said.
"Not only that, is I kind of used a saw here and there. I kind of did, you know, a little bit of tools. But, I hadn't ever really jumped out and made my living with them. So, now I work a saw almost every day, work sanders, I have a laser machine, which I've learned so much on that thing that I can almost take it apart, put it back together.
"It's like I didn't know I could learn those things. So, those things were very scary to me, but they were also thrilling and exciting because it was a challenge," Hall said.
Although she had to take a leap of faith in deciding to open her own business, the decision paid off because Hall loves her job, she said.
"It is like, like I said, home," she said. "It is something that I don't mind getting up to come do it. I don't mind carrying the wood to do all the things that I have to do because it is such a joy, especially seeing other people. I love being other people's cheerleaders and saying, "Look, you did that! You made this!' So, to me, that's great and just for me to even just come and play -- I come and play at work. How many people can say that? So, I love it. I love my job."
Customers can walk in to Hammer and Stain and create signs, stuffed animals and more through a step by step process. – Photo by Courtney Edwards of The Sentinel-Record