By Monica Green/features@trcle.com
The love of all things artistic and a desire to be able to stay at home with her children led one Joshua woman down the path of beginning her own business.
Pamela Castleberry is the founder and owner at Across My Heart, where she makes mosaic crosses.
“I had prayed that God would show me something that I could do so that I could continue to stay home with my children,” she said. “I tried several different things like little businesses to make extra money but nothing was very successful.”
While visiting her mother for the holidays, Castleberry met a woman who made crosses.
“I left there and thought, I think I could do that, I really could,” she said. “On the way home I was praying about it, and I called my mom and told her to call her and ask the woman if she would be OK with me making crosses.
“She said that would be fine, but didn’t really offer any tips. Basically I had an idea and that was it. God just showed me how to do it.”
Castleberry spent awhile trying to perfect her designs, trying different materials that didn’t work until settling on statuary concrete.
“It’s just been a step by step process,” she said. “We made really, really ugly crosses in the beginning, and my family still has them. I try to trade them out, and they don’t let me.”
The business began as a family venture as all of her four children were at home and helped with the process.
“Originally the business started very slow because I didn’t have any start-up money,” she said. “I took $100 of our grocery money and did a craft show about six years ago. I sold $100 worth. It was a break-even deal.
“We persevered. We made a little more each time and got a little better.”
From that first craft show, the business flourished. She took crosses to Canton for six years. About three years ago, she bought a booth at the World Trade Center in Dallas.
“We did wholesale here and there, but nothing on a major scale. I decided that I would try it and see,” she said. “It was very scary. Once again it was the same step of faith that it took to take our $100 of grocery money. God blessed it.”
That is when the business started to snowball. Her crosses are available in stores all over.
“It’s an awesome deal to go into a store, and there’s your work. It’s just a thrill,” she said. “I feel really blessed to be able to do something I love so much and to be able to make money doing it, it’s an added benefit.”
Castleberry said her favorite thing about the business is spending time with the people she works with.
“It used to be women sat around the quilting circle,” she said. “In a way when we make crosses, it’s kind of like that quilting circle thing. There’s so much time to visit. I just really love it. It’s just been such a blessing to our family.”
How it’s done
The crosses are hand cast into a mold containing statuary concrete.
Then glass and pottery and other pieces are used to decorate them.
“We use just about anything we can break,” Castleberry said. “It’s a great stress reliever.”
Besides crosses, she also makes hearts and angels.
Her Web site showcases some of the different items available, but items are continually being added, and customers may request custom pieces.
“We love to do heirloom pieces,” Castleberry said. “A lot of times when a grandmother dies, you’ve got her dishes and sometimes not a whole set. Not everybody can have a set of dishes. Many times they’ll send us a plate, and they’ll have us make crosses for all the family members so they can have a piece of the heritage.
“What’s really cool about this is it’s like God; he takes the broken pieces of our lives and pieces it back together to make something really beautiful.”
She employs people to help her make the crosses and teaches them how to create them.
“When people start working for me, they want it to be perfect, and it just takes time,” she said.
The crosses range in size from 6 inches to 14 inches in height.
For information on Across My Heart, visit www.acrossmyheart.net.
