Today we’d like to introduce you to Catheryn and Ben Dellsperger.
Catheryn and Ben, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We started out by Ben just picking up the hobby of woodworking to save some money and build his own furniture. He quickly grew a passion for the craft but realized that furniture making takes up a lot of time, which is hard to come by when you also have a full time job. He purchased a CNC machine to be able to get into making charcuterie boards. Once I (Catheryn) found out all the other fun things that could also be made using a CNC machine, I started designing nursery signs to give to my friends as gifts. The gifts were a huge hit and I was urged by friends and family to try to sell signs. Since then we’ve been gaining a steady flow of projects and have constantly pushed ourselves by trying new fun and creative designs.
As of a month ago, we were BBD Woodworking, which is Ben’s initials since he was the one who started this company. But since Catheryn has joined in and has taken over more of the responsibilities of the business we have changed our name to C+B Wood to honor the partnership that this company, and our marriage, really is.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our challenge is always worrying about Catheryn’s health. About 6 years ago she was diagnosed with a very rare pregnancy-related disease called HELLP Syndrome. When she was pregnant her liver ruptured and wouldn’t stop bleeding and she had to do an emergency delivery at 29 weeks. Usually, when mothers have HELLP Syndrome, the delivery solves the problem with the liver. Unfortunately for Catheryn in did not. She continued to bleed non-stop. She ended up needing to receive two liver transplants within one month to keep her alive. At the time, she was only the 10th HELLP case on record to need a liver transplant.
She and our son, Charlie, both made it through the whole ordeal healthy. She will be immunosuppressed for the rest of her life and has to remain diligent in taking care of herself and avoiding viruses as much as possible. She’s been a rockstar at this so far and has rarely been sick. Because of this, we wanted her to be able to have a job she could do without being around many others who could potentially make her sick.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
There are a lot of other woodworkers out there who make signs just like us. We pride ourselves in providing that extra level of quality in our work, ie. a smooth paint finish, special intricate details added to elements, extra time spent sanding and shaping every piece we cut out, and a good relationship with our customers is something we pride ourselves on.
Our niche products are charcuterie boards, jewelry trays, ring dishes, and custom cutout wood signs. The last one is the majority of what we do and the majority of our work is 100% custom-designed, never to be repeated again.
We have recently gotten into creating portraits out of wood. We have done a full family as well as dogs and they are by far our favorite thing to produce. There is a lot of trust that goes into purchasing a portrait of your pet or your family, and as an artist, there is a pressure in delivering on the memories that our customers have of these pets and people. It is so amazing to create something that someone will cherish for years to come.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Ben was a talker. Very outgoing and making friends with everyone. Did he get in trouble at school? You bet he did, he was ALWAYS TALKING. He had the “engineer brain” and always wanted to understand how and why things worked. He also loved music and played the trumpet in band.
Catheryn was more of an introvert. She was very quiet and shy around people she wasn’t totally comfortable with and it took a bit to get her out of her shell. She always had a creative side to her with her hobbies of scrapbooking and playing the saxophone.
Contact Info:
- Email: cplusbwood@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cplusbwood?utm_medium=copy_link
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cplusbwood
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/cplusbwood
