Today we’d like to introduce you to Kira and Chris Bailey.
Hi Kira and Chris, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Chris and I (Kira) met in the fall of 2013. I was in college, and Chris was Fire performing. I always joke that I fell in love with a clown, quit college, and ran away to the circus, but if you look at how it happened, it kinda fits our story. I started performing with him. I had a background in dance and gymnastics, so picking up fire props after quitting college felt natural. We did little gigs like backyard parties and big gigs like the Texas Renaissance Faire, the big arena fire show at the end of the day that holds 10k people. We were always crafty and working on our fire props and Chris has been involved for so long that he started making his own very odd-shaped props. I feel like it really started taking off during the pandemic. People started getting excited about the Sunwheels, and we sold over 50 in a very short time. January 2021 was when I started our Etsy, and we came up with the name “The Odd Prop Shop.” Props made for performers by performers. It mostly started as Sunwheels, but we asked our Fabricator friend Noah Maudlin, who also has been doing Circus for over 20 years, to help us create and make these fire star wands. From there, the shop just grew and grew. Chris and I were in Florida working with Universal Studios, and Noah was still in Houston making whatever we couldn’t. As more orders came in, we had to make a decision to move and grow or stay in Florida, but we ended up deciding to move here and buy some land with Noah to grow the business and continue doing what we love to do. Right now, we spend our days working in the metal workshop and doing work building a home on our new piece of property. We hope to keep growing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t think anything ever goes completely smooth; we started in two different locations, so we had to buy two of everything for the shop depending on who was making what, and so it was a lot of phone calls back and forth with Noah brainstorming and coming up with new designs even though we were states away.
Also, living in an RV has been Challenging. There just isn’t enough storage space to run a shop like ours out of an RV.
I also feel like social media is a necessary evil, and wish we didn’t have to be so engrossed in it, but it’s been very beneficial to our business.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The odd prop shop started as projects that we wanted for ourselves, creating and making them for friends, and just grew from there. We make and create circus props. They range from practice Sun wheels to ones that glow in UV light; we also have fire wands, staffs, fire sun wheels, and Ariael Rigs. We mostly enjoy the custom props that come in. We love brainstorming on how to best create a new prop, and we are always trying to improve our design and quality.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theoddpropshop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoddpropshop/?next=%2F
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoddpropshop
Image Credits
Matt Hellman Photography
Kira Bolin
