Cat Trees RECLAIMED is run by Max Elysian, the creator behind the reclaimed products.
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How did all of this start? |
And where is it all heading? |
A brief backstory: I lived in Spain for five years, and came back home to Aotearoa a couple of months before covid hit. I was soo lucky with that!
After spending a month with my Mum, I came down to Wellington to start remaking my life. I found a flat, started looking for a job in teaching languages (my "real" career) then.... COVID 19! No job. eventually I moved to a place with a garage, turning it into a studio to keep myself busy during another short lockdown and unemployment. I did find a near perfect job for myself as Co-ordinator of Timebank in the Hutt Valley, but that was cut short due to struggles revisiting childhood traumas as I went through (and am still going through) putting my abuser in prison. Getting him there has been a long, difficult road. One thing that really helps me get through it all is creating! So, I started trying out different things in my studio to have something healthy to focus on, getting into carving and upholstery, then refurbishing furniture. I made a cat tree for our foster kittens at the time and BOOM, the seeds were planted for my cat tree and furniture adventure. |
Looking to the future: Where to go from here? I am still in the beginning phases of training my furniture making skills. Watch this space to see the quality of my work get better and better!
At first I was just slowly making and selling whatever I felt like at the time on trademe and facebook marketplace, but after taking a short course with Rebel Business School, I realised two things: How much people loved the idea of my cat trees, and how important it is to have a single focus, at least when starting out. So for now I will be prioritising, advertising the cat trees, while continuing to practise my skills in making furniture on the side. Who knows what this venture will turn into? I look forward to the future. |
Although cat trees are my thing now, I am not even really a cat person (I do love cats though!). Dogs steal the show for me any day, hence this page about me having all the pictures of dogs. The one of me and the tan coloured Podenco, is Aroha, my own dog. She lives in Spain now with her grandparents, my ex's parents. I miss her so much, but it's better for her to be there as long as she has family to look after her with love. She is super active, I used to train her to jump through hoops and do some urban parkour to keep her active in the city! She was found chained up under a bridge by a coworker of mine, that's how I came to adopt her. The police said she was likely being used as bait for dog fighting, poor pup. We had to do so much work together to get her to be ok out on the street, to work on her fears and anxieties. She's doing so much better now! The black floopy thing is Oubee, my Mum's dog. She's beautiful, stands out in the crowd, and just... lays around all day! She's so gentle, she was raised in a childcare and the children loved her
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