When Carter’s phone rang one fateful day, she had no idea it was her future on the line. A glass bead maker living in Charleston, SC, Carter had dreamed of being a part of a larger creative force.
Aveesh was on the other side of the call, and was on the hunt for a designer to collaborate with. Someone, he hoped, who could take the company’s bead designs to the next level. At the time, Aveesh owned a wholesale bead company in Berkeley, CA, and was looking to expand his selection of glass beads.
The world shifted on its axis a little when these two met in Berkeley in 2004.
A few serendipitous years later, Carter and Aveesh had married and were busy building their bead empire, supplying beads to most of the bead stores in the country. By 2008, the bead industry was suffering, and the couple’s wholesale business was feeling the effect.
In 2010, they moved to Charlotte, NC, to be closer to Carter’s family, and to reduce overhead. It was during this time that Carter started exploring different ideas for the company, and, on a whim, decided to open an Etsy shop, naming it WomanShopsWorld.
Using her own personal style as a benchmark for choosing which products to add to the shop, over the course of the next 2 years, Carter transitioned the company from a wholesale bead business selling every type of bead you can imagine to a highly curated retail craft supply shop with a focus on globally-sourced handmade items. The rebrand was fueled by instinct and passion for the products, and the outcome was a powerhouse craft supply shop, the likes of which had never existed before.
WSW quickly drew the attention of Etsy, who frequently features the tassels, beads and trimmings in their newsletters and on their site. They even chose WSW as a Featured Shop in 2014 (read that article here).
In 2016, WSW launched its own standalone website, and expanded its offerings to include home decor, gift sets, and fashion, and the product selection continues to grow. In 2019, the company relocated to Columbia, SC, where Carter grew up.