Another Story about Handmade Rustic Cast Stone House and Garden signs, markers and plaques

Background 

Or, how MiniARTS CAST STONE SIGNS and Plaques was born :-)

In 1997, my family and I were looking for a new home. We found one after an exhaustive review of 15 + homes. We were exhausted. Now came the job of making this gently used home ours. How, you say? Well, by personalizing (read, massive, potentially huge, home remodeling ) it to our taste .

The Challenge

The house is located in a neighborhood with poor street lighting, no street lights to speak of, and virtually no home signs, markers nor plaques of any kind. The houses on our street all look so similar (ah, the benefits of cookie-cutter homes :-)). We had an issue, a challenge to differentiate ourselves. In other words, it became clear that we had to do something. We, had a house. But we did not yet have a home. We had to do something. Something, that, in my mind, would make our home REMARKABLE. Different, unique, without disrupting the harmony of the neighborhood. Yes, something had to be done, but what? I emphasize Remarkable to show Seth Godin I am listening to his sage advice. (Thank you Seth!)

I told my wife, "honey, I will fix it".

The Inspirational FLASH


A few weeks went by and I had a flash of inspiration. While reading the SkyMall Catalog on a business flight, I saw these amazing metal address signs and plaques for the home and garden. I also saw the robust, very healthy, beefy prices. While still on the plane, I imaged the process of making one of these signs. This is what crossed my mind: a) the signs looked nice, very nice, yet thin, almost flimsy, b) pricey and c) environmentally unsustainable. I imagined someone hand casting metal in someone's basement... or near someone's neighborhood. Now, really, how can that be good for anyone... the fumes, the toxins, the molten metal, the damage to the air and water, the poor employees. I know everybody has to be make a living. Yet, I suspected I could do better. This was the start of the Miniature ARTS - "MiniARTS" (TM)and the creation of the RUSTIC CAST STONE House Signs

Over time, I have come to trust my intuition. This was one of those flashes of Intuition Malcolm Gladwell describes so well in best seller BLINK. Note: I don't   know Malcolm and derive no benefit from his book sales.

MiniARTS was founded in 1997. The name comes from Miniature ARTS. The name was created because I read a great book by William Poundstone entitled Priceless. In the book, William makes a compelling case for pricing products via context. As you know, pricing in the ARTS world has been known to be driven by the quality of thestory and the product.

MiniARTS's mission is fulfilled to this date by 3 web businesses: 

MiniARTS, Silverhealthy and CarAllergyFilter

1. www.miniarts.net - Cast Stone Signs and Plaques are symbols that provide a sense of wellbeing about your home.

You feel good about your home every time you leave it to go to work and every time you come back at night to your home, your castle, your place to rest and decompress. Research shows symbols are positive contributors to PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) and optimistic bias toward success.

2. www.silverhealthy.net - Affordable Ionic Silver machines for the home focuses on chronic problems today with health.

In the morning and night, ionic silver replaces harsh chemicals that burn your mouth and gums. When preparing pre-cut salads from the store, washing your salad with ionic silver prevents intestinal distress (aka., Montezuma's revenge as it is called when I visit Mexico). If your eye lids get infected and it will be hours or days until you see your eye, what can you safely use to keep things under control? Yes, you guessed right. I use ionic silver drops all the time to keep eye lid infections for family and pets under control (when applicable). Eye lid infections occur without warning and can erode morale and Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) dramatically. For me, Silverhealthy's Ionic silver is another tool in my Success Toolbox. Tell me what you think.

3. www.carallergyfilter.net - Did you know most new cars have Cabin Air Filters to keep the passenger air clean of pollen and other dust?

However, there are about 150 million (yes, million) cars and trucks that are 10 years old or older in the US that don't passenger cabin air filters. If you or your loved ones suffer from allergies, you should consider visiting our website.  It is over-engineered to  get the job done right. The product is great for Trucks, Pickups, SUVs, VANs. This product's design is very utilitarian and made for heavy duty use.