My story

It all begins with a crazy idea I had.

You see Trade Winds was originally a jewelry site for people who wanted a high resolution nautical chart on a pendant, a bracelet, or even cufflinks. To make these, I had to buy this very high tech flatbed printer. The printer worked like a charm but it could also be used for all different specialized printing. The supplier for the printer said, “Play with it. You never know what you can do with it.” So play with it I did.

I had an idea that if I could print a nautical chart on glass, but separate the chart into different layers first, and then take those chart layers and print each layer on different pane of glass. How would it look?

Well the answer was, “Not too good”. So I played with it some more and then I played with it even more. I played for about a year and a half, off and on, until I came up with what I thought was a pretty neat thing. Then I built a custom wooden frame for it, painted it up real nice and hung it in my family room. The end.

Or So I Thought!

First my wife said, “You should sell these!”. And I said, “Oh no, I made one and that’s enough.” “ Do you know how hard it was to make this?”

Then my kids said, “You should sell these!”. And I said, “Oh no, I made one and that’s enough.” “ Do you know how hard it was to make this?”

Then my friends said… Well you get the idea.

Then one night we had the house full of people drinking and laughing and having a great time and suddenly it was like one of those intervention things you here about. Everybody said, “PAUL, YOU SOULD SELL THESE!!!”

“THAT’S IT.” I said. “Joyce, take this”, and I handed her the chart, “and bring it down to that really nice gallery we like in Newport.” “If they like it, then I’ll think about it.” I thought that was the end of it but guess what. She did it. And they wanted three more as soon as possible.

Well, they sold those and a lot more and I ended up in the front window selling one piece a month to people from all over the country. Who’d a thunk!

The gallery led to doing art shows and boat shows and eventually to winning awards for my work. Now I can add “Award Winning Artist” to my resume. Who’d a thunk!

The long and short of it is, I love making these pieces for people like yourself. People like me, who love the ocean, either sailing on it or living near it and want something unique for there home, office, or yacht, to express “That One Place Were Life Doesn’t Get Any Better.”

Well that it. That’s my story and Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Paul Sellon