Community Highlights: Meet Lisa Kamps of KampsWoods

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Kamps.

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My husband, Spencer, always has wood on hand for fires during the winter. He has a friend with property in Rainbow Valley, on the west side of Phoenix. He lets him know when their mesquite trees are ready to be removed. When the pandemic hit in 2020, our house became very crowded. Our two college kids moved home, joining our two other school aged children.

Spencer started passing the time in the garage with a pile of wood. He had no clue he was handcrafting beautiful charcuterie boards. As time progressed, so did his woodworking skills. I began giving them away as gifts and my friends all wanted to buy more. We filed the paperwork for an LLC and set up an Instagram account and we’ve watched it grow from there.

Today, you can shop for our boards at Cordially Boutique and Trevor’s Liquor. We are thrilled to be on their shelves. It’s been a family adventure from the start with our kids being involved in the social media aspect and working to grow our brand. My cousin, Julie Alpert, has also been on board since early on. Two and a half years ago, we began offering charcuterie making classes at Cordially. We provide seasonal fruits and vegetables along with a delicious spread of meats, cheeses and crackers and provide instruction on how to design a lovely charcuterie board. As a bonus, we end our classes with a shortbread cookie provided by The Art of Shortbread. It’s the best part of the class!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My husband and I are both still working so we knew the business needed to grow slowly. I overcommitted on some big orders early on and it added stress. We have had some great partnerships along the way. At this point, Spencer has to remind me that it’s a hobby for him.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about KampsWoods?
We are proud that our boards are one of a kind and handcrafted with wood harvested in Arizona. Each piece is meticulously cut and made with care. Many of our boards contain a dyed epoxy which is poured into the natural imperfections of the wood. We also love our brand and our company name. Our last name is Kamps, my maiden name is Woods and we became engaged on Saint Patrick’s Day. All of our boards are branded with a shamrock in the middle and KampsWoods around it.

We are grateful for our friends, family and community for all of the support we have received. Our class offerings are on the Cordially website. We love getting to know so many wonderful people through our charcuterie workshops.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
We have learned that you really don’t have to have everything figured out to start the process. We’re so proud of our growth over the past five years. It’s crazy to think this probably would never have happened if 2020 hadn’t disrupted our home. I love to think of the good things that came from that time.

Pricing:

• Our boards range from $20 up to $500. We offer a range of different shapes and sizes.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kampswoods