Meet Denise Karis of Click Bloom in Gilbert

Today we’d like to introduce you to Denise Karis.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Denise. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve been a photographer for over a decade now. In April of 2019, I was styling some photos for Instagram and I ended up using a vintage camera with some pressed flowers for a flat lay photo. I loved the effect so much that the next day I tried it with fresh flowers and the idea evolved and I named my new art project “Click Bloom.” Over the next few weeks, I collected over twenty vintage cameras and then started getting requests to sell art prints. Soon after, I opened an Etsy shop to sell prints and then in February of 2020. I launched as a pop-up shop at Agritopia’s weekly farm nights.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our pop up shop launched in February and had to shut down due to the pandemic but our community has been overwhelmingly supportive, so our Etsy shop is still powering along through all this!

In 2019, we we’re mostly working on building up a catalog of new products, so after listing art prints, we moved into enamel pins and in December, added a gorgeous watercolor map of Downtown Gilbert by Santa Fe Artist Danae Blackburn. We’ve enjoyed this first year and are excited to see what year two has in store!

Please tell us about Click Bloom.
Our love language is gift-giving. We believe the best gifts are the ones that show up for absolutely no reason at all. Those little “just thought of you” gifts. So everything in our shop is meant to serve that exact purpose. Gifts to yourself definitely count here too!

We especially love hearing the stories about why people are buying our items. One time a woman bought her sister one of our cactus art prints for her sister who moved out of the country and missed home. Another time a daughter bought her Grandfather our watercolor map of Downtown Gilbert because her Grandfather went to school at the Gilbert Historical Museum back when it was a school and the museum is represented on our map.

We are unique in the way we create magic moments for our customers. From the unexpectedly beautiful packaging to thoughtful notes to the occasional surprise gift sent with an order to featuring their images on Instagram, we love finding unique ways to show our customers how much they’re valued.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite childhood memory actually came after childhood. When I was eleven, we moved to Arizona and almost all of our belongings went into a storage unit that was later broken into. While I don’t remember much that was lost besides a few favorite toys, I do remember losing our childhood photos. The loss hit hard and even harder over the years, as photographs definitely appreciate over time. When I was about twenty-five, some photographs started making their way back to us through various family members and friends. Most recently, my Mother’s High School friend sent a photo she had found of my Mother at a wedding with my brother when he was still a baby. Those glimpses into our past are rare and I’ve been so grateful to collect a little over twenty childhood memories through those images.

Pricing:

• Art Prints $20
• Enamel Pins $12

Contact Info:

• Website: http://click-bloom.com
• Email: hello@click-bloom.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopclickbloom/

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