Name of business: Resin with Reason
Type of business: Hand poured resin trinkets and treasures
Location: Turlock
Contact information: @resinwithreason on Instagram
Specialty: 10% of proceeds donated
History of business:
When 22-year-old Sammie Wilkinson was sent home from school at the University of California, Irvine, due to the coronavirus pandemic, she took up a hobby that has now become a small business with a purpose.
The Turlock native is now the founder and owner of Resin with Reason — an internet shop offering handmade coasters, jewelry boxes, keychains and more, all made with resin. Resin has become a popular craft option during the pandemic, allowing users to pour the resin into molds which then form a hardened, final product.
With two parents who are graphic designers and a school career which started out with the visual and performing arts magnet at Walnut Elementary School years ago, it’s no wonder the psychology major eventually found a way to let her artistic side show.
“I was just bored in quarantine and decided to try it out. It’s really fun and something relaxing to distract myself from all the craziness going on,” Wilkinson said. “When family members started asking me if they could buy stuff from me, I thought maybe this could be something and it’s been growing ever since.”
Wilkinson has even collaborated with Turlock florist Heidi Hearts Flowers to incorporate dried flowers into her designs, which she sells at both pop-up events and through her Instagram account. While making a little extra cash during the pandemic doesn’t hurt, she decided to forgo 10% of her sales in order to address two issues she’s seen arise during the COVID crisis: mental health and ocean waste.
Wilkinson said that 5% of her sales will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness at the end of the year, and the other 5% will be given to The Surfrider Foundation to combat the increase in trash flowing into the ocean during the pandemic due to increased production of masks and other single-use products.
“With everything that’s been going on, I definitely wanted to try and contribute a little bit of what I could,” Wilkinson said.
