History Lesson of the Ella Bing Wood Bow Tie
A lot of people seem to ask us, 'How did you come up with the idea for wood bow ties?' It's an obvious question and a good one. The story goes like this. We were humming along making awesome cloth, silk, seersucker and madras bow ties, but we wanted a better way to set ourselves apart from the competition. Additionally, since Ella Bing is a family run business, we wanted to involve all parts of the family. Mama-dukes had the cloth bow tie department tied down and she had been rocking out high quality handmade bow ties for some time. But alas, pops was feeling left out from the process, left to only his opinion and cleaning skills. So we set out to get him more involved. Now anyone who knows him, knows that he has some excellent talents when it comes to wood working and stained glass. So we thought...hmmm could it be possible to make a stained glass bow tie? What would it look like, how could be increase the quality, how long would it take to produce? These were all excellent questions. But then we got to thinking...glass around a neck...eck...probably not a good idea, what if the glass bow tie breaks....I think you get the picture. So we progressed into the wood arena. We did a quick Google search, saw that there was really only one other company doing it on an e-commerce level. And after a few days of prototyping and brainstorming realized we could put out one heck of a bodacious wood bow tie.
The next hurdle was to find the wood. Now we are not lumberjacks, and it's not as simple as going into the forest, chopping down a tree, and yelling, TIMBER! We wanted the good stuff, the exotics. Stuff like Zebrawood and Lacewood and Violetwood. We ended up being very fortunate and finding a gold mind of exotic woods from an exotic woods collector. We bought up his collection and went to work. Booyah!
So now we are churning out quality handmade wood bow ties, and you guys are gobbling them up. Which makes us happy of course. So pops is now in the wood shop, what seems to be on a 24x7 basis spending hours upon hours perfecting his creations. Some Woodys, take up to 8 hours to hand make start to finish. All of our Woodys are natural colors, no dyes or stains are used with Ella Bing Wood. We only use a glossy or satin clear finish to enhance the natural beauty. We want the wood to speak for itself. Our wood bow ties have been described to us as like wearing a piece of art work around your neck, and we like that. Wear one of our Woodys out on the town and we guarantee you, that you will be stopped many times over by people curious to know what type of bow tie you are wearing. They truly are an instant conversation piece around your neck.