‘Making something out of nothing’ a craft for Country Rustics owner
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Signage alerts motorists that they have arrived at Country Rustics by Mari.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Country Rustics offers a wide variety of crafts from inside the Phillips home in Prosperity.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Mari Phillips is a longtime crafts aficionado who has turned her avocation into a vocation.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Shelves of crafts adorn Mari Phillips’ 3-year-old shop.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Mari Phillips hopes to climb the ladder of success with her crafts business in Prosperity.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
Shoppers at Country Rustics by Mari will see stars and a variety of other crafts.
Courtesy of Mari Phillips
A variety of crafts are displayed at Country Rustics by Mari.
Mari Phillips developed a passion for crafting crafts long ago.
“I’ve always liked to make something out of nothing,” she said, laughing. “I’d go to antique stores, thrift and junk shows to get items I think I can do something with. I make everything.”
Phillips, whose first name is pronounced “Mary,” has added her personal touches to items for years. She used to sell some of her wares at craft shows, but found that setting up for those events to be “so much work” that she stepped away.
Now that half-century-long avocation has become a vocation. Three years ago, Phillips and her husband, David, established a shop in their Washington County home called Country Rustics by Mari. It occupies two rooms of their residence on Mt. Zion Road in the Prosperity section of Morris Township. Mari uses a third room there to produce her crafts.
“We sell handmade primitive rustic crafts,” she said in a phone interview. “I do it because I like to make stuff, and I like when people like what I make. I don’t do this for the money.”
Ah, but she hopes the shop pays off. It features shelves of items that are, indeed, rustic. They include small wooden signs, glassware, wreaths, quilts, flower pots, decorated ladders – and even a pot-bellied stove.
Many of the creations, she said, are a reflection of her Christian faith.
The touches she provides are a testament to her crafting abilities, and to her perseverance. Mari was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012.
“I am still able to do most of what I want to do,” she said. “Sometimes, the painting is hard, because of the tremors, but I can steady one hand with the other.”
Country Rustics is in rustic country, to be sure, in the sparsely populated southwestern quadrant of the county, 20 minutes south of the airport. There has not been a large customer flow at the shop, a circumstance exacerbated by the pandemic, which severely limited operations in the early going.
“We went four months without a customer. We stayed isolated for 2½ months,” Mari said.
But she carries on in the spirit of any small business owner off the proverbial beaten path, hoping to establish a foothold via a dedicated customer base.
“We’re not well known enough,” said Mari, who is striving to make that happen. She has distributed publicity fliers locally, passed out business cards and posted an appealing wooden sign identifying the business in the yard of their 48-acre spread. The couple have resided on the property, a former working farm, for 12 years.
The business does have a presence on Facebook, where Mari has posted: “Prices range from $4-$30. If you like rustic home decor or need a gift, come have a look!”
She runs the shop by herself, usually from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The Phillipses are retired. Mari, 65, a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania, was a foster care and adoption case worker in Washington County. David, 67, was a fork truck mechanic with West Penn Wire in Washington, and a gas well tender.
They married young, tying the knot as high school juniors while attending different schools: she graduated from Washington, David from McGuffey. It is a marriage that has endured, to be sure. The couple will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary next March, along with their four children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
With the pandemic ebbing and summer heating up, Mari Phillips is optimistic that business will increase. In the meantime, she will continue – in her parlance – to make things.
“Really, this is a labor of love.”