How I welcomed the challenge of holding off creditors, staying up alone night after night coming up with new images, thinking up new words. Making a J. Stone Card was an act of devotion, my spiritual path disguised as a way to earn a living!
Sixteen years later this is still my path but sometimes the disguise fools even me. I continue to work hard, but others work beside me. If starting J. Stone Cards was like falling in love, staying faithful to the work, the real work, the inner work, requires a much deeper commitment. Keeping love alive isn't easy! Posturing won't due, nor will feigning passion. If I want J. Stone Cards to represent and honor the sacred in everyday life, then every day I need to honor the sacred!
In 16 years, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Now as then, J. Stone Cards addresses our struggle to be fully human. Now, as then, this is my struggle too. If I want J. Stone Cards to represent life and all its challenges, I can't pretend to be someone who has all the answers; sometimes I don't even know the right questions!
But, I do know this: all of us who work here and those of you who buy the work are joined in an uncommonly close way. One does not function without the other, and it is our customers who keep this company alive and thriving!
All of us at J. Stone Cards are very thankful we have beaten the odds of most small greeting card publishers and we have never taken our success for granted! I am personally as thankful for the dedicated people who work beside me as I am for each of you, and of your dedication to the work we produce. You are the ones who have kept us going.
I believe our product is as beautiful as ever, but those first handmade cards were beautiful to me too, because they spoke the truth from my heart. From the beginning I wanted to create greeting cards that spoke in a real way that might remind someone reading it to keep their heart open, that there is dignity in whatever struggle, whatever joy, whatever passion they were experiencing, and to never give up, because everyday life is full of wonder, and one moment or event no less sacred than another...
Thank you from my heart for your interest in J. Stone Cards!
With Love, Respect and Appreciation!
Click HERE to read Jane's Bio.