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Crafternoons. That’s how it started. A few times with our husbands (who went to college together) watching some sort of sport in the living room, Virginia and I would sit at her small kitchen table in her Lancaster City row home painting, doodling and creating. The focus of this particular project was a June destination wedding – something intimate with family and friends. Virginia, the art education major, illustrated her own invitations and we were designing up something particularly fun that she could pack and carry on in her suitcase for her New Orleans nuptials. This cloth banner with calligraphy lettering and colorful hand painted florals was the perfect marriage of our talents for her post marriage second line parade celebration.
A few weeks later in the midsummer heat at my grandmother’s pool we sat reflecting on our continued design toward her end of summer celebration for all her friends and family. It would include a photo book, signage and other fun details that allowed us to continue our collaboration longer than anticipated. As we dipped our toes into the pool, we also toyed with the idea of diving further into this hobby and the possibilities of starting a business together. Both of us individually had been told that we should “sell our” talents, but seeing what the other did to elevate our own gift made us feel like we needed each other.In that moment by the pool, we really engaged with this idea, but it wasn’t until 2016 that we made our marriage official – signing paperwork, registering our name and getting our own tax ID number. (yes, so sexy).
The name came from that moment by the pool where we realized that Virginia would be losing her maiden name, Chamberlin, in post marriage bliss. We discussed the bittersweet dynamic of being married away and then losing part of your identify in the process. The name Cork and Chambers comes from a combination of our maiden names Corcoran and Chamberlin or Cork andChambers. Its our identify wrapped up into this business that we will never lose as long as we are married to it – a new identity as we shifted away from our individuality to needing each other’s talents to make ourselves better.
P.S. And let us be clear, we love our husbands for many reasons, but mostly for their undying support and encouragement to keep usr unning after our passion and our excitement.