Thanks to Etsy and Instagram, Rouvè Hembling’s eco-friendly zero waste kitchen wares have found their way to fans in Denmark and the U.K., all the way from her home-based business in Nakusp, B.C.

A few years ago, Hembling had been scoping out something crafty to do as a business, one that she could feel good about. Eco-friendly and waste-reducing beeswax wraps had been appealing to her, but she didn’t like the fact that they wouldn’t stay on containers. So, Hembling combined several sources of inspiration and created a line of eco-friendly bowl covers made from cotton and printed with catchy sayings. Coating some of the covers in beeswax, Hembling made the attractive covers waterproof as well as reusable.

It was the reach of online platforms like Etsy and Instagram that propelled her homemade crafting into a full-time international business.

“Etsy is very big and well set up,” said Hembling, who embraced online sales and social media with gusto. The crafter-gone-pro loves promoting her products with Instagram and working to discover popular hashtags.

Through Instagram, Hembling connected to decorators and entertainers who were zero-waste advocates, befriending people and collaborating on social media giveaways and guest posts. Collaborating with one woman in Norway led to large direct sales to retailers there, and it was the same for her markets in the U.K. So, Hembling collected some popular sayings in Norwegian as well as English and, emblazoning her bowl covers, she was off to the races.

It has been an evolving process for Hembling whose orders have increased from 10 to 30 covers to orders for 1,000-2,000 covers. The Nakusp entrepreneur grew her home-based business slowly and without financial backing, learning to cut costs and invest time and money wisely, and having fun along the way. Scheduling her own work time, Hembling always makes sure there’s time to go skiing and spend time in nature with her family.

Your Green Kitchen has now grown to 5 employees (a huge blessing for Nakusp), and with a mission to provide amazing, long lasting great quality products, makes it easy to transition into using less plastic and more earth-friendly products in your kitchen and home. From start to finish, Your Green Products are handled with care and handmade for your home.