We had the good fortune of connecting with Paulina Cardiel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paulina, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My husband and I wanted the independence in our personal and work life that running our own business provides.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are apparel screen printers, though we work with machinery and its technical aspects, the process of printing is an art. Everything from the actual design creation, the ink color selection, the film output, the exposure of the screen, the press setup, to the actual print has an artistic element. As a small shop we aim to keep that attention to detail and amicable warmth that sometimes can get lost in the rush of larger shops. Our desire is that our customers return not just because they are pleased with our prints, but also because they feel at ease with us.
In 2014, I began working as a “shirt catcher” (someone who gathers the shirts at the end of the conveyor dryer) and my husband worked as the press operator within the same company. We learned a tremendous amount of skills in different areas of the screen printing business in the four years we worked for that company, with that knowledge we opened our own shop. We started printing from our garage with a manual press, we signed our first warehouse lease right before Covid began, we’ve had financial difficulties, and we haven’t yet reached our peak today, but we’ve gotten this far because of prayer and hard work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Food is our love language so we’d definitely go to all of our favorite eats; coffee and pastries at Beans & Butter Coffeehouse in Lawrenceville, donuts from Doughnut Dollies in Marietta, Malaysian food at Food Terminal in Chamblee, tepache from a street vendor in Tucker. Our favorite activities are usually park outings or visits to Southern Belle Farms at each season change, at this time with two young children we are enjoying a slower and more simplified rhythm of life.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to mention my sister Alyssa, she has been a tremendous right-hand person to me, she makes my workload 10 times easier; I would have gone crazy trying to handle work and my children without her.

Website: https://oofnikprinting.com/

Instagram: oofnikprinting

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oofnikprinting

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