When Tonya Barlow first purchased a laser engraver in 2006, she wanted to try something different. She’d been personalizing silver and gold jewelry with a manual engraver, but her new laser could engrave wood. She tried personalizing wood jewelry and took it to craft shows and home parties throughout her home state of Mississippi. The products were a huge hit.

Small Town Business

How Barlow Blue Became a Mississippi Destination

By Shelley Widhalm

(Originally printed in the January/February 2025 issue of Insights.)

When Tonya Barlow first purchased a laser engraver in 2006, she wanted to try something different. She’d been personalizing silver and gold jewelry with a manual engraver, but her new laser could engrave wood. She tried personalizing wood jewelry and took it to craft shows and home parties throughout her home state of Mississippi. The products were a huge hit.

“Back then, there wasn’t really such a thing as going viral. This was the 2006 equivalent,” the owner and designer of Barlow Blue says. “Word got out about the jewelry, and my phone was ringing off the hook.”

Barlow experienced such a high demand for the engraved wood jewelry that she created a MySpace page to post images so customers could see what they liked. They would then email her with order details. The popularity of the jewelry continued to grow, so she got her first website in 2007.

Today, Barlow still has many of those customers from 2006, plus a big tourist draw to her 3,000-square-foot retail store in her hometown of French Camp, Mississippi.

“Because I boomed then and got such a large fan base, they’ve stuck with me over the years,” she says. “They’ve been faithful and loyal to me and supportive of all my endeavors.”

Crafting a Path

Barlow first got into retail in 2001 when she launched Kade’s Candles, a homemade-candle business. She did this after leaving her job at a vet clinic so she could focus more on raising her children.

Every weekend, Barlow took homemade candles to craft shows, but they were heavy, easily damaged, and prone to fading in the sun. When she saw other vendors selling jewelry, she started selling it too.

After finding success in the jewelry business, Barlow stopped selling candles in 2004 and became Tonya Barlow Jewelry. She continued selling at craft shows, home parties, and eventually online. In 2011, she opened her first retail store in a newly constructed 1,000-square-foot building next door to her home. Her youngest was 3 years old at the time, so proximity to home was important.

She outgrew that space after five years, but she treasured that time close to home with her child.

In 2016, Barlow opened her second location, also in French Camp, to be able to separate home from work. With the new location, Barlow changed her store’s name to Barlow Blue to be more fitting with what she offered, since she now sells a great deal more than jewelry.

“Barlow is my last name, and blue is my favorite color, and it has a nice ring to it,” she says of the name change.

A Hub for Personalization

French Camp has a population of around 250 people, but half of Barlow’s business still comes from foot traffic. That’s partially because the town is near the Natchez Trace Parkway, an ancient trail turned scenic highway that stretches 444 miles through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.

“Tourists travel that and ... pop in daily,” Barlow says. “We do a lot of souvenir shirts for Natchez Trace travelers. We make Natchez Trace–themed items.”

Besides foot traffic, Barlow’s business comes from online sales and through the open houses she hosts in the summer and during the holidays. Barlow and her staff make many of the items sold, but she also brings in other vendors.

“We are a full-service retail store, so it’s not all handmade by me,” Barlow says. “We got so big, we now have all types of boutique and gift items as well.”

Barlow and her staff make gold, silver, acrylic, and wood jewelry, as well as picture frames, stickers, ornaments, tumblers, wallets, and key chains. They also laser engrave books and Bibles and have a full-service T-shirt shop to personalize shirts, hats, and other clothing. Items Barlow sells from other vendors include candles, boutique clothes, hats, hair accessories, toys, car accessories, home decor, health-and-beauty products, and home fragrances. They also carry French Camp and Mississippi souvenirs like postcards, stickers, and magnets.

“If it can be personalized, we can do it here,” Barlow says, adding that, as a consumer, she loves personalized items. “I love to be able to offer that to people, especially here in the South—it’s a really big thing. No item is complete unless it has a monogram on it.”

Constantly Innovating

Barlow is always open to carrying new items and takes requests for products from customers, researching them and seeing if they’re right for the shop.

“I try to stay on top of what is trending and look out for those trends by going to shows and seminars,” Barlow says. “I do a lot of research and product watch.”

One show Barlow likes is the annual Expo put on by the APA. She attended her first Expo last year in Las Vegas when she joined the organization and plans to attend this year’s Expo as well.

“I like that they offer seminars to show you tips and tricks, and then they have showrooms, so you can see and try the equipment,” Barlow says.

Barlow purchased a transfer printer at her first show, adding to her equipment list that also includes laser engravers, embroidery machines, a rotary engraver, and a large-format printer that cuts and prints vinyl and vinyl stickers. She keeps her equipment in 1,000 square feet of the store’s space, where there’s also overflow inventory and a work area. It’s divided by a long countertop from the retail section, which spans 2,000 square feet. There’s also a separate warehouse two miles from the store that’s used for storage and overflow.

  

All in the Family

When it comes to Barlow’s business, there’s always family around to help out. Barlow has 10 employees, and six of them are family members. Her husband, Scott, and her three children who are now 23, 22, and 17 also help out when they can, working around their full-time jobs. Her mother, sister, and two daughters-in-law are often assisting as well.

“The most important thing to me is my family,” Barlow says. “This whole thing is because I wanted to put my family first.”

As for the future of her business, Barlow’s excited for the next new thing, whatever that may be.

 “It’s time for something new to come, but I don’t know what it is. I see new equipment ideas at shows, and I hope to get a spark,” she says. “I’m very pleased with where I am, but I still want to grow.”

Barlow also has an expansion plan to add onto her store, which she planned for in 2023 and again in 2024, but she’s decided to postpone until a better time when the economy is doing well and building materials are less expensive, she says.

No matter what the future holds, Barlow is happy with the work and the business she has created.

“If you have to have a job and go to work every day, I think I have a particularly great one,” Barlow says. “I enjoy seeing and meeting new customers and visiting with old customers. I just enjoy what I do. It’s really fun being creative all the time, just being a sounding board and tossing ideas around, coming up with something unique and special for people.”

Shelley Widhalm is a freelance writer and editor and founder of Shell's Ink Services, a writing-and-editing service based in Loveland, Colorado. She has more than 15 years of experience in communications and holds a master of arts degree in English from Colorado State University. She can be reached at shellsinkservices.com of swidhalm@shellsinkservices.com