Stephanie Raudsepp

Creative Artifacts HQ is my handmade bookbinding and stationery business, established in 2015 and sustained for nine years alongside full-time product work. What began as a creative outlet evolved into a wholesale operation with partnerships across North America—and became an unexpected education in operations, supply chain management, and sustainable business practice.

The Practice:

I design and produce functional, minimalist paper goods: hand-bound journals, notebooks, and stationery meant to be used, not displayed. Each piece emphasizes quality materials (often sourced from specialty paper suppliers in Montreal and beyond), thoughtful construction, and clean aesthetics that complement rather than overwhelm the work they'll contain.

The design philosophy is deliberate simplicity: remove everything unnecessary, keep what serves function. This mirrors my approach to systems design in product work—minimize complexity while maximizing utility.

Business Evolution:

Over nine years, Creative Artifacts grew from craft fair sales to established wholesale relationships through the Faire platform, with retail presence via Etsy. I've built partnerships with independent bookstores, gift shops, and specialty retailers across North America—relationships sustained through consistent quality, reliable fulfillment, and genuine connection with store owners who understand craft value.

2024 Milestone:
Creative Artifacts secured its largest wholesale order to date—a validation of years of consistent work, quality maintenance, and relationship building. This achievement represents not just business growth, but proof that thoughtful, handmade production can scale sustainably when supported by clear systems.

What This Practice Taught Me:

Running Creative Artifacts for nine years while working full-time taught me lessons no product management course could:

• Supply chain management: Sourcing materials, managing inventory, forecasting demand, handling fulfillment
• Customer development: Understanding what people actually want vs. what I want to make
• Pricing strategy: Balancing material costs, labor value, market positioning, and profit margins
• Operations systems: Building workflows that maintain quality while increasing output
• Wholesale relationships: Communication, reliability, trust-building with retail partners
• Sustainable practice: How to maintain creative output across years without burnout

These skills directly inform my product work. Understanding how to build and maintain complex systems, manage resources efficiently, and balance competing constraints—these lessons came from making thousands of books by hand, one at a time.

Current Direction:

After nine years of consistent production, Creative Artifacts is transitioning toward more strategic, limited output. The goal: maintain the relationships and business structure while freeing capacity for December First Press projects and photography practice. This isn't closing the business—it's evolving it into its next phase, guided by the same principle that's sustained it for nearly a decade: create what serves a genuine need, remove what doesn't.

View current products and wholesale information: Creative Artifacts HQ | FAIRE WHOLESALE

Featured In:

"B is for Binding" | OOAK (One of a Kind) Alphabetical Interview Series
Featured interview discussing bookbinding practice, Creative Artifacts HQ, and approaches to handmade production.

"Face Masks in Estonian National Colours" | Eesti Elu (Estonian Life Magazine), August 2020
Featured interview about creating face masks in Estonian national colors during the COVID-19 pandemic, combining craft with cultural identity. Link


"A One of a Kind Experience" | Le bulletin de l'AQRAL (Bilingual publication)
First-person account as an exhibitor at the One of a Kind Show and Sale in Toronto, discussing the experience of craft fairs, business lessons, and cultural observations about handmade markets.