Mohawk Valley native launches gift product with ‘Beekman Boys’

Mohawk Valley native Michelle Roberts has a new product that she hopes will help her business take flight with a little help from some entrepreneurs and reality TV stars in Sharon Springs.

On Valentine’s Day, Roberts launched a gift line called Messenger Birds, which features a handcrafted ceramic bird with a unique feature. Instead of wings, the birds have a space where someone can slip in a rolled up piece of paper featuring a personal message.

“I started Messenger Birds a year and a half ago,” Roberts says in an email interview. “Messenger Birds began when I picked up my first piece of clay and held the lump in my hands. All I could think of is, ‘Oh, the possibilities!’”

After creating her first bird, Roberts says she knew she wanted the birds to have a function as well as beauty. That’s where the idea of creating a way for people to add their own message to the birds came from.

“I think that the power of sentiment is something that has been somewhat lost due to all the technology of today’s world, and this is a way to bring it back,” she says.

Roberts has already landed a deal with another area company — Beekman 1802 — that she hopes will help sales of Messenger Birds take off. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell operate Beekman 1802, which consists of an online store and a brick and mortar store in Sharon Springs. The duo gained popularity as stars of the Planet Green reality TV show “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” in 2010 and 2011.

“I decided to reach out to the ‘Beekman Boys’ after meeting with a local photographer that told me to check their brand,” Roberts says. “He thought my birds would be great in their store. I had thought the same thing after researching them.”

Beekman currently works with more than 20 local craftspeople that design and produce products for them, Ridge says in an email. “Our B. 1802 Rural Artist Collective was created to help the talented craftspeople in our area making a living doing what they love to do, and they help us create the heirloom quality products that we’ve become known for.”

“Michelle came to us with her idea for the Messenger Birds last year, and we thought the idea was wonderful — a beautiful, subtle, yet lasting way to send a love note,” Ridge says. Beekman started selling the birds on Valentine’s Day both in its store and online and has already shipped out orders for the birds all over the world, he says.

“I am very humbled that they would sell my birds and look forward to a great business relationship with them,” Roberts says of her deal with Beekman.

She also sells the birds online at www.messengerbirds.com and through her own online store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/micmar002. Roberts also markets the birds and her other products, which include other giftware items and restored picture frames, on her Facebook page.

Roberts also operates Michelle Roberts Design (www.michellerobertsdesign.com), a design firm that specializes in illustration, graphic design, and website design. She runs both the design and ceramics businesses part time and works full time as a junior art director for a small ad agency in Rochester. She declined to name the firm for which she works.

Her design business currently has about five to eight steady clients — a number she is looking to grow.

Her ceramic business also has a small number of steady clients besides the ‘Beekman Boys’ including various stores in Rochester, Old Forge, Syracuse, and San Francisco.

Eventually, Roberts would like to sell her creations to national chains such as Anthropology, Hallmark, and others. In the short term, she’s working on developing packaging, a new website, and press kits to help market and expand her brand and product.

Roberts, who grew up in Barneveld, graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2006 with a degree in graphic communication.