BEAR PAW CUSTOM EMBROIDERY opened up shop this week in Fairfield after moving its machinery and fixtures from Wyoming. Running the business are the mother and daughter team of, l-r, Audrey Henson and Sheryl Carpenter. Although they are still arranging stock, a new Fairfield business, Bear Paw Custom Embroidery opened its doors to customers this week.

Bear Paw, located at 503 E. Commerce Street, is owned by Sheryl Carpenter, assisted by daughter Audrey Henson, and relocated from Riverton, Wyo.

The relocation was prompted when Mrs. Carpenter’s husband, Eddie, transferred to the area with Encana Oil and Gas Company, and because of a prior familiarity with Fairfrield. Mrs. Hansen lived in Fairfield for five years but now lives in Henderson.

“We had decided when we retire we wanted to move closer to her. So his transfer worked out good,” Mrs. Carpenter says.

The Carpenters are also parents of a son, Mac, who lives in Alamagordo, N.M.

A second Bear Paw location is in Carlsbad, N.M., and is operated by a nephew and niece of the Carpenters.

The business embroiders items such as caps, coats, shirts, luggage, backpacks, letter jackets, athletic jerseys and leather—-the list is long.

They also can create and apply screen print heat transfers, and order promotional items such as pens. Mrs. Carpenter drew on experience designing clothes, teaching sewing and working in the retail clothing field to open the business in 2004.

“I have always been in the sewing industry,” she

in she says.

“I started out with a home embroidery machine. I outgrew it because I wanted to do bigger and better,” the business owner recalls.

The shop in Fairfield is equipped with a 4-head embroidery machine and three single-head machines. The automated machines are designed to work with up to 15 colors of thread in applying a design.

A simple design can be embroidered in about 10 minutes, and a large, complex design can take three hours to produce.

Designs can be provided to the business, or they can sit with a customer and create a custom design. Mrs. Carpenter says she has created designes from a sketch made on a napkin and from a carving in a lamp base.

She creates and prepares designs for embroidery, and for screen print transfers, on a computer. The design computer sends the information to the embroidery machines which then are configured for work.

“I was not a computer person when I went into this business,” Mrs. Carpenter says. “Now, I work on three computers.”

The Carpenters are both natives of Iraan in West Texas and lived in Wyoming for about eight years before getting to return to Texas.

The business started in the couple’s home in Wyoming and quickly outgrew that space, moving to a retail space in Riverton, and now to Fairfield, a process that has taken about a month.

“We moved everything. I won’t ever do that again,” Mrs. Carpenter says.

Bear Paw has also been mobile over the years, setting up a traveling shop at conventions, rodeos and other events. A good deal of business also is conducted online.

“It can dominate you,” Mrs. Carpenter says of the business. “But, I think it’s fun. I enjoy the challenge.”

Even though the move has been a trial, the business owner is happy with the decision to set up shop in Fairfield.

“We’ve had a wonderful reaction here. The people have been so welcoming,” she says.

Bear Paw plans to be active in the community, working with youth and civic organizations.