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12-year-old opens own Etsy shop with creative ornament designs

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The pandemic has many people getting creative with their businesses. That includes 12-year-old Keaton Girard, who is a blossoming entrepreneur with his own Etsy shop.

Girard uses a 3D printer and his original designs to create coronavirus-inspired Christmas ornaments, and little sunglasses that resemble outfits worn by the character David Rose on the hit show “Schitt’s Creek.” He then files them down and paints the pieces by hand before selling them in his online store. The pieces have done well online.

“We could sell some custom made Christmas ornaments and other things for a little bit of extra money. And we never expected to have this much popularity. So now we maybe need to buy a second one to keep up with all of the orders,” Girard said.

So far, the business is rated with five stars reviews and he’s sold dozens of pieces.

“3D printing is a lot more detailed than you would think at first,” he explained.

Since he received the printer a few months ago, he has learned to perfect his designs so they come out properly.

“But now I know all sorts of things like there’s different kinds of filaments that are more rigid or more flexible. And depending if it’s hotter or cooler, and the extruder tip, which is what forces the plastic out, then it might come out in high definition. Or it might come out in low definition like this if it goes too fast,” he said.

Girard says he wants to be an architect or engineer when he grows up, but for now, he’s learning a lot about entrepreneurship and running a business.

“We have learned a lot of what to do with letters and shipping. And we had to buy a bunch of boxes, and we had to find different suppliers of the boxes for the prices. And we never expected things to come in so fast. We were just kind of overloaded. And we definitely had to work up to keep with our inventory and production time.”

Girard says orders must be placed by Dec. 16, 2020 to be received by Christmas. He’s offering the promo code WPTV2 for $2 off your order.