Crafting Cellar Owner Enjoying Stress-Free Work

Almost every day, the sun is late for breakfast with Bob DeFillipo.

By 5:30 Thursday morning, the owner of ws already painting candy canes and preparing for the upcoming day, even though his store doesn’t open until 10 a.m.

The Crafting Cellar, which celebrated its 12^th year in Historic Smithville this year, sells handmade crafts and specializes in seasonal items.

A wood cutter creates the pieces and DeFillipo, 69 and originally from South Plainfield, decorates them. He even personalizes pieces his customers purchase at no additional cost. DeFillipo works every day running his own business, but he enjoys doing it.

“This is a non-stress job,” DeFillipo said.

That’s important for a man who had to leave an industry he worked in for 25 years after suffering two heart attacks within 10 days just before Christmas in 1995.

“I used to be a vendor at (Oktoberfest and Mayfest in Smithville), and then a couple of heart attacks and it was time to get out of the car business after 25 years,” DeFillipo said.

“The first one was bad. I was gone and they brought me back. That scares you.”

The second wasn’t as severe, but DeFillipo knew it was time to leave the car business he loved.

“I started as a salesman and worked my way up the ranks,” DeFillipo said. “I was the general manager of a couple of dealerships. I enjoyed it. I made a good living. Of course, I never saw my kids because I worked 12 hours a day.”

DeFillipo had been selling his crafts at shows in his spare time, and he slowly transitioned into the craft selling business full time. In 2000, he and his wife Nancy, 62, moved to the Smithville section of Galloway Township, and shortly thereafter, he opened the Crafting Cellar.

“I was going to go look for a job, but I saw this empty building and I thought, you know what, why don’t I just open up a craft store,” DeFillipo said.

“There’s a big difference. You’re under a lot of pressure in the automobile business, especially if you’re in management. All they’re interested in is profit, profit, profit. So here, if I want to paint, I paint. If I don’t want to paint, I don’t paint.”

Very rarely is there a time when DeFillipo doesn’t want to paint, it would seem. On Thursday, Dec. 1, he was painting snowmen in preparation to put them on display. He designs a lot of his pieces himself.

“I’ve designed over 600 patterns,” DeFillipo said, adding that one of each designed is in separate boxes in the storage space above his store.

“It’s the first time for this one,” DeFillipo said of the snowman, 12 of which were waiting behind the counter. “I have not made this one before. This is his debut. This weekend will be a test for him.”

That’s when the snowmen will join the rows of crafts that line the outside and inside of the Crafting Cellar, everything from footballs and baseballs with team names on them to pumpkin and Christmas Tree decorations to two Santa Clauses standing outside Through the Looking Glass, an item that can be purchased at the Crafting Cellar.

DeFillipo is always working on new items.

“Two days after Christmas, Valentine’s Day items will be out,” DeFillipo said, adding that he has items for every holiday, and that all items are available all year long for his regular from other parts of the country who come by once a year.

It’s difficult to determine what will do well in a given year. Christmas trees that were a first-time item last year are being snatched up before DeFillipo can finish them this year. Gingerbread men are also inexplicably popular this year.

He also listens to suggestions from customers as to what they think would do well.

“People bring in photos of what they want and I’ll put it on a piece of wood,” DeFillipo said. “I don’t like to say no.”

At one point, DeFillipo went through the whole process of creating pieces and decorating them by himself, but since he found a wood cutter to help him, his production is up and his costs are down.

He’s also had to downsize in recent months. His store had occupied the equivalent of three buildings, but now all of his items are in one space.

‘The economy’s changed a bit,” said DeFillipo, who called downsizing a “good maneuver."

"People are a little cautious as to what they’re spending their money on today, and you can’t blame them," he said. 

“If you have what people want, it’ll sell. It makes them happy, but they didn’t spend a lot of money.”

He doesn’t make the kind of money he once did in the automobile industry, but Bob DeFillipo enjoys going to work every day.

“You don’t get rich in this business, but you live,” DeFillipo said. “In the automobile business, I made a good living, and my wife said, ‘How do you know you’ll be able to make a living selling crafts?’ I said ‘You don’t know until you try.’”