Gloria Frohman, neé Goldman, knew she could make a career out of her artwork when she was working full time in health care while selling her designs on apparel as a part-time gig in 2018, pulling all-nighters to finish projects by deadlines.
The owner of Yelm’s G-G Home and Ranch, pronounced G-bar-G, created her own brand of artwork inspired by the Western lifestyle and sold them on shirts and sweatshirts online. She eventually grew enough of an online customer base to leave the health care field and open her own retail store to sell what she calls “casual cowboy attire” and home decor.
“People were coming to me consistently enough to where I didn’t have to really market myself. Every time I’d finish one commission, I’d have another one planned out, and then I would be booked out months in advance,” Frohman said. “Once I started doing all-nighters, I was like, ‘OK, I have to make a choice.’”
Frohman, who grew up in Bellingham and has lived in Yelm for about eight years, moved to the area in large part due to the horse community as she is a competitive barrel racer and team roper. She opened the G-G Home and Ranch store, located at 1010 E. Yelm Ave. Suite C, in 2021, and she said the specific style of apparel is one that attracts locals as well as customers from neighboring states because of their novelty.
“I consider myself more of a city kid because I grew up right in the core of Bellingham. My parents have had an influence on keeping horses in my life since I was a pre-teen,” Frohman said. “It’s kind of like that nerdy horse girl vibe, and I feel like that’s the majority of my customers, as well. A lot of the gals that buy and love my products have that nerdy horse girl side of them, and you don’t always get to be able to feel like you’re part of a brand.”
Frohman has an extensive background in retail management and has been a professional artist for a decade, so the blend of owning her own retail store and art business was a perfect career move for her. She began selling graphic tees and tank tops on the apparel side before adding hoodies due to popular demand, and she recently has begun designing home decor including paintings, tumblers, whiskey glasses, coasters, pillows and more.
“I don’t have a whole lot of fine-artist influence. I’m not in fine art groups. I don’t know anybody that’s done this, so it’s a whole experimental process for me,” Frohman said. “I think wildlife and Western, modern, contemporary photography is really inspirational to me. I have a very strong group of art collectors, and I have a very strong group of apparel customers. Sometimes they’re separate. There’s a very small pool that’s right in the middle.”
Frohman opened her own retail store with her own brand without completing an education in art or design, a feat that she is proud of and doesn’t take for granted.
“I don’t know a lot of people that have successfully been an artist and put it on apparel on the retail end of things,” she said.
G-G Home and Ranch was open just one day a week when Frohman first opened the store, which is now open three days a week. She recently had to temporarily close while preparing for an anniversary event due to the workload of planning both the event and a wedding, as well as managing the online and retail stores.
“I’ve had to rework everything that I’ve built over the last five years. I’m in the process of reworking how everything’s processed because the economy that we’re in right now doesn’t necessarily favor retail,” Frohman said. “You have to provide something that’s different for the consumer. All of my processes are built for a whole team of people, and I don’t have a whole team of people right now.”
G-G Home and Ranch celebrated its reopening and anniversary on Oct. 19 with a successful event that saw a large number of customers.
“We had a lot of people show up. We stayed very steady. We almost sold out everything that we stocked,” Frohman said. “We had more people than inventory that I had, so the customers really showed up. There was a lot of people that were waiting for us. I was really happy with everybody that showed up.”
One distinction that Frohman wants to make for new customers is that G-G Home and Ranch does not sell name-brand products. Everything in the store stems from her brand, which her customer base has grown to appreciate.
“This third year, I’ve had more and more of the community that are like, ‘Oh my gosh, this store is so awesome.’ The word of mouth travels really fast here,” Frohman said. “It took us a little while. I’m definitely really excited for the next two months of the holiday season to keep the store stocked because my walk-ins and the regular local customers are like three times the size that it was our first year with my online customers.”
To learn more about G-G Home and Ranch, visit its website at https://g-ghomeandranch.com/.
