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Nov 1, 2009 10:53 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: 'Maiden' Minnesota Inventor
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
Minnesota companies turn out innovative new products all the time and we don't just mean the big ones like 3M and General Mills. This week an event called "Maiden Minnesota" will celebrate smaller companies, run by women.
You've heard that necessity is the Mother of Invention, but Katherine Waymire of Minneapolis could claim that title as well. She is a mother of two whose inventions can be found on party platters and kitchen tables around the country.
She created
Talisman Designs, a multi-million dollar company that sells products through 3,000 specialty stores nationwide.
They're products that she invented, mostly to deal with problems she encountered in her own home. For example, the first time she tried to serve corn-on-the-cob to her young daughters.
"And you know I'm chasing the butter around with my knife", she said. "And I'm thinking, 'I'm not going to be doing this now with my children. I'm not going to be buttering their corn-on-the-cob'. And so I just started looking into it."
That's how Butter Boy was born. It's a cartoon style character made out of plastic that holds half a stick of butter. The top is molded to glide along the surface of a corn cob and other foods.
Waymire hasn't sold her first million yet, but she said the number is in the hundreds of thousands.
"It's about helping kids help themselves," she said. "And it's also for the kids at heart because Uncle George in Iowa loves Butter Boy as well."
A similar Butter
Girl has since joined the collection. So have Flip 'n Good spoons -- four measuring spoons that fold together into one device.
Waymire's newest hit is the Cherry Chomper, another cartoon style character that removes the pits from cherries. It came along after her daughters broke open a big bag of cherries.
"I'm scared they're going to choke on the pits," she recalled. "And then again I thought, 'Boy, I'm not cutting out pits of these cherries. I'll be doing that all summer and that's not what I want to be doing.'"
She came up with her first invention in her basement eight years ago, with something called Stylish Stems. They're accent pieces that attach to the stem of a wine glass to make them look better, but also to keep track of whose glass is whose.
"They've kept growing (in sales)," said Waymire. "It's become a big part of our line, so we keep designing new ones."
Waymire didn't set out to be an inventor. She said it just happened.
"I mean I came from a corporate background and I really wanted to create a lifestyle that was flexible, you know, where I could do my own thing."
The key, she said, has been to not worry about having all the answers at the outset.
"You get started by just starting. Really, it's as simple as that: one step at a time. And not to feel overwhelmed and not to let naysayers get in the way, to just believe that you can do it," she said.
Waymire will be among 36 female business owners featured at the
"Maiden Minnesota" event on Thursday, Nov. 5. It's a fundraiser for the group Free Arts Minnesota.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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