BRYAN, Texas — As the Brazos Valley prepares to send kids back to school, mask makers are gearing up to produce more masks; seeing an increase in orders over the past few weeks.
“A friend of mine is a professor at A&M and ordered 50 [face masks], so that’s two for each of her students," said Mary House, the owner of Curious Collections Vinyl Records and More. "We’re processing that order right now and will have it to her before school starts.”
Curious Collections has been around the Bryan/College Station area since 2016. The store sells vinyl records, record players and other related accessories. When the COVID-19 pandemic began the store added another item to its shelves: face masks.
“When this happened I saw a need in the community," House said. "I design my own masks that look different and felt different than anything that is available on the web.”
Being a cancer survivor, House has been making and wearing masks long before coronavirus was even a headline.
House started wearing masks when she was going through chemotherapy, but she did not like the ones she was ordering from others online. She said the ones she found weren't comfortable and the mask kept slipping. This is what inspired her to create her own style, with the ones she wears and sells having two straps to go around the head and also allowing to hang around the neck.
Selling face masks have been a huge help, keeping her record store up and running during these uncertain times.
“It is bringing in much-needed revenue that we're lacking at the moment and its filling [those] gaps," House said.
Customized orders take about a week to finish making, but House sells a variety of already completed masks in her store. She believes its extremely important to continue buying local as much as possible.
“Instead of having a customer base of vinyl collectors and vinyl addicts, now our customer base has expanded to everyone in the community because this is something everybody needs," House said.
Customers can also order masks online at Curious Collection’s website. The face masks come in various patterns and sizes.