Sunday, July 25, 2004

By Rachel Gilmore, for The Star News Paper

Richton Park resident Billie Davis said she never intended to start her own business, it just happened.

Angels of Praise is her home-based business, which has grown solely by word of mouth. Davis' straw angels are now spread across the world from the U.S. to France to Iraq. She estimated she has now made more than 1,000.

About four years ago, Davis said she went on a spiritual retreat to Florida with a friend who is a minister.

While there her friend showed her a straw angel in a gift shop and encouraged her to try to duplicate it. Davis said she never had done craft projects before, but her friend said, "Just do it. Just start designing."

So Davis did. With an assortment of fabric and trim, she began making personalized outfits for the angel bodies, which she orders pre-made. Soon she had a variety of angels created and decided to get some feedback.

She said she invited her friends over for the review because she knew they'd tell her the truth.

Instead of gently letting her down, they bought every single angel and encouraged her to keep at it. The next group Davis brought to church, and again every angel was purchased.

"It's a gift you can give someone when you don't know what else to give," Davis said.

The angels come in two sizes, 4 inches and 12 inches, and Davis dresses them according to the customer's wishes.

"I'm really good with color," Davis said, "and being able to create things. I can personalize things … whatever they want." Davis has used an heirloom dress from someone's grandmother to a piece of an old treasured mink hat to create the personalized angel outfits.

She said she also uses dry flowers and earthy things, along with jewels sometimes.

"All the detail work I do with my hand," she said. "I will string a bracelet or necklace for the angel (by hand)."

Davis also treats her business as a ministry. She said she has heard so many wonderful stories in the past four years about people who gave her angels as gifts to people who were hospitalized or in crisis and how her angels comforted those individuals. But she said, "I take no credit for that. I believe God uses people and does things."

Still, she explains that she always anoints her hands and prays over her materials before she begins working.

"I would like to be able to touch someone who's out there, just to give them some hope," Davis said. "I enjoy doing it so much. It affects so many people."

Because she feels a call to continue to help people, Davis took her first active marketing step recently. She has set up a meeting with a local hospital to see about selling her angels in the gift shop.

Her other growing market is making angels in camouflage to send to soldiers on active duty. Davis explained that after the war in Iraq started in 2003, she got to talking with some ladies at her gym about how their children were being called up and sent overseas.

One woman kept saying that she wished there was something small she could send with her son to let him know she was thinking of him. Davis, whose own son is serving in Iraq, mentioned that she made angels, and the women asked her to bring in a few. So Davis designed camo outfits for the angels, brought them to the gym and sold every one.

"I send the smaller ones because they can keep it on their person," Davis explained. "There's been so many stories. People come back and tell me how the angels blessed them. My son was so happy to get it. He keeps it in his pocket with him. They need something to hold on to. They need hope."

While Davis will soon be moving into her busiest season of the year, the Christmas holiday season, she said that Angels of Praise has kept her working more than she ever expected.

Davis, a retired grandmother, said that she can certainly see her business becoming a full-time enterprise.

They give such peace. They give people hope.

To purchase an Angel of Praise, contact Billie Davis by phone at
708 691-3554 or via e-mail at bdavisangels@yahoo.com