SPELLING SUCCESS

As a child in Germany, Angela Ramos grew up playing with wooden toys. As a mom, she’s a believer in the beauty and durability of such toys.

“I just think they’re more kidfriendly, and they’re more likely to last longer,” she said.

In March, the Colorado Springs woman launched Lilliput Designs, an online store that sells pacifier holders, stroller toys and key chains with wooden beads and letters.

“I just noticed that in America, they don’t really have stuff like this,” Ramos said. Similar fabric products, she said, don’t appeal to her.

“What a lot of moms told me is that the kids chew on it and everything, so the fabric gets really notnice-looking,” she said.

She bills her products as nontoxic and saliva-proof.

They can also be customized. “A customer can come in and say, ‘I want this clip color, I want these blue beads and I want a name or a phrase,’” she said.

Ramos and her husband moved from Texas to the Springs in January. She wanted a creative way to make some money while staying home with their year-old son. She began by selling her merchandise on eBay to see if there was a demand. She had enough success that she started a Web site, www.lilliput-designs.com.

She can’t afford much promotion, she said, but she’s spreading the word through online forums, a local moms group and postcards she distributes at places such as her gym.

She found an ally in an Atlanta woman, also from Germany, who has a similar business.

When they first encountered each other through eBay, “we were like fighting a little,” Ramos said. But once they realized their common backgrounds and decided the market was easily big enough for the two of them, they became friends.

“When she orders stuff, she orders for me, too, and I do the same,” Ramos said. Most of their materials come from a couple of manufacturers in Germany.

Her Web site warns that the small beads can pose a choking hazard and stresses safety. Ramos notes the need for parental supervision.

“Of course,” she said, “I make them as strong as possible. I use a special technique when I make the knots and everything. I put them on my own son.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0272 or bill.radford@gazette.com