It’s funny what creative thoughts come to a person with a lot of time on their hands. When Tonya Bodin was faced with an extensive recovery from a surgery that left her even more ill, she turned to a craft that piqued her interest for a long time: tumbler decorating.
“I had done scrapbooking with a friend, but was always drawn to tumblers,” says Tonya. “Then when I got sick, they were my ‘go to’ place, and it became a pastime. Everyone else I knew liked tumblers, so I just stuck with it.”
After two years of working on designs (first starting with initials) she opened Tonya’s Tumblers in 2019 selling adult’s and children’s containers. She offers double-insulated 20 oz. skinny tumbler with no handle for adults and a 12 oz. double-insulated kids’ version with either a sippy cup top with handle or a smaller tumbler top with a straw. All versions come with a clear, reusable plastic straw.
Today, her tumblers are so popular that they are ordered for birthdays, girls’ trips, bride and groom gifts, special occasions – or no occasion- holidays, group events, and businesses. (When we spoke, she had just completed an order for a church retreat.) Mother’s Day is another busy time for her, with the popular “Boy Mom” or “Girl Mom” tumblers. Most orders are custom-made for customers with specific needs – whether it’s one or 100.
From a “craft” room in her Abbeville home, Tonya works on her tumblers, taking up to three hours for some custom designs. The process begins with a white container so the ink can fuse better. Using a sublimation printer, she prints a specific ink made for a specific paper. The design is fused with heat. When she first began, she used a convection oven specifically meant to “cook’ the tumbler, but has since invested in a tumbler press, heating the labels onto the containers at 356 degrees for 60 seconds on each side.
Among those items most popular, Tonya says, are the kid’s tumblers adorned with princesses, Bluey, tractors, ballerinas, baby elephants, and puppies. Her Cajun-themed designs, with shrimp, crabs, Tabasco® or Zatarain’s®logos, are a regular in her stock, often gifted to relatives who have moved away. Other big sellers are those sports-themed: LSU, Saints, UL, fishing, and things that go with sports like beer – Michelob® and Bud Light®. Hummingbirds and butterflies are loved by women.
“I try to change the designs because a lot of the same customers come to the Delcambre market each month, and I want to offer them something new,” says Tonya who has been a vendor of the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers Market since 2019.
What began as a pastime has turned into a side business for this full-time patient access representative for a pediatric group, and we have been happy to have her as a vendor. The feeling seems mutual as she shares, “It’s my favorite market and the only one I commit to each month. I like the way it’s set up with music and things for the kids. I love that it’s family-oriented, and you can buy fresh seafood right there. It’s a very well-organized market.”
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