One of Sherry Leeman’s first public events with her work was at Warsaw’s First Friday Art-ober event where she got to speak on the local radio station. Pictured are Addison, left, with her mother, Sherry Leeman, who is holding her youngest daughter, Emma Grace, as they show off some of Leeman’s favorite pallet wood art pieces. Addison currently enjoys making signs out of cardboard and will likely follow in her mother’s artistic footsteps as she grows older.

PIERCETON — Born and raised in Warsaw, Sherry Leeman graduated from Warsaw Community High School in 1994 and then moved to the Goshen and South Bend areas for a few years. She began to play guitar and sing in bands as a creative outlet.

Deciding to move back to the area, Leeman and her husband, Nick, found a home at Ridinger Lake in Pierceton. Here is where, as she stated, “I dropped my microphone to pick up a power drill.”
Her pallet projects began in 2013 when she wanted to make decorations for her own wedding. She wanted simple designs and “nothing crazy expensive” so she thought building it herself would be the easiest route. It turned out tearing apart old pallets was easy and she was able to build small tables and signs for her wedding.

After receiving compliments on her work, she began decorating her previously bare walls with more pallet wood art. The business side took off when a friend asked her to make a sign they had seen on Pinterest and Leeman decided to come up with her own Facebook page, named It’s A Pallet Thing, to begin taking orders.

It began as an enjoyable hobby she would do in her free time after working a full-time career as a design engineer which entailed “drawing on a computer.” However, in 2016 she was able to quit and dedicate her time to her pallet work.

While the pallets are free and all her products are made from recycled material, she did have to put a lot of time and money into researching and developing how to make and sell art from free materials.

One aspect she highlights many people overlook is ensuring she knows the source of the pallet wood and what it was used to ship. Pallets come with specific codes she had to learn since she doesn’t want to make something people are going to put inside their home that potentially is in contact with hazardous chemicals.

The cutting and sanding is all done inside her garage and, as she commented, “every sign has sat in my lap and been painted.” Therefore no two signs are alike and each one is unique. Her husband is very involved with her work, either helping her in the garage or taking over care of their two daughters after he gets home from work. With her most recent pregnancy, Nick would even cut, sand and stain the projects for her and she would paint them each by hand.

One of the most exciting moments of her pallet art was nearly three years ago when she was making decorations for her daughter’s first birthday. Due to what has now been deemed the “table saw incident” she cut off a portion of her finger and, although it was able to be re-attached, still has limited mobility.

Since she does not yet have an official website, Leeman puts her talents and treasures on a variety of websites. However, this also means each day she is juggling orders from multiple online shops.

Her favorite aspect of pallet wood art is it allows her to release her inner creativity. Since she started out making signs for her own wedding, making wedding signs is something particularly special for Leeman. She has also enjoyed doing research for custom art pieces.

She has three daughters, 22-year-old Sierra, 3-year-old Addison and 5-month-old Emma Grace. When she’s not letting her creativity flow, she enjoys fishing, kayaking and spending time on the water. She also enjoys spending holidays with family at a cabin in Brown County.