SALAMANCA — Chill Creations recently opened at 123 Main St., offering people alternative options for printing their personalized items.
Opening the doors to her new business on Nov. 3, owner Gina Hill held her official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 8.
The custom design print shop blends art with technology to produce stunning custom garments and other merchandise, from pens and stainless steel tumblers to stickers and pens. Whether the customer has a promotional event in mind, needs team uniforms or just wants to personalize their apparel, Hill can make it happen.
Hill said she can print on just about anything. If she can’t do the job in-house, she can outsource it with wholesale pricing that gives her customers a very good, competitive price.
“I do the design work first and, if it has to be digitized or vectorized, I do that and send the customer a mockup for approval,” she said. “Then I make any adjustments to the way the customer wants it.”
According to Hill, she can do DTF (direct-to-film) printing and sublimation that are popular printing methods for custom apparel, in-house. Embroidery is coming soon.
“If a customer already has something they want to be printed on, like a t-shirt, for example, I can do that. People often want logos put on apparel,” she said. “I can order the article of clothing or they can bring it in, but it’s always better if I do the ordering because I can get a better price than the customer.”
Hill said her future goal is an embroidery machine and a bigger DTF printer. Eventually, she’d like to have a machine that prints banners and larger items.
Originally from Salamanca, Hill received two years of preliminary training in graphic design at the BOCES Career and Technical Education Center in Ellicottville while attending high school. She later received a two-year degree in graphic design at the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
Hill started her first business venture in 2018 at home in Little Valley, where she resides with her husband, Calvin, who is an ironworker in Buffalo, and three children, Carmela, Cassius and Caleo. She said the business name, Chill Creations, was inspired by the Cs and, of course, Hill in her family members’ names.
“I started my business in a small room on the first floor that we called our craft room, but I outgrew it. We have an attic on the third floor that is fully finished, so I moved all my equipment up there, where I had more space and was able to add extra machines,” she said. “There were some very hot summers up there, but I made it work for three years.”
While working out of her home, Hill had big dreams of operating her business from a storefront, but she didn’t have a lot of funding, and nothing was available in the city of Salamanca for quite some time.
“It’s always been a dream of mine. I always wanted a storefront,” she said. “I kept looking and asking around. I searched the city for years to find the right spot.”
Hill credits her friend, Josh Becker, owner of Iron 7 Golf on West Race Street and a Seneca Nation Councilor, for suggesting the location. She heard the storefront had sat vacant for nearly a decade. However, when she inquired about the place, it wasn’t available, and she kept checking back for six months to a year. After much persistence, she was finally able to go before the city and be approved for moving her business into the space.
Hill said it takes a lot of juggling to manage the business, her home, her children’s school activities and after-school activities, but her dream is becoming a reality.
“I really love the location, and I’m glad everything worked out because it was a challenge and a long process for me to get in here,” she said. “Now that I’m here, it feels great. It’s very exciting and literally a dream come true.”
Current hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, email Hill at chillcreations@yahoo.com or call (716) 273-0845.
