Maker Stories

The North Pole has nothing on the makers of the North Coast. This town is filled with all kinds of tinkering elves working hard in their workshops for the holidays. Although most of them don’t make actual toys, they do have a wide range of handmade goods that are fun for kids of all ages — even the grownup ones. Using the new Maker Town app to find ideas, I took a look around and made a list of six clever creations you can only find in Cleveland.

Adding some humor to the holiday is an art form, and nobody does it better than Clevelanders who never take themselves too seriously. All it takes is knowing the personality or lifestyle of each person on your list and finding a gift that pokes a little fun at it. To give you a head start, here’s a collection of eight locally made goods that say it with a smirk, so you can share a little laughter along with that #shoplocal love.

For friends and family who can’t be together this season, the holidays are especially hard. A simple way to keep those bonds strong is to send a little handcrafted happiness direct from The Land. Whether they’re selling from workshops or websites, garages or galleries, Cleveland makers find inspiration in the grit as much as the glamour, keeping their products as real as the people who buy them. Start with the six ideas below and search many, many more on the Maker Town app that you can download from Apple or Google.

When I first started, I got inspired by a lot by factories and buildings being demolished around town. I was able to go in and get materials. The “rust belt” look was in style back in the day, especially in New York. The trends are moving more to art deco now. It’s still utilitarian, but I’m reimagining the art deco style to suit my clients’ tastes and my aesthetic.

Fox 8’s Wayne Dawson interviews Maker Town founder Susie Frazier about the new app she invented to help local arts business be more visible to consumers.

We do a lot of repurposing of family objects so people can keep something of the past but modernize it or give it a new use – someone’s grandma’s lamp or kids’ beat-up old skateboards. We can customize anything and turn it into a fixture.