It’s a familiar conundrum.
You check your mail and find an invitation to a party. You excitedly mark your calendar and RSVP. That’s when it hits you: "I’m going to need a gift." You head over to Target or Wal-Mart (or Amazon) looking for the perfect gift. You look through the shelves, trying to decide which mass produced something or other really encapsulates that person. But if you’re looking for a truly special gift, you’re looking in the wrong place. There are countless options for great gifts available at your local makerspace! Here’s why you should ditch the big box store for good. Truly One-Of-A-Kind Regardless of where you’re shopping for your gifts, you put a lot of effort into making sure that the recipient will love it. We spend so much time hoping that they don’t hate it that we completely ignore the other tragic possibilities… Maybe someone else at the party brought the same thing. Or even worse, maybe they already have one. What was supposed to be a moment of affection is ruined. You slouch down into your chair, hoping you could disappear into the embarrassment. But if you give something handmade, it’s almost impossible that someone else could bring the same thing. Your gift is truly unique. There’s no need to worry about someone else stealing your thunder. Nothing Says “I Love You” Like Custom It’s one thing to hand someone something you found on a shelf and say, “I thought you might like this.” It’s something else entirely to give them something completely customized. You can emblazon a gift with their name or their favorite TV character or an inside joke. This gift will mean much more than just a thing that they got at a party. It will be a piece of yourself that they can carry with them for years to come. Now of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that you can customize just about anything with the tools in our shop. Emblazon your own designs across tote bags, pillow cases, or t-shirts with the heat press or screenprinting studio (only if you plan on making a lot). Etch an image on a keychain, cutting board, wall hanging, or whatever else you can imagine using the laser cutter. Hand stamp a ring with a custom message. You can even design a mini-sculpture and bring it to life with the 3D printer. If you don’t feel as confident in your own skills, you can commission an artist to help you make it, or order something from an online shop like Corporate Gifts for about the same price that you’d spend at a big box store. Your Money Supports Local Makers! Over the last several decades, our economy has become more and more globalized. If you walk into a big box store, you’ll find no shortage of cheap foreign-made goods adorning the shelves. What happens to your money when you spend it there? Sure, some of it stays in your community, paying the workers there and the local utility companies. But the vast majority of the profits go to someone you’ll likely never meet who has no concern for the people you know or the city you live in—besides how much money they can get out of you. These major corporations often crowd out local competition. With the cushion of millions of dollars in profit a year, they’re able to take risks and survive trends that local shops don’t have the capital to compete with. And sometimes, those people might use your money to do things you don’t approve of. I think we all remember a few years ago when the president of Hobby Lobby was caught buying Biblical artifacts on the black market. Not only that, but transporting mass produced goods across the world has a massive carbon footprint. But lately, this impersonal, international corporatism has been falling out of favor with consumers. The last few years has seen a huge rise of localism. When you buy handmade, that money stays in the community. It pays owners that live in our neighborhoods. Their taxes pay for the same schools your children go to and the same roads that you drive down. It strengthens the local economy, which bolsters pride in the community. And a community that loves itself is a strong community. Give Better Gifts If you want to give better gifts to your friends and family that actually mean something, you’re going to need to get out of the big stores and start thinking smaller. Luckily, we can help. In our store, we have a curated gift shop of locally made goods, including jewelry, art, local music, and plenty of South Bend merch to show of your hometown pride. If you can’t find something you like in there, you can use our workshop to make your own gifts. We’ll even teach you how at one of our classes. So come on in and see what you can make today.
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Summer’s almost here. And with it comes weddings, family reunions, work cookouts, and a whole host of other special events.
But with so many of these events all swirling together, how do you make sure your event stands out? Easy answer: personalized favors. And don’t worry: they don’t have to be expensive. In fact, we have a number of ways you can make custom gifts right here in the shop. Here are a few ideas. Customized T-Shirts Is there a better freebie than custom t-shirts? A comfortable t-shirt with a stylish print builds hype for your event, and can keep people excitedly remembering it for years to come. Just look at all the people paying top dollar for vintage concert t-shirts! You can use our screenprinting studio to print as many shirts as you bring! Make a strong, memorable design, and make sure to print on a comfortable base shirt. No one wants to wear a stiff shirt with a tight neck hole. Personalized Tote Bags With all the concern for plastic waste, many people are opting to use reusable cloth tote bags. And why not? They’re durable, stylish—and easy to personalize. Using our Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter, you can cut out intricate designs (including text). Then using the heat press, you can bond it right to the fabric. It’s sort of like an iron-on, but way more durable, and way more classy. Unlike screenprinting, which is best for quickly printing lot of one design, you can personalize each heat press graphic. This is perfect for putting guests’ names on each bag (or shirt—you use the heat transfer on basically every cloth). Hand-stamped Swag Hand stamping is a simple, charming way to personalize a number of items. You can use metal stamps to inscribe on metal or leather. Make a bracelet, keychain, necklace pendant, belt, whatever you can think of. Simply choose your item, line up the stamp, and give it a few wacks with the hammer. It’s a quick and easy way to make a charming party favor that your friends will love for years. Laser Cut Name Badges Few tools in our shop are as versatile as the laser cutter. It can be used to cut through wood, acrylic, and leather, and can engrave wood, acrylic, leather, glass, ceramic, and more. There’s a million ways you can use the laser cutter to customize great gifts (photo ornaments anyone?), but for the purposes of this blog, we’ll look at name tags. If you’re hosting a party with a big guest list of people that don’t know eachother, you could offer up some white sticker tags and Sharpies… Or you could use the laser cutter to make attractive name tags. Make wooden tags with a classy typeface, or acrylic tags with an LED illuminating them. You could also add an icon that corresponds with something they like as an icebreaker. For a more formal affair, you can order professional-grade magnetic name tags and alter them yourself. Find more here. Letterpressed Cards When the printing press was introduced, it revolutionized the world. And while it’s not the most efficient way to print text anymore, there’s something undeniably alluring about the aesthetic of letterpressing. If you’re going to a wedding or birthday party, skip the Hallmark aisle and make your own card in the shop. An abstract watercolor with a custom letterpressed message is sure to make an impression. Custom 3D Prints Okay, so this one is a bit more involved, but the payoff is enormous. Using the 3D printer, you can design just about any gift you can think of. If you have access to a 3D scanner, you can create an accurate 3D model of a person’s face. Then using a modeling program like TinkerCad, you can refine that into a bust, which you can print a model of (we recommend adding a pair of beefy arms, like this). If you don’t have a scanner, you can make use a modeling program to make a more simplified version, sort of like a Funko Pop figure. After it’s printed, you can paint on the model to make it even more personalized. Just keep in mind—3D printing takes a while, so you might not want to make one for everyone on your guest list. Maybe just the guest of honor. What Will You Make? This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands more ideas that you can make a reality in our workspace. So put on your thinking caps, get a day pass, and get to work! We’d love to see what you make! Professionalism.
(shudder) The word is loaded with all sorts of connotations. And as creative entrepreneurs, we’d like nothing to do with most of those. It conjures up pictures of strict dress codes, covered-up tattoos, office cubicles, early-morning alarm clocks… All things that we can do without. After all, if we didn’t find the idea of professional life utterly offensive to the deepest regions of our souls, we’d still be working in a cushy office job instead of busting our humps to do what we love for a living. But if your customers were to see us in our natural state—eating ravioli straight from the can in our pajamas at 4pm—they might think twice about doing business with us. For all of its stifling straight-lacedness, professionalism communicates reliability and authority. It instills confidence in the people we’re doing business with. If the customer sees someone sloppily dressed, they might get the idea that they’ll treat their business with the same carelessness. Luckily, there are a few ways to put on an air of professionalism even while living the free lifestyle you want. Here are a few helpful hints. Up Your Packaging Game When we were teaching, my husband and I had a student whose mother made the most delicious tamales. Every couple months, she would come around to all the classrooms asking the teachers if they wanted some. Later in the week, she’d show up in our classrooms doling out gallon ziplocks filled with tamales. Recently, we came upon a Mexican food truck that made identical tamales, except these were served in a craft-paper sleeve with the company’s logo stamped on it. And people were happily paying $5 a pop. Imagine the customers’ reactions if they received their tamales in a ziplock bag. As makers, we know that the packaging of a product doesn’t speak to its quality. But attractive packaging can affect consumer’s thinking in a big way. We had one vendor in our shop see sales skyrocket after altering their packaging. The product was exactly the same, but the original, amateurish packaging made it look cheap. Think of how you’re presenting your product. Are you packaging it like it was put together in your basement, or like a serious business produced it? And yes, we know you did put it together in your basement, but the packaging doesn’t need to reflect that. A Solid Web Presence A 2017 found that 92% of customers visiting a company’s website aren’t there to make a purchase: they’re there to scope the business out. They want to learn more about the company. Who’s behind it? What’s their mission? If your website looks like you don’t know what you’re doing, then your consumer trustworthiness is going to take a hit. They’ll take one look at your sloppy, amateurish website and turn the other way. Especially if your domain still has the default URL from your webhost. This isn’t just true of your website. The same goes for your social media pages and email communication. If your Facebook page is filled with memes and typos, or if you’re emails still have the “Sent from my iPhone” signature, it’s going to send the wrong message to your customers. Keep Your Branding Consistent Speaking of your web presence, I cannot overstate the importance of your branding. Like packaging, branding is one of those things that might not speak much to the quality of your products, but it communicates volumes to your customers. Branding is more than just a good looking logo, an attractive color scheme, and consistent typefaces. Branding helps communicate trust to your customers. They see that you treat your business seriously, so they want to see what the fuss is about. On top of that, your brand is one of the best ways to build recognition for your business and stand out against the competition. Communicate Like a Business One of the biggest mistakes creative entrepreneurs make is sloppy communication (apologies to anyone who’s had to wait a month for us to respond to an email). Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Let’s say you find a company online that looks promising. You want some more information, so you pick up the phone and call the number on their website (a warning to all of you would-be business owners: people still make phone calls!). The line picks up, and you’re met with a stammered, “um...hello?” You ask a question about a product on their site. “Who is this?” You explain that you found their website and were interested in learning more about the business. Suddenly, it clicks with the business owner and their demeanor changes Not exactly the best impression, is it? Or maybe, you go to to send them an email and their address is something like “[email protected]” Just because you’re the only person working for your company doesn’t mean you mean to let your communication reflect that. A custom email domain—or at least a more professional address—goes a long way. If you want to go even further, hiring a virtual assistant or a service like Receivr telephone answering service can make it seem like you have an in-house receptionist just like a “real” business. Professionalism On Your Own Terms It might sound like a ripoff, but if your business seems amateurish, people aren’t going to care how great your products are. You could make the most impressive handcrafted jewelry anyone has ever seen, but if you don’t take your business seriously enough to make it seem professional, no one is going to care. Luckily, you don’t need to put on real clothes to do that. If you follow these pointers, nobody will ever have to know that you’re just sitting in bed with your laptop. But seriously, you should probably leave the house. Why not stop in for some coworking? “If you want something done, do it yourself.”
Such is the mantra of many makers, entrepreneurs, and artists. Ours is the realm of elbow grease, D.I.Y., and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We’re used to working alone—on just about everything. We make all of our goods from scratch. We do all of our own marketing. We spend hours making things from hand instead of using a machine that does it in seconds. We are fiercely independent, devoted to the purity of our craft. But sometimes, that independence might get us in our own way. Sometimes, it might be a better idea for us to outsource certain aspects of our process. Now, before you grab the torches and pitchforks, allow me a moment to explain. I’m not asking you to hire a factory in China to manufacturer your products and depersonalize everything. Instead, outsourcing different things that we don’t enjoy—or are terrible at—can help us streamlining our process and allow us to put more of ourselves into our work. Here’s how. Only Do What Only You Can Do When we work for ourselves, we often spend a lot of our time on menial tasks.When I first opened the shop, a lot of my time in the shop was spent sweeping the floors and tidying up materials areas. Both are necessary things. But every time I picked up a broom, I had to put down something else that I was working on, whether that was designing new products, planning new classes or events, or contacting local vendors to stock in our gift shop. I couldn’t not do those menial tasks: nobody wants to come to a filthy shop. But I was hardly the only person with the ability to do them. However, finding someone else to do all the big picture stuff was out of the question. After all, how am I supposed to find someone to run my business for me? If you don’t have a brick and mortar, you probably don’t need to spend time tidying up for customers. But you’re probably wasting time doing something that you could hire someone else to do for you. It might be social media marketing, checking your emails, or something equally tedious. When you take the burden of those tasks off of yourself, you can focus on doing the stuff that you actually want to do. Jack Of All Trades: Master of None The small business owner wears many hats: CEO, marketing agent, accountant, secretary... But that doesn’t mean you’re the best person for each of those jobs. Our first few years, we handled all of the bookkeeping ourselves. A couple times a year, we’d sit down with all of our bank statements and copy every transaction into a spreadsheet, then organize each of them by category. Once, I was so overwhelmed by it that my husband Nat did all of it. Needless to say, neither of us are expert accountants. We were able to figure it out, but since we didn’t know what we were doing, it took two whole weeks for us to work through the whole year. And during those two weeks, we couldn’t get much else done. Since then, we’ve realized that there are like, experts you can hire to do that for you. And those people will do a better job of it than if you do it yourself. Last year, we outsourced our taxes to an actual tax expert, and did the stuff we’re actually good at while they were working on it. Since then, I’ve been trying to learn more about finding a more regular accountant to even help with things like payroll month-to-month account management so I can spend less time on stuff I’m still trying to understand and more time on the things I’m good at. To be frank, I was a terrible accountant. I was slow, sloppy, and inefficient. If I had an accountant that did their job as poorly as I did, I would have fired them. If we get real honest with ourselves, we might see some places in our responsibilities where we deserve to be fired. Keeping ourselves in those ineffective roles doesn’t help anything. Fire yourself, and find someone who actually knows what they’re doing. Time vs. Money One of the biggest struggles of outsourcing work to other people is the financial cost. We might scoff at the price of hiring a tax preparer, or feel like it’s too big to fit in our budget. But as the old saying goes, “time is money.” I might pay a few hundred dollars to an accountant, but I get back two weeks of my own time that I can use on more fruitful endeavors. I can spend time doing the things that I’m actually good at—and that can grow my business. Instead of hunkering down for two weeks with several months’ worth of banking statements, I can focus on creating new classes, making new pieces, and supporting the members at my shop. Some of the other creative female entrepreneurs I meet with regularly have hired other people to manage their Facebook pages, Pinterest boards, ship their online orders, and even check their emails. It certainly costs more than doing it themselves, but the time they get back allows them to do more of what they actually love to do—you know, the stuff that actually gets them paid. It’s easy to think of your business’s budget in strict monetary terms. But don’t forget how much time you might be saving yourself—and what you could do with that time. You might actually be able to make more money than you spent outsourcing... Go Forth And MAKE Outsourcing can be a dirty word. It conjures up images of Chinese-made, cheap commercialized crap. But in reality, outsourcing the parts of your workload that you don’t enjoy (and are just plain bad at) can free you up to do more of what you love, allowing you to put even more personal attention into what you make. So don’t be afraid of outsourcing. Fire yourself from all of the positions you’re doing a bad job at, and find someone who can free you up for what you’re actually good at. For the last four years, we’ve been working hard to make South Bend a more creative, more beautiful, more inspired city. And we try to help our community access their creative side through loads of one time classes, great for any beginner. Plus, we offer use of our makerspace and tools for anyone who needs a creative place to work on their own projects. It's a pretty cool deal.
Luckily, we’re not alone in our efforts to offer this town some creative options for getting out. We’re just one of several creative local businesses in the area who have been pouring out their blood, sweat, and tears for the artsy folk of South Bend. And today, we’re sharing four of our favorites. If you haven’t visited these spots, make it your top priority! 1. The Pigeon & the Hen I’ve lost track of the times that someone comes in or calls asking if we have premade pottery that they can come in and paint. But every time someone asks, we point them to the Pigeon & the Hen. Located right in the heart of Downtown South Bend, this shop was opened in 2014 by two ceramics students who had only known each other for four months. With a wide selection of premade ceramic pieces and glazes, this is a great place for anyone looking for a fun activity for the kids, a great group outing, or a date night. Drop in anytime, or sign up for one of their classes. 2. Fire Arts Back when we were still trying to learn more about business insurance, Fire Arts was well into their second decade of business. In 2004, three local sculptors were looking for a place that could house a kiln, a foundry, and a gallery space for metalworking and ceramics. They found a building slated for demolition and pooled resources with several other artists to restore it and convert it into the studio they wanted. Since then, Fire Arts has become an institution in the South Bend arts scene. They host regular workshops in jewelry making, metalworking, stone sculpting and more. But the main event is their rotating gallery exhibitions that showcase the best sculptors, glass workers, potters, and jewelry makers around. The gallery is open every First Friday if you want to take a quick look around. 3. Martin’s School of Cooking Here’s something you might not know about me: before I launched MAKE South Bend, there was a hot minute where I wanted to teach cooking classes for a living. And if you’ve taken my sushi class, you might believe it. I’m the last person who would ever say that cooking isn’t an art. And if we had a commercial kitchen, I would probably offer a much more extensive offering of cooking classes. But there’s already a great resource for would-be chefs in the area: your local neighborhood Martin’s! For many of us in the South Bend area, Martin’s is our go-to grocery store. We already go to them for ingredients, so it makes sense that we’d go to them to learn how to use those ingredients. Their School of Cooking is located in Heritage Square and has a wide variety of cuisines to choose from. They offer classes for kids, couples, and anyone looking to expand their skill set in the kitchen. Hmm...maybe I’ll send my husband there...he only knows how to make omelets (but they’re, like, really good omelets). 4. SBMART You can’t talk about creative businesses in South Bend without mentioning the granddaddy of them all: the South Bend Museum of Art. The museum opened its doors all the way back in 1947. Since 1987, they have been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, which recognizes the highest level of professional standards in the field. Besides its respectable permanent collection of local and regional art (including pieces from our friend, the late great Harold Zisla), the South Bend Museum of Art boasts a great series of special exhibitions, including local artist showcases, installations, and works by tattoo artists. As if that weren’t enough, SBMART is also home to the Dot Shop, where you can buy work from local artists. If you’re inspired to start creating yourself, the museum offers a number of long-term classes in a variety of mediums. Go Out and MAKE Even through the city’s ups and downs, South Bend has long had a vibrant arts community. And while we’re doing everything we can to foster that community, we’re in some great company. Go visit these businesses on Facebook to see what they’re up to, and expand your creative outlets. Just don’t go too far that you forget to come back to us. While you’re here, why not take another look at our class calendar and start planning your next creative adventure? As you probably already know, here at MAKE, we offer classes in a variety of mediums designed for people with absolutely no experience. It doesn’t matter if you have never cut glass or wielded a soldering iron before: in just a couple hours, you’ll have your very own, handmade stained-glass suncatcher.
But you might not also realize that the workshop is available to you any time we’re open—even without a membership! A day pass gets you full access to the makerspace and all of the tools we have (the woodshop requires a Safety and Basic Use class first). And I know better than most that if you don’t have a project in mind, staring into a shop filled with tools and materials can be pretty intimidating. That’s why today, we’re giving you five projects that you can walk in and make with no experience, no special skills, and no class. Abstract Tiles Have you never had much ability in the artistic sector? Do paintbrushes seem to jump wildly in your hand of their own accord? Luckily, you don’t need to know your way around a palette to make beautiful coasters using alcohol ink. Because rubbing alcohol has a different density than ink or paint, it causes brilliant patterns when they mix. You just pick the colors and slowly pour it on the tile. The materials will mix at random. Spray it with a seal to lock in the design, add some felt feet to the bottom to use them as coasters, and voila! You’ve got a beautiful set of tiles that will impress your friends—or make a great gift! Polymer Clay Creations Who didn’t love Play-Doh as a kid? But unfortunately, it was never a great choice for preserving more detailed sculptures. If you were a veritable Michelangelo with a can of Play-Doh, you’ll love polymer clay. Polymer clay is much more flexible than conventional clay, which allows you to work with more detail with less effort. Polymer clay also comes in a variety of colors, so you don’t necessarily need to paint it afterward. Also, polymer clay hardens in a toaster oven—like the one we have in the shop for that exact purpose. For examples of beautiful polymer clay jewelry or characters, visit Pinterest. Comic Book Decoupage Who doesn’t love superheros? It’s almost impossible to find a movie theater that isn’t playing a comic book movie. And maybe you decided once that you were going to become a “real” fan, so you marched to the comic shop and started a collection. Then you realized the unfortunate truth: comic books are expensive. You have to keep buying them if you want to know what’s going on. And when you’re buying 5-10 titles every month, that can add up. So now—if you’re anything like my husband Nat—you have a pile of old comic books sitting on your shelf, unread, unloved, and unappreciated. But don’t let the art inside those comics go unappreciated. Use them to create beautiful decoupage. Decoupage uses a specialized adhesive to bond paper cut outs onto an object. It could be a coffee table, a wall hanging, or wooden coasters. And using the art from these comic books, you can create cool collages that would enhance any TV room or man cave. Don’t cut up your actual comic books though—use our color copier. Then you can sell the comics online for some extra cash. Follow the link for more about selling comics online. Custom Stamped Statement Ring A great ring can make a statement. Especially if the ring has that statement literally stamped into it. It’s easy to make a simple, stamped statement ring like our famous Bad Mood Rings. You simply cut a thick metal wire to length, stamp whatever word you want to use, and bend it into shape using a ring mandrel. Make the perfect gift or just let the world know what you have to say. You don’t have to limit yourself to rings though—our letter stamps can be used on most types of metal. Make keychains, metal cuffs, charms, or necklace pendants. Good Ol’ Fashioned Painting Few art forms are as universal and versatile as paint and a canvas. From the dramatic scenes of Caravaggio to the surrealistic portraits of Frida Kahlo to the chaotic abstracts of Jackson Pollock, painting can be whatever you want it to be. And according to a 2016 study, painting can greatly reduce stress—even if you’re not very good. Whether you want to practice your portraiture, do your best Bob Ross impression, or just conjure emotional responses from shapes, we have everything you need here at the shop. Bring your own canvas or buy one from us. We have brushes, palettes, paints, easels, and more. What Will You Make? All this and more is available to you when you purchase a day pass. Stop in for an afternoon and try your hand at any one of these projects. If you get stuck, someone will be around the shop that can help. Since there’s no obligation to keep at it, this is a great way to try something new. If you hate it, you can just move on to something else. But if you love it, maybe you could upgrade that day pass to a monthly membership. 2/12/2019 2 Comments 5 Ways to Join Us in Year FiveIt’s so crazy to think that this month marks the start of our fifth year in business. It feels like only yesterday, we got the keys to the building and started working on renovations. Since then, we’ve had nearly 1,500 classes, had around a hundred local makers sell goods through our shop, hosted dozens of makers markets, and even thrown our own arts and music festival—three times!
But we’re not gonna slow down now. And as we enter our fifth year, there are a number of ways you can join us too. Here are five ways you can join us in year five! 1. Shop Local T-Shirts If you’ve been into our shop, you know that we have a great selection of goods you can buy to support local makers or show off your South Bend pride. With our t-shirts, you can do both. We have a brand new batch of our logo tees, as well as our ever-popular South Bend Skyline design. Each design is only $20—a small price for such stylish, comfortable apparel. These shirts are only available in the store, so why not stop by during our Anniversary Open House Saturday, February 16th from 6-8pm? 2. Day Pass Pack Our day passes are already a great value—$10 gets you a full day of access to all of the tools that our shop has to offer. But that deal gets even sweeter with the Day Pass Pack. For $50, you get six day passes that you can use any time throughout the next twelve months (we can hold onto the punch card for you, so you don’t have to worry about losing it). And during that year, you also get 10% off whatever classes you want to take! 3. Big Day Pass Pack If the Day Pass Pack isn’t enough for you, you can also get the Big Day Pass Pack. For $100, you get twelve day passes. Like the Day Pass Pack, the Big Day Pass Pack is valid for twelve months, but it also gives you 15% off classes, plus an additional 10% off all merchandise in our shop! 4. Sponsor Us At MAKE SOUTH BEND, we believe that access to tools and art education is essential to fostering creativity within our community. But we can’t achieve that goal on our own. If you’re part of a business and would like to partner with us in that mission, there are a number of ways you can do so. From being named on our sponsor wall to being displayed on banners at large events to being listed as a sponsor in bimonthly e-newsletter. You can also give your employees a 15% discount on classes. Sponsorships are open to businesses or individuals and start at $250. For more information, visit our sponsorship page. 5. Become a Member One of the best ways to join in what we’re doing at MAKE is to become a member. There is a variety of membership levels, but the most popular is our Gold Membership, which gives you unlimited access during our open hours (Tuesday-Saturday, 12-8pm). And that’s not all—our Gold Members also enjoy 15% of all classes, access to our dedicated Member storage, and four guest passes a month. Gold Membership is $50 a month or $35 for students and seniors. But, if you purchase a year membership, it’s only $420—that’s a 30% discount! Students and seniors only pay $290. If that’s not enough for you, look into our Platinum Membership. It has all the great benefits that come with a Gold Membership, plus 24/7 access. Standard monthly rates start at just $85 a month, and have added discounts when you pay for 3 months, 6 months, or a year. How Will You Join Us? Big things are coming in year five, and with these opportunities, you can join us to help “MAKE” our fifth year the best year yet. What will you make? Every day, someone new walks into the shop and says, “so, what exactly do you do here?”
And to be honest, that’s a pretty loaded question. Our makerspace is stocked with the tools and equipment to allow our members to work in dozens of different mediums. But sometimes, it can be a bit overwhelming to look out across a workshop stuffed with equipment. There are so many possibilities, you don’t know where to start. It happens to me all the time. I call it “creativity paralysis.” But today, I’m going to break down what’s in the shop and what you can do with it. If you’re stuck in creativity paralysis and don’t know what to do, read on! Ceramics Studio Our ceramics studio is one of the most straightforward areas of the shop, but it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all medium. After all, a lump of clay is just another blank canvas. Our ceramics studio is currently stocked with… Pottery Wheels Potters have been using pottery wheels to create pieces since the Bronze Age. The earliest fast wheels date back to the third millennium BC, but it’s still the most popular and effective way to create bowls, vases, plates, and other pieces. Our wheel-throwing classes are some of our most popular, but you can use the wheel without taking a class beforehand. We have three in the ceramics studio, and they are first come, first serve. Slab Roller Slab building is another common method of making clay sculptures. But working the clay into a thin, consistent slab is a difficult task if done by hand. A slab roller lets you do this quickly and easily. Just set the desired height, cover the clay with canvas, and get to building. Canvas Work Table Clay is remarkably pliable, which makes it very easy to work with. But it can also be pretty sticky, and when you’re rolling the clay against a surface, it can get stuck, ruining your piece. Canvas can help counteract that adhesion, making your handbuilding less frustrating. Kilns Clay is renowned for its durability, but unless it’s fired in a kiln, it remains brittle. We have two kilns in the shop, which our staff operate. We have a full-sized ceramics kiln and a jewelry kiln that can be used to fuse glass and fire smaller pieces. If you’re taking a class or using the shop with a membership or day pass, we’ll fire your pieces for no extra charge. You can also drop off ready-to-fire pieces and we’ll fire them for the price of a day pass. Glassworking There’s a lot you can do with glass. From custom beads to pendants to terrariums to stained glass suncatchers. And you can do it all in the shop with these tools Glass Cutters In order to work with stained glass, you need a glass cutter to cut the pieces into the desired shapes. Glass cutters are much easier to use than you might think. You can even cut curves! Soldering Irons Whether you’re making a suncatcher, a glass cactus sculpture, or a terrarium, you need to use a soldering iron to keep the pieces in place. Just make sure you don’t touch the metal part—it’s hot! Lampworking Torches There’s more than one way to manipulate glass. Lampworking torches allow you to melt glass down into beautiful custom beads. Jewelry Making Who doesn’t love making their own jewelry? Our shop has a jewelers bench with plenty of metal working tools to create your own pieces. It would take far too long to list them all, so here are a few.
Fiber Arts and Textiles Mankind’s relationship with fabric stretches back tens of thousands of years. And if you want to try your own hand at these ancient arts, we have the tools to do it. Sewing Machines If you want to make your own custom clothing, stuffed animals, or bags, there’s no tool more essential than a sewing machine. We have a few on hand that you can use if you don’t have one of your own, as well as tools for hand stitching. Leather Working Leather is one of the toughest materials, which makes it a popular choice for jackets, shoes, and bags. But if you don’t have the right tools, it can be almost impossible to work with. Luckily, we have leather punches, stitching awls, rotary cutters, and even letter stamps so you can create your own leather goods. Yarn Crafts Yarn crafts like knitting and crochet aren’t only relaxing: they’re practical. You can use them to create comfy scarves, socks, hats...you name it. These mediums are easy to do at home, but where’s the fun in that? We have yarn and needles that you can use here, or you can use your own and come for the company. 2D Art What kind of art studio would we be if you couldn’t make a picture here? Our studio is outfitted with all kinds of paints, paintbrushes, colored pencils, easels, and whatever else you could think of. All free to use with a day pass. Canvases are available for a small material fee. Printmaking Printmaking is one of the most ancient methods of duplicating art work. There are several different methods—and you can try a few in the shop. Screenprinting Studio Everyone loves a great T-shirt. Just look at Threadless.com, which has been printing beautiful and clever shirt designs for almost twenty years. But if you have a design you want to make for your band, slow-pitch softball team, your annual church picnic, or maybe just an inside joke you want to wear on your sleeve, you can use our screenprinting studio to make it a reality. Our studio is full stocked with an exposing table, washout sink, a four-color press, a flash dryer, and other tools to make high-quality prints of your own. You can also print on tote bags, pillowcases, skateboards, paper, or just about anything else you like. We offer screenprinting classes, but they are not required to use the studio. Although, it is highly recommended that you contact us first to make sure we have screens available—unless you plan on bringing your own. Block Printing Block printing works much like a stamp. You carve away all the negative space, then ink what’s left over and press it onto cardstock, paper, fabric, or whatever you like. We have some simple carving tools that you can use to cut your own designs into linoleum blocks, which we also have on hand. Letterpressing The printing press was an absolute revolution. And while printing from a computer or copy machine is the go-to method these days, there’s something satisfying about arranging the type yourself. We have a type set in the shop, as well as a rolling flat bed press for consistent prints. Great for greeting cards and posters! Woodshop Don’t have a garage? Use ours! Our woodshop is stocked with enough tools to make all of your woodworking dreams come true. Our current woodshop inventory includes:
Tech Lab Technology is more accessible than ever. And you can experience that firsthand in our tech lab, which is stocked with a few great tools. You can learn how to use all of these tools in our basic usage Tech Lab 101 class. 3D Printer 3D printing is one of the most exciting mediums in the last decade, making breakthroughs in medicine, design, and just plain old hobbying. 3D printers allow you to design your own three-dimensional designs and bring them into the real world. Or, you can download models from websites like Thingiverse. You can use the machine yourself, or send us your designs to print for you. Models cost 10¢/gram, or 5¢/gram for members. Laser Cutter A laser cutter uses a high-powered laser beam to etch wood, leather, acrylic, glass, or other materials. It can also cut through thin pieces of wood, acrylic, and leather. Use the laser cutter to create a set of customized photographic wood coasters, make jigsaw puzzles, cut geometric necklace pendants, or more. Your imagination is the limit! Plot Cutter Our Silhouette plot cutter can cut thin materials like vinyl, paper, cardboard, or fabric with precision. Create die-cut greeting cards, vinyl decals, or intricate heat transfers with ease. CNC Machine Computer Numerical Control machines or now the standard in industry to manufacture objects with precision. Unlike the laser cutter, this machine uses three axes. It uses a small, computer controlled router to turn wood and acrylic into intricate relief sculptures. Miscellaneous And wouldn’t you know it, we’re not done yet. We have plenty of other tools that don’t really fit into the other categories. Such as… Button Maker Buttons are a great way to send a message on your bag, jacket lapel, punk rock vest, or more. Show your support for a local political candidate, promote your band, or make promotional items for your small business. You could see options to custom order buttons, but there’s something satisfying about making them yourself. Heat Press One of the easiest ways to make customized clothing is to print your design onto iron-ons and...iron it on. But we all know that looks a bit tacky. And it doesn’t last long, either. Think of a heat press like an iron-on on steroids. It’s the same basic process, but the end result is much, much nicer. Etc., Etc. There are tons of tools we haven’t even mentioned yet that are absolutely indispensable for a number of art forms. From glue guns to calligraphy pens to wood burning irons, our shop is stocked full of valuable tools that can help you bring what’s in your head into the real world. What will you MAKE? Have you been staring at your Pinterest board wishing you were able to make the same things for your house? Or maybe you’ve had an idea that’s been knocking on the inside of your head, begging to come out. Don’t wish any more. Come into the shop and let us help you turn your dreams into reality. Buy a day pass, check out our membership rates to get more access to the space, or maybe just stop by for a free tour. We’ll be glad to meet you! Five years ago, my husband Nat and I were working at a local charter school. We had never meant to end up in education, but somehow, our paths had led us there.
And for all intents and purposes, we were in it for the long haul. That is, until Nat got laid off. Suddenly, all bets were off. I resigned later that year, and we struck out on our own. After years of keeping art as a hobby, I decided it was time to try it it for a living. In these past five years, I've met a lot of people who have found themselves at a similar crossroads. I've met a lot of people who have toyed around with the idea of turning their part-time passions into full-time careers. And a lot of those people are hampered by hesitation. Most of the time, that hesitation is rooted in a sort of aimlessness. They'd love to go into business for themselves—but they don't know where to start. If that sounds familiar, never fear: here's a step-by-step guide to help you start your own handmade business in 2019. Set Your Goals How do you define success? Everyone has different benchmarks for what success means to them. Some people want to completely replace their nine-to-five. Others are happy if they make a couple extra bucks through their art. Before starting your own business, take some time to get introspective. Sit down and make some goals. This could be a dollar amount or a number of units sold. Maybe you want to quit your full-time job by the end of the year. Or maybe you just want to sell something. You can set your sights as high—or as low—as you want. Just make sure that your goals are realistic. If they're not, you could set yourself up for failure. Start Small Regardless of where you want to take your handmade business, you can't get there all in one fell swoop. It should go without saying, but you shouldn't quit your day job to do art full-time without selling a few pieces on the side first. Test the market. Sell at a couple one-day art shows. Put some of your goods in a local shop and see how well they go over. Post some pictures on Instagram and try to find some buyers there. Start as small as you need to. You can always grow from there. It's much harder to un-quit your job. Define Your Niche In the words of Steve Jobs, "don't try to do everything. Do one thing well." I know, that's easier said than done. If you're anything like me, you don't really have a medium of choice. Some people are comfortable calling themselves a painter or a jewelry maker or a sculptor. But people like us have a hard time choosing. Which is part of the reason why I teach art instead of just selling it. And obviously, I would never say that there's anything wrong with working in a variety of mediums. But when you're first starting your handmade business, offering a wide variety of goods can blur your message a bit. Customers are easily distracted. If you want to break through to them, you need to be clear and direct. Offering too many different products can keep your customers from understanding what exactly it is you do. On the other hand, if you do one thing really well, you can gain attention in a hurry. Build Your Web Presence If you want to start any kind of business in 2019, you're going to need to have a solid web presence. Sure, there are still a number of art festivals and local shops where you can sell your wares. But if you limit yourself to your local market, you can be robbing yourself of a huge crop of customers. You probably don't need me to tell you that the internet can connect you to buyers from all over the globe. But that takes a bit more work than just starting a Facebook page for your art and inviting your friends and family to like it. For starters, it's a good idea to start with a page in an online marketplace. Nearly 2 million sellers are currently active on Etsy—and for good reason. Etsy has a massive customer base actively looking for unique handmade goods. If you want to take it a step further, buy a custom domain and build a dedicated website for your wares. A standalone website can go a long way toward making you seem more professional and legitimate. Make sure that your small business website design is clean and uncluttered. Focus on high-quality product photos to show off your products. Be sure to include a bio where customers can get to know you. Customers aren't just buying your product—they're buying your story. If your story resonates with them, they want to buy a piece of it. Don't Neglect the Day-to-Day For a lot of people, this is the hard part. We all know where we want our lives to go. But the steps to get there are a little fuzzier. You probably won't make sales every single day. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that—especially at the beginning. But every day, you need to be doing something to make those sales happen. Set a regular to-do list of things that you do every day. Make regular posts on social media. Spend some time brainstorming new products. Schedule in some unstructured creative time. Resist the urge to wake up after noon and stay in your pajamas all day. A regular routine (and some work clothes)can help your brain get into "work mode" more easily. Stick to your to-do list even when it feels like it's not making a difference. Those little things add up over time. Keep Grinding There's no fool proof way to start your own handmade business. There isn't a guaranteed 10-step model that will ensure success. But if you're going to be successful, you need to give it your sweat. There are going to be days where you want to quit. Days where you would rather sit behind a boring reception desk than make one more crocheted cactus. That's perfectly normal. And if you realize that selling your own art isn't for you, that's fine. The world needs some people to sit behind a desk. But if you're committed to making your handmade business work, it's going to take work. So keep at it. Keep grinding. Hustle like you mean it. And if you need a place to work with some fellow creatives who can push and encourage you, the shop's open for you. Last Tuesday, we threw the third Rebel Art Fest. This time, at Potawatomi Park as part of Best. Week. Ever. It was a pretty major step up from setting up a tent in our parking lot and hoping no one needs to drive through the alley.
Around 3,000 people came through to enjoy local artists, musicians, and food trucks—and the blacklight jungle at the Conservatory. It might seem like our little festival has finally hit the big time, but its heart is still the same. Two years ago, when we first thought of putting on our own festival, we wanted to highlight all of the best local arts, music, and culture that South Bend—and especially our little neighborhood River Park—could offer. There were other art festivals in the area, but they either overlooked local talent, or had no bar for entry. They either showcased only a narrow idea of fine art, or they put elementary school dance teams on the same stage as local bands playing original music. There was a huge middle ground that was getting no representation. Namely, the scores of amazing local artists whose work might be too unconventional or "low-brow" for a curated fine arts show, or bands whose sound isn't exactly radio friendly but still make fantastic music. We saw tons of artists around us whose work was a bit weird, but wonderful—and worth celebrating. And strangely enough, there seemed to be a huge concentration of those artists around River Park. Which makes sense. River Park is a weird and wonderful little neighborhood. We don't have a Starbucks: we have The Well, a nonprofit coffeeshop that moonlights as a punk venue. Our river walk is littered with unauthorized artwork from our resident sculptor. We're home to Merriman's Play House and the Farmer's Market—amazing, important spaces with a decidedly non-mainstream appeal. It's not everybody's cup of tea. And River Park isn't going to attract the same crowd as Downtown South Bend. But we still think that weirdness is worth celebrating. When we sat down to organize Rebel Art Fest, we wanted it to be a platform for the weird and wonderful artists specifically in our local community. Artists that might not ever be featured in a juried fine art show, but whose work deserves a larger audience. Artists like La Grotesquerie, with her rogue taxidermy, Rhonda Whitledge, whose fantasy-based sculptures look like characters from the Dark Crystal universe, or the intimate, magical realism of Nerdy Brown Kid. And then, there's the music. I lost track of how many times I was asked, "where are these guys from?" But I was absolutely delighted every time I told someone, "they're from here." One of the unique things about Rebel Art Fest was that most of the bands lived within a mile of the venue. Whether it be the lucid post punk of Properties, the anarchic punk singalongs of SHAM, or the chamber pop chaos of The Flying DeSelms, it was all homegrown talent. A decade ago, pulling off this kind of festival in South Bend would have been a struggle. There were artists and musicians in town, but there wasn't much of a community between them. They were isolated, scraping to get their name out there without much of a support system. Many of them left for greener pastures. But in the past few years, there has been a real renaissance in this city. Creatives aren't fleeing the Bend anymore. In fact, we've met artists who've actually moved here from larger cities because they like this community better. When I moved back to South Bend nine years ago, there were maybe one or two local shows a week. Now, it seems like there are two or three per night. Most often, if I can't make it to a show for a friend's band, it's because I'm already going to another show that night. Not to mention that Rebel Art Fest wasn't the only music festival last week. The success of Rebel Art Fest isn't just indicative of a changing arts scene. It points to a changing city. We had a lot of support for this year's festival from city government itself. Venues Parks and Arts did a lot of the legwork for marketing and promotion. The Potawatomi Conservatories didn't just let us turn it into a blacklight jungle: they gushed at the idea. They stayed open late so we could hang pool-noodle tentacles, origami butterflies, and paper-plate-and-cellophane jellyfish in the trees and strategically place blacklights around the greenhouse. Not long ago, the powers that be might have raised an eyebrow at something like Rebel Art Fest. Asking the city to support a showcase of bizarre artists was pretty big leap. In many cities, the city would rather shut it down than support it. But South Bend isn't like most cities. Especially after the last decade. Rebel Art Fest served as a reflection of the growth in our creative community. And as the arts scene here has continued to grow and thrive, our strange little parking lot arts festival has grown with it. And you better believe that next year will be even bigger. |
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MAKE SOUTH BEND is a safe, welcoming community space and works to make everyone feel comfortable in order to allow creativity to flourish. MAKE SOUTH BEND does not discriminate or tolerate discrimination from guests or members on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.
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2228 Mishawaka Ave., South Bend
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