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The Makery - Arianna Soloway & Jessica Webster · Vermont Talks

• 0:14
  What's new 802? I'm Becca Hammond and you're listening to Vermont Talks.
• 0:19
  Vermont Talks may include graphic or explicit content. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to the 66th episode of Vermont Talks. I'm here at the Makery today with Arianna Soloway and business partner Jessica Webster. The Makery is a second-hand arts and crafts supply store and community art space at 388 Pine Street in Burlington, Vermont. It is a place where art supplies find new life and creativity flourishes through classes and camps. Welcome Arianna and welcome Jessica or Jess. I'm not sure if you go by Jess Jess. Either is fine. This space is so cool. Thanks so much. Thank you for letting me come here to do the interview. I know it's always a little odd bringing someone in your space. Of course. Thanks for having us on your show. So let's start off by talking a little bit about the building and where you're located.
• 1:07
  Yes. So we are at 388 Pine Street. We're a little tucked back. I know some folks will be like, you're so hard to find.
• 1:17
  But if you come down the parking lot past Great Harvest Bakery and just keep heading back through the parking lot, you'll find us. Yeah. And we're really excited to find a space in the south end when we open because it's such a great arts part of town and really wanted to be where artists already are and where a lot of creative stuff is already happening. Yes. You are very much in the little art hub because generator is somewhere back here, right? No, they're a little further down Pine Street. Are they?
• 1:46
  Okay. But there's a lot of art studios and different things. That's the glass studio behind here and Arts Riot used to be here. I forget what the new space is called. But I think of Arts Riot and not Speedur and Rawls and then you turn into this parking lot.
• 1:57
  There's all these creative things going on here. Yeah. Siba took over the Arts Riot place. Yes. And so they're rolling out events, art events, which has been cool. It's so nice to have a parking lot with some parking spaces.
• 2:12
  I know it gets busy here on, especially when the farmer's market starts up in the summer. But I think it's actually pretty easy to find when you know what you're doing. The Art District so yeah, very cool space. How big is this area? Like the square footage. I should have said square. Oh, like our space. Because it's huge. It's bigger than I expected. I guess it's just shy of 3,000 square feet. So yeah, a good chunk of it is the classroom space and then the store itself, I would say, is just a hair under 2,000 square feet.
• 2:45
  Very cool. Okay. So there's a million things going on in this space and I saw online, you have a great website, themakervt.com, where you're listing different classes from, you have a sewing class that you're doing soon. I saw there was crochet listed, maybe knitting two, and you have so many art supplies. So let's talk about the vision. How did you decide you're going to make this space? And what was the original like, this needs to be a thing today? So I guess it started maybe three, almost four years ago at this point, that I read an article about the existence of other stores like this and other places. A lot of hands-on pictures, creative reuse centers. And yeah, so it just started with that and I was like, how is this a thing that I didn't know about as a person who does so many crafts and loves to thrift shop? And then that just sort of mold around in my head, this sort of like, why don't we have one of those here? And then eventually that sort of turned into like, I need to start one of those. And I don't know exactly when that changed, but somewhere along the way I realized that I was like, it went from being like, I wish somebody else would start one to be like, oh my God, someone's going to start one before I do. And then, yeah, so like all that was kind of just mulling over in my brain over a lot of time. And I was at time working at Muscle of Yarn in Shelburn. And so I was sort of involved in the craft like retail world and just sort of, yeah, just kind of figuring out what all this looked like. And yeah, it was sort of like very, very slowly and then all at once. And then it was sort of like, oh, I'm going to start looking for some spaces. I was working with a business coach through the SBDC, the Small Business Development Center. And yeah, I was sort of like, oh, just comment, I'll check out some spaces and get a sense of like what rent is. And then, and then this space came available and they basically wanted to rent it to us immediately. And in the course of all of this, so Jess is actually originally an old friend of my husband who had to college together. And once they moved back here from Chicago, I would just like periodically run into Justin in the community and he would say, that's Arianna's husband. He would be like, you have to meet my wife. I think you guys would get along. Yeah. And he'd be always like, you have to meet my old friend, Jess. She just crafty things too. Yeah. And we were like, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, one day we'll meet or whatever. And then we finally coordinated it around the time that Arianna was looking for, just being like, I'm just going to look at spaces.
• 5:21
  We got coffee. And then like a week later, Arianna was like, I got a place and I'm opening the store on November.
• 5:29
  Will you come help me with fabric?
• 5:29
  Yeah. And the rest is history. And now we spend, you know, 40 hours a week together. Yeah. So that's basically how it came to be. It's such a really creative, I know you said that this exists elsewhere. I've never heard of this kind of thing where it's a storm.
• 5:51
  They're all over the country. But they're like different forms. Yeah.
• 5:55
  And they're all very different, which is cool. I've started like, visiting them anytime I'm traveling somewhere and they all feel so, so different.
• 6:04
  Yeah. Because you sell materials? I'm trying to wrap my head because I know you do the classes and you take donations. Yeah. And then we, yeah. So most of the business is just, we're a thrift store, but all we take is our supplies. And then we also, like with the supplies that we come in, we do the classes. And so all of our, all the supplies we use in our classes are also from, from folks donations. And the only, like the only inventory that we source is glue. So everything else that's for sale on the store is donation only. And what we were finding is like, we would get glue, but it would be kind of crusty. Yeah. And we rarely get any because like, you need it for every project. And so we were like, this is silly. You can get like 90% of what you need here, but then you have to like still go somewhere else and, and buy like your lipstick. And so we started sourcing that wholesale.
• 6:49
  But yeah, but everything else that we have in the store is secondhand donated by folks in the community.
• 6:52
  That makes sense though, because glue goes bad. Yeah. Right. Even a year later, I'm like, what's wrong with my, exactly. So we just were like, we just need to have that for people so that they can like get everything they need for a project here. Yeah. And so it's, it's donation for store credits. When people bring stuff in, they get some money to spend on, on future projects or to apply to a class. Yeah. Very cool.
• 7:16
  So yeah, now I have stuff. I was like, I said, I was not expecting the space to be as great as this. I opened that door.
• 7:21
  Whoa. I mean, I don't think we were expecting to get nearly as much donations. Yeah. When we first opened, we did donations at any time.
• 7:29
  And then that quickly turned into donations for just the first one week of the month. Yes. And then we, I think we hit a wall in December of this past year where we were like, we have to figure this out. It was so much stuff.
• 7:43
  And I think like the, the donation is the first week of the month worked for a while until everybody figured out that that's what we were doing. And then they just saved it up. And then we got a whole month's worth of donations in one week. And then we were just totally overcome again. Yeah. I think we had a month where that week we got like, it was over 150 donations. Wow.
• 8:00
  And we were like, okay, we, we need to like spread the flow out. And so now we do donation by appointment, which is like really lovely. It lets us sort through things and be more thorough and know how much stuff is coming like over time, which has been really great. It's a huge amount of work. Like it's wonderful to take donations, but when you end up with like a huge pile, that means you have to sort it all. You have to figure out like, is this actually usable stuff? Right. Right.
• 8:31
  It's time consuming to like really get everything, you know, sorted the way it needs to be in a way that makes it usable to people. And right. Cause it's here. That's, I think that's something really important kind of call out. Donating is always good. The amount of like goodwill places, they throw everything on a pallet and they send it to Boston. So it's not like staying in the community. It's nice when you're actually known, but it's going to go to someone in Burlington.
• 8:54
  Like your neighbor's actually going to use it. Exactly. Yeah. Everything we get here stays here, except for the occasional like things that aren't actually an art supply that we get. And then we do pass those on to other thrift stores, but anything that is an art supply stays here. That's fantastic.
• 9:09
  Cause I personally, I'm also a crafty person and I've had way too many crafty projects. What was I thinking? Like, I bought six million things for a project, but I immediately was not into. I'm going to crochet a blanket and then you don't do that. Yeah. I think that for me was part of why, why I wanted it to be a donation for store credit model is because I feel like as crafters, we are a little obsessed with trying new things and also with like hoarding things once we try them.
• 9:48
  And so what I really wanted was to try to foster more of a like, this isn't suiting me anymore. Like I was going to crochet a blanket, but I did two rows and now I have 10 balls of yarn and nothing to do with them. But now I'm obsessed with embroidery. So I'm going to bring my 10 balls of yarn in here and I'm going to get some money and then I'm going to like put towards my new obsession. And so that was just like really important to me as a person who has done that more times than I can count in my life. I mean, that's part of the craft. We collect things and you know, you try things and figure out what you want. Yeah. And I want people to try things like that's so important and it's been fun to watch. So like we have people that come in who are learning a new craft who have maybe just knit and then they take Ariana's crochet class because they want to delve into that and see if they like it or they take one of my sewing classes.
• 10:37
  And so we have been able to foster a really nice sense of community, which I think is important for both Ariana and I through like we have a monthly bring your own craft night that is the first Thursday of every month and folks come and then we have regulars that come and bring whatever they're working on and we get to see their projects that they're working on and I love that's I love asking people like what are you going to do? And it's funny because sometimes people will be like I just bought it because I liked it and they're like embarrassed to say that.
• 11:09
  And I'm like, do you know how many times I bought fabric because I like it? Like that's okay. You don't have to have a project. But if you're doing a project, I want to know all about it. I want you to tell me about it. And I love when it's like not a thing you expect either like they have a pile of things and you're like, I don't know what's happening here. And then they tell you this incredible vision and you're like, oh my god, that's gonna like all these things are gonna become that.
• 11:29
  Yeah. And we have people that like now they'll come back and they'll like show us they'll be like, look at the blanket that I made with those scraps I got here or you know, look at my deco posh hat or my fairy house. Someone just came in yesterday they they live in Montpilers. They don't get up here very often and they were like showing me their Halloween costume they had made that they had bought some stuff here. And they were like, I've been trying to get back up here to show you this costume for months. And they were like finally back in town. Yeah, it was great. That's a great idea. I know a lot of people I'm actually going to go over to the science expo for sci fi expo. My friend Dan that makes masks and does all of these things. There's so many people in Vermont who are making yeah cool stuff. Yeah, this is such a cool space for that because I think a lot of us crafty people I throw myself in money pits so I'm gonna buy $500 worth of things for my new house. This is gonna be my whole life forever. A month and a half later. Then you bring it to us and then you get money to spend $500 on a new craft. That's that's a really wonderful idea that really not only is it great for the environment for the community but it's really smart just from the mindset of crafty people.
• 12:41
  Yeah, because we're all like that.
• 12:45
  We're all hoarders and we're all always trying something new and thinking it's gonna be the next thing we're gonna do forever. I'm always thinking that this is gonna be my hobby for life. It just ends up being something that I have piles of. That's that embarrassment of like why did I do this? I get that too. That is like this guilt of like oh my god I spent all this money or like I want to try this new hobby but I don't want to spend all the money on it or I don't want to end up with yet another heap of things that like I'm gonna feel embarrassed about and I guess I'll probably get from that pile of stuff and then I go oh I want to paint and then I feel guilty about right like no way I shouldn't switch hobbies right now I should do the thing but but the things I'm speaking to you anymore like and so I just want people to just be able to switch whatever they want to the new thing that's speaking to them without that guilt right right just like indulge all your ADHD without any guilt and just like try something new perfect I love the okay so there's the you call this the store area yeah just all of the stuff and you seem to have different sections I can see the book nook and office supplies we put a lot of effort into organizing it's an ongoing thing I think we have people that come in they're like I was just here a couple months ago and it looks so different and I'm like yes because I hyperfixated on one area to organize and and even like the store has evolved so much in the year and a half that we were open like originally we were renting the classroom space to another business for storage and so we all of our stuff like like we were only really using half of the store when we started yeah and then our classroom was like in the back of the store and then we like got this space and reconfigured everything and yeah and we've we always always moving things I really love that we have the classroom space yeah it's a little bit of separation yeah it gives you something about wide open tables just feels like you should yeah yeah it's really nice to have just the space where it's like this this isn't the store this isn't work this isn't sorting and all the things this is just like yeah we just like we save things in here for classes we want to do and they're surprising here for that and that's it's just here yeah yeah okay so you want to talk a little bit more about this store what this could just be a list we don't have to get every single thing but like what can you find here if you're a crafter in this area just looking for stuff yeah yeah so um I'm kind of like just going through the store by section I guess there's yarn stuff up front so any kind of like knitting crocheting weaving supplies um something to get yeah sometimes spinning stuff sometimes rug cooking stuff um yeah I think that's kind of that that section and then we have a like kind of a kit area where when kits beginner kits they're not always manner kits yeah all sorts of kits kits for different crafts and like kids craft kits that's a lot of fun we do have like a kids section we have a decor section that has flowers and mini chairs like tiny dollhouse things and then like scrapbooking stuff um and any scrapbook and punches and wash sheet tape and scrapbooks themselves um oh god so many stamps um yeah fabric patterns yeah sewing patterns quilting patterns all sorts of like that's really nice sewing notions yes like thread and needles and velcro and elastic all of that um kind of just like working my way on the store mentally in a circle um like jewelry stuff like beads and wire and uh like clasps and charms and all of that buttons for days so many buttons so many buttons buttons are a thing that we never need to make another one no no one ever needs to manufacture a button ever again that is so accurate there's because I feel like every family has like a gallant and we get them we get the tins of the huge bag yes um yeah um Ariana loves to sort them I hate that task um so and that's also something that's been like funny in the shop is that we like very much compliment each other and the things that we want to sort and don't want to sort and yeah I feel like they're things both of us love sorting because they just can't stand do yeah so we're like I found a box of buttons here you go and I'm like whoo here's the fabric and I'm like all right gonna go measure this for days we also we have tons of fabric quilting fabric garment fabric yeah so yeah you know I don't know if we were specifically said that and all the sewing stuff but we've got so much fabric people really love our like buy the pound wrap yeah so anytime we get like small kind of like scrap pieces anything less than a quarter yard um yeah it goes in there and you can buy fabric buy the pound and people love that for like quilting or applique or just when you need like a little pop of something that is like those uh the rugs that you tie together oh yeah yeah that's awesome that's so cool and that's I think everyone's fruiting everyone who love Joann's it's just kind of but we have so many lovely options like so yeah specifically for like so is if they can't find something here like Robin is a stash fabric in the soda plant so we can we like send people to other places which is great and they're just down the street from us we love that we can like you know send people back and forth we do try to do that like if someone comes in for a specific hobby and they're like oh you know right now you don't have anything because it wasn't donated like Arianna and I are really good about you know like here are all global businesses that you can go because I really think like part of being community-based also is like how do we support each other and how do we like let let people know that like these things do exist in our community like we actually have a lot of really wonderful just gotta dig a little more for them yeah yeah they'll be digging a little yeah there's something you said about just sharing that information yeah and we love to be able to do that because we don't like we have a ton of stuff but we don't always have every exact specific thing because our inventory just changes constantly so if you're like I need exactly this it's great for us to be able to like send them like yeah you don't have to order that from amazon you can still get it in town even if you can't get it from us yeah well that's kind of it when you're someone yeah so I'm from rural Vermont I grew up out near the Canadian border and when you google craft supplies the big it heavily pushes things like Michaels and Joanne's like just think and then you think that you can't get it locally because you'll scroll and you'll go oh I'm not seeing it right that's it it's hard for the smaller local businesses and there are so many cool little artsy shops in Burlington you can't compete on every keyword like you're gonna be spending $50,000 a year trying to get marketing and then that probably doesn't result in like right passive sales yeah so as much as we can send people to like all those other places and like just build that yeah yeah that's about people are sometimes like surprised why do we do that and I'm like but like why wouldn't we I'm not gonna like gatekeep art supplies for you like yeah like if we don't have it I still want you to find it today like I want you to be able to go to the local art store on church street or you know go up on Shumper Road to the art store like and this is also you know I think one thing when you are trying a new craft too is that you get hung up on either like do you get the nice supplies that call to you do you spend that and this is like a place where like you can do that and not break the bank and also I'm a firm believer in like I don't care if you're a beginner's analyst or an expert like use the nice supplies that you invest in you'll like it more you'll like it more fun if you love what you're working with but that's a journey everybody goes on you know I remember when that's like my primary thing is garment sewing and when I first started I had like fabric that felt precious and it is precious fabric but once I got over that fear and was just like I'm just gonna make it it was so much more enjoyable and so like this is like an opportunity I think also for people to be like oh I can I can like dip my toe in that and use and invest in some supplies and I don't it don't necessarily have to like get the cheapest option because I'm starting does that make sense no that's definitely because especially if you're in the crafting that's where I get burned I'm like oh I'm gonna buy something nice yes I thought wow why did I do this by the time the delivery goes for two weeks later I've got the thing and I'm sitting there like now what am I doing yeah there's definitely the back of what talk about the benefit of having a local community and feeling the fabric because buying it online you don't know what you're feeling yeah even just like being able to like touch paper and those different pieces that you're getting you're still learning yeah and so you can stuff like the stamps if you can just like hold it in your hand and look at it versus looking at a picture on one right like you know exactly how big it is you know how detailed like you yeah just yeah it's fun yeah there's always something to that and the tactile I love this this is so cool the community idea I love when the little little businesses are supportive of each other there's no reason not to be and what did we do I think I always think about like pre-internet I was born after the internet existed but like what did people do in 1975 when they wanted to make a quote right they talked to their neighbors they'd say oh where did you get this what a shocking concept right I love that we can do we can bring that back a little yeah yeah definitely that's awesome okay so talked about the store How big? 15 people? I'm guessing how many people can you have in a class? Yeah, typically it depends on the class, but 15 is the maximum we really have in any class. The sewing classes are usually a lot smaller because we have limited number of sewing machines here and those are kind of more time intensive and things. So those usually are like four to six people depending on the activity. Yeah, four to six people.
• 23:18
  And also part of that is this instructor to person ratio is anything longer than that or any group bigger than that. It's like a little bit trickier. Yeah, with everybody on separate sewing machines and doing that. Yeah, versus if we do like intro to granny squares, it's a little bit easier to have, you know, eight to 10 people in that class. Yeah. So typically, I'd say like a lot of the million crocheting type classes are somewhere in the range of 10 people.
• 23:51
  And then we do about once a month, we do a class we call Crafts and Sip, which is just like a real casual, like we come up with a craft idea and have all the supplies and it's a very like... Bring your snacks. Right, bring your snacks, bring a drink. It's like a very user friendly sort of craft. It doesn't involve any special skills.
• 24:08
  It's just a chance to like come hang out and socialize and like come for a date night, bring your friends, bring your mom, like whatever you're doing. Like last month we did bag charms and then we've done like make your own dryer felt ball. Yeah, so it's something that's like very like it's a very introductory sort of craft. Anyone can do it whether they feel like they're a crafty person or not. You can do it in an hour. Yeah, and those classes we typically do up to 15 people because it is just more about socializing and about like real like instructor, student. Yeah, I love to make your own dryer. The needle felt thing. We've done that a couple times.
• 24:48
  Because it's been so popular and people are so satisfying. It is.
• 24:51
  They're in stab it. Yeah, people love that. They're like, this is so cathartic. I just want to do this all the time. So yeah, I think we'll probably do that one again at some point soon too because it's just filled like... Oh yeah, that's the fun part too. I feel like the first round I've ever made is kind of just like they make a little like spiral on it or they put a little shape and then suddenly they like the second ones are wild.
• 25:10
  Yeah, somebody made like a Pokemon ball. Another person made these like beautiful coordinating floral ones.
• 25:20
  And one person made an eyeball that was like super realistic with like the veins and everything. And then one girl made a hedgehog and then her boyfriend made Sonic the hedgehog.
• 25:28
  And they were like the most amazing turtles. I'm still obsessed with those. And that's like the fun thing about Craftin's of Two is like sometimes people are coming to it on a date. Sometimes people are coming to it with like their work friends and trying to decompress. So yeah, there's some nice people are coming to just like meet new folks. They can find themselves and are just like, I just moved to town a few months ago and here I am. And I love that. Yeah. I love the kind of outfit. Like, yeah, yeah.
• 25:55
  Don't get me wrong. I love serious like sewing garments. It's gonna be a Friday afternoon where Arianna and I will hit a wall where we'll be like, what craft can we do? Like a piece of fabric. We just need to like, cook some stuff. And and I think that sometimes we're crafting sip ideas come from we're like, I saw this Instagram video of this thing. Let's do it. And then we're like, that was really fine.
• 26:25
  Let's do it with everybody. Yeah.
• 26:25
  About the kind of hobby that you can like, sit on the couch and just kind of like, check out. Yeah, check out if you do. And you still end up with something cool at the end. That's so satisfying and fun for people getting into this sort of thing. So a lot of people would go, Oh, I'm going to make a dress.
• 26:44
  They're immediately like, Oh, God, that sounds so hard. Just take a pallet. Yeah, activity. So yeah, next month, our craft and sip is actually these like fabric covered storage boxes. This is just a cardboard box.
• 26:58
  It's a cardboard box with like cool fabric and ribbon and stuff all glued onto it. And then it becomes a nice little storage box, right? Something much prettier to put your stuff in and your recycling. Right, exactly.
• 27:09
  Yeah. So yeah, so it's always kind of stuff like that. And the other thing for all of our classes, you know, kind of the way part of us coming up with classes too is like, what do we have enough of in the store? So all of our classes, we use supplies that are in store. And the beautiful part about that is we're able to make our classes super affordable. Right, because there's no materials cost to us really, and you don't have to bring your own materials. Yeah. And so that's been really, really satisfying. Yeah, it definitely breaks the barrier for somebody. You know, I did a, I've done some sewing classes and people have then gone on, I think to feel like, oh, I can invest a little bit more into some of the sewing classes elsewhere because now I've, you know, I've made a thing and I feel confident and I can go take that garment sewing class that I've been looking at, but maybe like we're afraid to just merge on in the community. So again, it's like eliminating barriers to access is a cool thing. And then it does funnel people, I think, into the community to go do other stuff because we have a lot of folks that will come here and then take classes. Yeah, it can be hard to try a new hobby or to take a class in a new hobby when it's going to be like, oh, here's like, it's a couple hundred dollars and I'm going to meet for many weeks and I'm like, I don't even know if I'm going to like this thing. And I think our most popular classes have been like a lot of our intro classes that are like two hours on one night and they're like very inexpensive. And they're just like, I just wanted to try this and maybe I like it. And for 20 bucks, you can take that risk. And it's, and then you're like, oh, I did like this. Now I want to like go on and then we see them come back from the store. And then they're like, oh, I checked out that other local store that you told me about. And like, you know, here's my sweater that I made or here's here's my bag that I sewed. And it's awesome, especially something like the sewing machine. I love sewing and I have made some of my own clothes.
• 29:07
  Even someone who's used a sewing machine, I got trying, I think about like getting back into it. Oh my God, I don't remember and every machine is slightly different. I mean, you just kind of feel like a little clunky and a little scared, you're going to stab yourself or something or just break the machine as another like, I don't want to invest in this because I feel like I'm good enough. So that, yeah, that barrier to entry and getting them over the hump is really, really nice.
• 29:32
  And we started offering a couple of months ago, sewing one on ones. And so most of the folks that have come through and taken advantage of that service through a store, it's been, they're like, I haven't used the sewing machine before. Can you sit with me and show me the different parts and some things are transferable. But I think just being able to like get comfortable of the different settings. Yeah, that's like what most people have taken advantage of that service for to be like, here's my sewing machine, can you sit with me? So I feel comfortable. Yeah, it's the same for a lot, especially fabric copies, anything with textiles, because like crocheting, it's so easy if you're, oh, I'm going to teach myself how to crochet. It's so easy to go the wrong way or something. And then you're just, you're upset about it and you don't know what you're wrong and you don't have anyone to ask. Yeah, it's definitely nice if you have some hands on like, oh, this stitch.
• 30:30
  Because I've watched so many crocheting videos on the internet.
• 30:35
  It's so hard to tell what stitch they're talking about. They're always like this stitch. Which? Yeah.
• 30:38
  Okay. Videos and stuff are great for like, refreshing your memory and stuff. Or like, once you're at like an intermediate level, teaching yourself some like little new technique, but they're so hard as a beginner to just, when you're like, I don't even know what this is supposed to look like. And like, but now I think it's wrong, but I don't know why. And yeah, and then you get frustrated, you put it down. Yeah, we don't want to do that. Maybe I'm not good enough to do this. And it's not your fault. It's the fact that you're trying to learn off the top. Yeah, there is a benefit to having somebody sit next to you. Yeah, which is super nice. This is such a nice community space. I really love the classroom, Mary. It's very, it's very welcoming. It doesn't feel like you have to meet some like metric to be the hardest income here, which is nice.
• 31:32
  Okay, so we were talking about a bunch of different. Okay, can we kind of run through, we know about the sewing classes, we don't I really like the drier ball, but that's really awesome. What other classes have you offered or hoping to offer? Yeah, so, yeah, just mainly does sewing classes, I do like knitting and crocheting classes. I've done some intro to weaving. And then we've also done some visible mending classes at like different techniques. Intro to hand stitching. Oh, yeah, that's actually I'm really excited about that coming up. We're doing a like, the absolute basics of hand sewing, like if you've never picked up a needle before ever, and you're just like, not sure where to start is going to be just like, we'll teach you how to needle, we'll teach you how to tie it up, like whatever you need to know to get you sewing. So yeah, I'm excited that we're going to be doing that next month. And then I teach some of those I've taught a couple of different methods of like, some specifically for like mending knitwear, some for different techniques. And then we have someone who teaches some like more traditional kind of visible mending techniques like Sashiko style stitching and like kind of patching with fabric and things like that. And she's gonna be back sometime this summer, teaching another round of her classes. We will somebody who teaches embroidery classes, which have been really popular and super fun. Beautiful embroidery. Yeah, the woman who does the mending does beautiful mending. Yeah. And that's kind of our main stuff right now. It's just been like, so Jess and I teach a lot of them. But as we we meet folks who sort of feel like the right fit, we've we've brought in a couple other people and tried out some different things and just kind of slowly building it up and seeing what what works. And Ariana does a after school series during the year, which was actually one more rotation of it. And then the pause for this. We do it is ages six to 10, like a kids class we do in like six week sessions. So they come for an hour and we do various things. And then we also do a class for little kids ages two to five called mini makers, which is the first Saturday of the month. Also, there's one more of those before we take a break for the summer. And that's just kind of a like craft free for all we set up a bunch of different stations.
• 33:50
  So they'll be like, you know, Play-Doh and collage stuff and paints and beads and just like all different sort of activities and and kids just come and like move around to different stations. Just like I want to do a ball.
• 34:02
  It's super fun. Yeah. Well, that's kind of what it feels like in here reminds me of the better art classes. I remember when I was a kid, like, there's so much to look at. It's someone like, yeah, I just want to go like look at everything and touch it.
• 34:20
  That very exciting moment. Oh my God, I can actually touch the stuff in here when you're a kid. That's so exciting.
• 34:27
  Yeah. Yeah. We just wanted to feel like inspiring, like, I don't know, I feel like that's the goal of everything is just to feel like you could come in here and make something even if you don't necessarily know exactly what it is just. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, like, I don't know, our part of why we have this space is like, we're both kind of little trash, crafty gremlins. Like we collect things, both of us do a multitude of hobbies and we get excited about that. We want to talk to people about those things and we want it to be a space that like feels warm and inviting. Yeah. You can just come here and be a little craft from one to two.
• 35:08
  Yeah. Like, you know, I recently I traveled and I went into a craft store that was very curated because I, you know, every time I go travel, I go find the local yarn store, the local garment store and everybody's had that experience where they go in, they're new to a hobby, they go into the store and it doesn't feel like they belong there or like it's welcoming or it feels intimidating to like go and look at yarn when you don't know anything about yarn or you're just learning. And so we really didn't want that for our space. And I think we're lucky that we live in a community where like that's not the case, right? Like all of the stores around here are very welcoming to be clear. This was like, I was traveling and I went in. But I feel like we've all at some point in life had that experience with a store that is not so welcoming. And so, you know, that we keep that in mind when we're like organizing events and when we are organizing our space because like I want people to come in and feel like they can touch the fabric and touch the yarn and I don't want people to feel like, oh, I shouldn't be here. I don't belong here. So I love purple people to bring their kids and yeah, yeah, I feel like that's one of my favorite things is when they could just, you know, run around in here and pick up random stuff and we do have regulars that come in and they're like, here's your like $5 that you can spend at the bakery and the kids are like, yeah. And they like to just go wild. Like there are very few places where $5 gets you much these days.
• 36:32
  They'll go around and they'll be like, they'll pick out 20 buttons for a dollar and they'll pick out some like those little like marbles and like Moncala bead kind of gems and I don't know, like, yeah, they just like they come here for their little treasures and I love that. Yeah. Or also, I had this idea last last month that we're going to be doing the event in May, a knee made clothing swap. So if you are somebody who up cycles clothing, if you have, you know, sewn stuff from scratch or knit or block printed, really like any wearable garment that you've made that you're like, this doesn't speak to me or this doesn't fit me. I was going through my, my summer clothes because that time of year we're, you know, we're hoping for the warm mother. And I realized like I have all these really beautiful things that I've made that don't fit me or that just don't speak to me. And so we're doing a knee made clothing swap and really excited about that. Because I think as makers, we all have things that we're like, we just want to donate them to like Goodwill or somewhere you don't know what's going to happen to them. You want them to go to someone who like, who is also a maker, someone who's going to appreciate those things. And so I'm very excited to be able to like find like to re-home those items to someone who's really going to like get joy out of them and appreciate them for what they are and not just be like, whoa, found this thing at the thrift store for $2 that didn't have any tags on it. That's funny. You'd be like, no, somebody made that like with their hands like right here in town.
• 38:08
  And I just yeah, yeah. So that we're looking for. It's going to be on the 24th of May. Nice. This month. Cool.
• 38:13
  Yeah. Very cool. I really like this place. This is such a great idea. I'm not sure we're out with time, but we got a few minutes before we got to. Yeah, you guys are going to open the store very soon. So we're going to wrap it up.
• 38:28
  Okay. Is there anything to donating?
• 38:34
  Because you already kind of mentioned that it's only yes, it's by appointment only. So the appointments come up on our website.
• 38:41
  They open on a rolling basis. They are limited. So there are not always appointments available. But if there are not when you look, there will be more very soon. So like keep checking back. The next time to check is when we're open during open hours, because that's when our the system like automatically updates during the hours that we are open. But yeah, so yeah, you make an appointment there.
• 39:00
  Once you've gotten an appointment, you can come anytime on your appointment day. That just helps us regulate how many people are coming per day. You don't have to come at the exact moment of your appointment time. And then there's a list on our website of all of the things we do and don't take. And yeah, once you've gotten a appointment, you can bring as much stuff as you've got. Which is great. Yeah, definitely check and don't bring stuff that's on the list.
• 39:27
  Yeah, like please don't, please don't bring that. Yeah, mainly I would say like the things people try to bring us often that we don't take are like household textile items, like sheets or curtains or things like that, which people like do upcycle, which is awesome. But those can go through a regular thrift store. Yeah, people will try to bring us like, I've collected all of these toilet paper rolls and corks and like, I do understand that that's an art supply.
• 39:51
  You can make them into art, but like the slippery slope of anything can be an art supply. We're not, yeah, we've been really intentional of like, I want an art supply. Yeah, I appreciate you wanting to save your cardboard and make it into something new, but like, that is a recyclable. Yeah. Yeah, so it's just too much stuff. That's it.
• 40:13
  You guys could have 5,000 paper towels. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, for the most part, it's like household items and recyclables are the things we get most often that we have to send back to people. Yeah, and there's there's textile recycling programs, right? Around here, or I've heard about them. I've never actually seen them. They, there aren't any locally, they do exist in like a mailing stuff in kind of way. I don't know a lot of information about them. We've actually, we've been trying to look into this a lot. I won't go in like a whole tangent about this, but the short version is I feel like there is very little information on what those people are actually doing with your stuff once they get it. And I don't want to be like a conspiracy theorist about it, but it makes me nervous to be like, I want to actually know where the stuff is going. And I know that there are some places that are very specific and intentional about what they're doing with the stuff they're recycling, but they unfortunately are not based here. Right. And that's not what you were doing. Yeah. You guys are not ripping apart old sweaters. Right.
• 41:07
  Right. We have talked to some other local folks who are sort of like tangentially involved in in this. In upcycling. Yeah, in upcycling. In upcycling. And we're hoping to continue talking to them about whether there's some way that we can all band together to create some sort of textile recycling where we could take like, you know, ripped up old clothes and things like that. But that is a yeah, we're not there yet. That's a future thing that we that's that's like that's part of the future dreams of what this could be that we could continue to like get involved in textile recycling and like, how to actually do that in a more transparent and again, like locally based way.
• 41:50
  Right. But yeah, hopefully we'll have news about that eventually. But right now that's very much sort of just a like it's a dream of stuff we'd like to do, but we don't have we don't have any actual like specific plans about that. Which is totally fair. Yeah. So like if you've got schemes of yarn, no, you're not using if you've got like actual fabric bolts, I don't know what your limit is on fabric donations. No, it's any any size is we don't take like little scrap off cuts. Right. But like a six inch piece. Yeah. But otherwise like quarter yards or more generally or in terms of like scraps, if you had scraps that were I would say at least like five by five, you can donate those we just will automatically put them in the scrap and and we don't give people credit for them. Yeah. But like the really, really tiny bits that like like the little squiggly that you cut off the end of a thing. We don't like we're not gonna say that. But if it's a piece, yeah, we try to take as much as we can and people do really love the small pieces and the scraps and stuff. Yeah.
• 42:51
  Yeah. Or if you bought an entire hobby worth of a huge amount of stuff that you now no longer have any interest in doing or if you're cleaning out like a family member's house, like we get a lot of people who are like, you know, this was my this was my aunts or my grandmas and I have all this stuff and I wanted to like go somewhere and usable because it was loved and stored lovingly and awesome. Okay. So I think we cover is there anything that we did cover that you guys want to talk about real quick? I don't think so. I don't think so either. You know, our classes are always developing. And you know, I think a lot of people don't realize this but like, this is just Arianna.
• 43:40
  Like, we are a small but mighty team of two and and we are intentional about that we like we like that aspect of our business. But I think sometimes people who are new to our business think that there are a huge team of us.
• 43:57
  There's a huge amount of stuff. Yeah, there is. Yeah, I was expecting something a lot smaller knowing it was just right. Wow, this is huge. This space is huge. The classroom is huge.
• 44:06
  It's really nice. It is manageable for the two of us. And we do a good job and we love it very much. But I think in general, people are lovely and wonderful and patient with us and understand it. But I think it's just always the two of us just figuring out what's next. Yeah. Cool. And you had mentioned you called it bring your own craft. I love that idea. That's really cool. It's so fun. It is really fun. We have people who bring we had someone bring their spinning wheel last month. We have people who are sewing knitting like hand quilting or sewing or braiding. Yeah. Yeah. I sometimes people just brought like a sketchbook and doodle or colored. Yeah. Book and colored. Yeah. I just want to hang out.
• 44:56
  Yeah. Like anything that's portable like anything goes. And that will be our next one is actually next week.
• 45:00
  Yes. Next next day. Nice. I think this one's coming out on Tuesday this summer. So you got time to come. Yeah.
• 45:09
  You can Yeah. Very cool. Okay. So your social medias and website the website the makery VT.com and it's the makery M A K E R Y VT.com. Make sure that's very clear. And it's the same for your Instagram the makery VT. Yes. And do you have a mailing list or any way to constantly stay in touch? Yeah. At the bottom of our website is a link to join our mailing list and we email out about once twice a month. Yeah. To let folks know about any of our upcoming classes events sales just whatever is going on here. Perfect. And once again you are at 388 Pine Street in Burlington Vermont and you're kind of in the back corner and the parking is on the right side and you have some great green signs that say the makery so you have dedicated parking which is so nice and in the city. Yeah. Thank you both so much. This is such a cool place. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you all for listening everybody. Check out the makery. Cool spot. Thanks so much for listening to the end of the show.
• 46:16
  Subscribe to Vermont Talks on your favorite podcasting platform. You can find me on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, all over the web. Contact Becca at VermontTalks.com if you'd like to be interviewed or if you know someone who should be. Thanks so much to Jason Baker for creating the show music. The views and opinions expressed by the guests are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Vermont Talks.
• 46:38
  Any content or statements provided by our guest are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, anyone or