Small Business Saturday is Upon us!
It is such a treat to highlight Handmade Toledo and their online shopping Maker’s Mart event. Officially kicking off this Saturday (and running through December 24th), shoppers will be able to visit Handmade Toledo’s website, and get a jump on their holiday shopping! Handmade Toledo is a locally owned shop that sells local and regional artists’ items, including prints, apparel, totes, bags, drinkware, buttons, notebooks, jewelry, candles, and patches just to name a few.
Under normal circumstances, Handmade hosts an annual Holiday Maker’s Mart in their shop that lasts a couple days in which local and regional artists have been selected to showcase their items for local shoppers. This year due to COVID-19, it will all be done online. When you go to their site, you can click on the “+ Maker’s Mart” link where it will take you to a page with 50+ artists and their items. Handmade has made it very convenient for shoppers to do one single checkout. As far as shipping, you can opt to pick up in shop or do curbside delivery, both in which they’ll get your order together and have it ready, if not that day, then within a day or two. If you opt to have it mailed, it usually goes out within a few days via USPS.
Since opening its doors in 2014 at 1717 Adams St. in Uptown Toledo, Handmade Toledo has proven to be an awesome addition to Toledo, specifically for artists, those curious in dabbling in the arts, and of course, shoppers. At 10,000 square feet of space, Handmade Toledo utilizes this effectively for selling local and regional artists’ items throughout the year, offering workshops (including crochet, watercolors, charcoal drawing, dancing, and embroidery among other activities) and allowing people to rent space (up to 5,000 square feet) for events.
The idea to bring this combination under one roof can be credited to owner Jessica Crossfield. A maker herself, prior to creating Handmade Toledo, Jessica ran a business called Oh Sew Betty. She started attending craft shows and art fairs to sell her inventory which meant traveling a lot around the Midwest. Through these shows, she began running into a lot of other Toledo artists, craft and DIY makers and identified that Toledo needed to be holding their own Indie Craft Art Show. With that said, the first Maker’s Mart occurred in November of 2012 in the same space they are currently in. During that first show, they featured 40 vendors and were expecting a turnout of 500 guests – the event drew 2,000!
That was all the validation Jessica needed from the Toledo community that they were indeed supportive of the market. For the next two years, she continued to put on these events with eventually being able to lease out the space in 2014, creating the shop to fully become what it is today. Handmade Toledo keeps an inventory of fun and fresh items by allowing artists to submit an online application for consideration to sell their items in the shop, which is always exciting for Jessica and her team to discover new artists! One of the most exciting philosophies Jessica has held for the shop since the beginning is to not house only one specific type of art, but rather to be all inclusive and provide a variety. As Jessica maintains, all the arts, whether fine art, craft, or pottery, have more in common than not. As she eloquently puts it, “An artist’s art is their craft.”
Handmade Toledo is a shop that all Toledoans should be proud of for what it’s done for the community in helping our art scene thrive. Personally, I’m thankful I have a unique shop that not only can help support local business and artists, but they make me look cool to the people I find awesome gifts for! You can follow Handmade Toledo on Facebook to get full details on the Maker’s Mart event, their shop, and upcoming events. Shop Proud, Shop Local!
