604. Yellow Door Art Market – February 4, 2023 – Berkley, MI

Shop made-in-Michigan at Yellow Door Art Market! The Berkley-based shop champions local makers, featuring goods ranging from clocks to candles, shirts to soaps, magnets to art prints.

Yellow Door offers a great selection of Michigan- and Detroit-focused fare and many fun and funny items (one example: cutting boards emblazoned with sayings such as “Wine makes football more interesting” and “I like pig butts and cannot lie”). There’s handmade jewelry; essential-oil-infused beard oils; stickers emblazoned with inspirational sayings; and candles that smell like Michigan things (by Wyandotte-based candle brand JKM Soy Candles). It’s a treasure trove of delights: the perfect place to purchase a gift (for a loved one or yourself). Treat yourself to a dose of whimsy and step inside Yellow Door!

3141 W. 12 Mile Rd.

Berkley, MI 48072

www.yellowdoorartmarket.com

598. Pivot Maker Collective – December 30, 2022 – Detroit, MI

Snag yourself a statement find at Pivot Maker Collective! Support local artists in the process.

Pivot is an art gallery and shop in Detroit’s Cass Corridor neighborhood; it opened at the end of last year. I stumbled across it during a stroll through the neighborhood, after visits to Bon Bon Bon and Nora.

I wasn’t planning on buying anything when I stopped in; I was simply intrigued by a storefront I’d never seen before. But then I spotted this necklace. It was comprised of gleaming copper circles, linked together to form a triangle. It was gorgeous!

The artist who crafted the striking statement piece, Danny K. Dunbar, was working the shop that day. The copper circles were pennies, Danny explained. That was why Danny had dubbed the piece “changemail” – a punny name reflecting how the shiny, reworked pennies resembled chainmail.

Pivot held more of Danny’s beautiful pieces, plus work by other local artists: paintings and other wall art; candles; clothing; and more. Danny, the originator and organizer of Pivot, explained that the space would also act as a gallery, spotlighting different artists’ work. The first artist showcase happened in February, as Pivot hosted works of painter, sculptor, designer, and curator Uta Brauser.

I don’t know about you, but artist showcases are sounding like the exact antidote I need to cure my end-of-winter doldrums. That’s why I’m following Pivot’s Instagram account (pivotdetroit) so I’m up on the shop’s happenings!

4160 Cass Ave., Ste. B.

Detroit, MI 48201

536. Inspire Marketplace – December 4, 2021 – Clinton Township, MI

Inspire Marketplace is a cornucopia of locally made, handcrafted goodies!

The shop based at The Mall at Partridge Creek is bursting with the fruits of artisan creativity: mugs and shirts and artwork and candles, hats and bags and barbecue sauce. Much of the work is handmade, and much of it is Michigan-centric.

There are coasters featuring Detroit landmarks, preserves made from Michigan cherries, wine bottles filled with twinkle lights, works of art lauding lake culture, and so much more.

Buying locally made, handmade holiday gifts from a locally owned business – how could you go wrong?

17420 Hall Rd.

(Inside The Mall at Partridge Creek)

Clinton Twp., MI 48038

(With an additional location at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi)

www.inspire-marketplace.art

416. POST – June 30, 2019 – Detroit, MI

Here’s a post I’m especially excited about: my post on POST! Yes, I’m totally being punny here, but truly, this place is AH-MAZING!

Housed in a former U.S. Post Office building on the East Side of Detroit, POST is a retail space selling handmade goods made by independently-owned companies and individual artisans – about 100 in total, according to its website. The shop is owned by Mutual Adoration, a local woodworking business that makes custom furniture and other goodies constructed from reclaimed wood.

Approaching POST on a sunny Sunday afternoon in late June, I dug its red-and-white façade, which maintains old-timey post-office vibes.

I got especially excited when I entered POST’s interior, because WOW! does this place have a lot of beautiful pieces for sale! There are picture frames and pottery and wall art and candles, greeting cards and scented soap and artfully arranged bouquets . . . POST is a haven for handcrafted delights.

It’s also a haven for makers to practice the hand-crafting themselves – because POST is not simply a store; it’s also a workshop space. Every month, it hosts a plethora of classes on topics such as screen printing, jewelry making, weaving, and floral arrangement.

I find scrolling through POST’s online schedule of classes addictively inspiring – I want to try ALL the things!

But the thing I decided I wanted to try most this summer was a woodworking class where we made wall art from scraps of reclaimed wood that we painted and stained and arranged inside a frame. That was the main reason I was visiting POST on this Sunday afternoon.

The class was a blast. It lasted about four hours and was taught by the owners of Mutual Adoration, Clare and Wayne. They were really kind, patient instructors. Moreover, they served a lovely spread of snacks: fruit and hummus and chips and cake – plus wine that could be enjoyed after the use of the heavy machinery.

There were about 12 of us class participants sifting through piles of reclaimed wood of different sizes and varieties, then painting and staining and cutting and arranging and gluing and trimming and nailing . . .. We got to use power tools such as a mechanized saw and a nail gun to aid in the making, and we got to enjoy the company of each other, us like-minded souls who find crafting to be the cat’s pajamas.

I left POST on that afternoon with a singular piece of wall art made from scraps of walnut and other striking wood, some painted purple or orange or sage-green or maroon, others stained to a deeper patina or left exactly as I’d found them. The piece hangs on a wall in my home office, a reminder of the thrill of creating that I channeled during the workshop. Thank you, POST, for cultivating this space that champions creativity and indie entrepreneurs!

Worth noting: POST is closed Sundays through Tuesdays, except to participants of classes being held on those days; workshop attendees are offered the ability to browse and make purchases pre- and post-session.

14500 Kercheval Ave.

Detroit, MI 48215

www.mutualadoration.com/pages/post-detroit

184. DeVries & Co. – August 21, 2016 – Detroit, MI

Hello, all! Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having  a lovely week and getting some exploring in. I try to remind myself that even weeknights can be special, a chance to discover somewhere new.

This past weekend, I was down in the D for a Tigers game. One of my friends works in the Crain’s office complex, which is amazing, because it means we have its free, gated parking at our disposal. Her work is about a three quarter of a mile’s walk from Comerica Park; it honestly doesn’t feel even that far. I tell her she can never stop working there!

Because of our parking spot’s close proximity to Eastern Market, we decided to meet our other friends who were attending the game with us there. Before pre-game lunch and drinks, we stumbled across a charming market called DeVries and Co. It’s been around since 1887, providing gourmet cheeses, meats, jams, pickles, and other items, many of which are locally made. One more gem in the city!

2468 Market St.

Detroit, MI 48207

135. Eastern Market’s Sunday Street Market – August 16, 2015 – Detroit, MI

So I can’t believe it, but it’s been almost a month since I visited Eastern Market’s Sunday Street Market! I vow that I will be more regularly updating this blog going forward! Fall is here now, and fall is a great time for writing and introspection – and of course, exploring! And one place you can still enjoy exploring through October is the Sunday Street Market. It’s different from the traditional Saturday market, which is more focused on produce – and which I hope to hit this fall. I haven’t visited the Saturday Eastern Market since childhood, about 20 years ago, and don’t remember much at all about it, so I figure this is a good place to declare that a statue of limitations has expired and that it’s indeed a new place for me! The Sunday Street Market, on the other hand, is packed full of vendors – a few selling produce, but it’s more focused on artisans and their various wares: jewelry; Detroit-centric T-shirts and artwork; hats; vintage clothes; gourmet popcorn – you name it! I bought a wrap dress made from recycled saris that can be wrapped in a zillion different ways. And when you are done shopping, you can grab lunch from one of the multiple food trucks clustered around the area. A perfect Sunday-afternoon-in-the-D destination.

2934 Russell St.

Detroit, MI 48207

Held every Sunday, 10 a.m. through 4 p.m., from June to October

http://www.easternmarket.com/attend/sunday-street-market