See update at bottom of page for current information.

Last week, I put out a call for stores, shops and galleries in PA that carry handmade crafts for sale. With thanks to the HiP community, there’s now nearly 100 listings on the Handmade in PA Google Map.

I’m ecstatic! But I know there’s many, many more than 100 galleries, shops and stores in PA selling handmade crafts. Lets make this something bigger and tap into the power of the collective. I think we can easily double or triple this list. What do you think? You wanna help? Its easy. Here’s how…

1. Think of your neighborhood brick & mortar store carrying handmade.
2. Go to the Handmade in PA Google Map.
3. Type the gallery name and/or street address, city in the search bar.

Once you find the shop or the address, you can add it to the Handmade in PA Google Map by doing the following steps:

1. Click ‘Save To…’ under the map listing (see image). You may need to make a Google account if you don’t have one already.

2. Then make sure ‘Handmade in PA – Map’ is selected from the dropdown and click ‘Save’ (see image)

3. You’re done! I’ll take it from there and add the special shopping bag icon and then sort it into the bigger HiP map listing. And it’ll look like this:

If the above is just too much work, I still love love love receiving emails about shops at nick@pacrafts.org, tweets to @handmadeinpa or comments below with name and address, city.

And by all means, rate the map and leave reviews for the shops and galleries. Go to the HiP Google Map and click ‘Rate this map‘ in the top left corner.

Thanks everyone.

Update: I’m still accepting addresses (leave them in the comments below), but due to a Google Map error the map is replicating information over each of the 100+ listings on the HiP map. I had to remove open collaboration for the time being. I’ll update everyone once its back online. Thanks for the dozens of submissions today. And cross your fingers this gets resolved or we’ll have to start over. Sigh.

I’ve been feeling particularly scattered lately. I think its a combination of spring fever and planning out trips and adventures over the summer months. Clearly I need to make a list. If you need to make some lists too then here are some styling ways to store them.

The most frequent question I get related to this blog is: Where can I find and buy handmade crafts at a brick and mortar store in my hometown?

Buying from a a brick and mortar does three things immediately:

1. You support your local community (3/50 Project for how it works)
2. You support your neighbor artist
3. It just feels good – and that’s important

To help everyone accomplish this task of handmade shopping nirvana, I’m pulling together a Google map of shops, galleries, museum stores, gift shops, consignment shops and everything in between that sell Pennsylvania-made art & craft in Pennsylvania.

I need your help. So what makes sense for inclusion on this handmade map? Only physical locations that sell Pennsylvania-made craft (no restaurants or coffee shops). Please leave your favorites below in the comments section or email me (nick@pacrafts.org) if you’re feeling particularly helpful. All I need is the name, street address and city.

If you want to help more closely on this project, shoot me an email. Setting up a Google Map is way easy and I can share it with a group of contributors. Happy shopping.

Editor’s Note: I made a few updates to this post. I added the links to the map, which wasn’t ready to show at the time of the original post.

Wanna submit your own handmade stops in a county or town or region of PA?  Just send links to nick@pacrafts.org. This one comes from Carrie Nardini with the Pittsburgh Craft Collective.

You would be hard pressed to find a more colorful group of printmakers who all reach out to engage the community. Here are four Pittsburgh stops that will appeal especially to those of you who are itching to create an indelible mark through one or few-of-a-kind prints.

1 – Pittsburgh’s Artists Image Resource – an artist-run organization that provides access to incredible resources for individuals interested in exploring printwork and the creative process. AIR offers open studio time and access to instruction. They even have family studio time available by appointment. Check their events calendar for open houses and community projects. 518 Foreland Street, (412) 321-8664.

2 – Sapling Press - created in 2003 by Lisa Krowinski who started her business while working as a graphic designer in Baltimore and moved with her family to Pittsburgh to create letterpress goods on a full time basis.  She says:

“Everything that leaves this shop is printed by yours truly, one at a time, on my Vandercook SP-15. The craft of letterpress printing is truly a labor of love, and I take great pride in owning one of the few shops in the area that focuses solely on letterpress. My line includes cards, prints, gift items, and now t-shirts. All of the paper I use for my cards and prints is 100% post consumer waste and made from recycled clothing.”

Lisa recently opened her studio to the Pittsburgh Craft Collective for a Valentine’s Day card making workshop. And there’s also an upcoming giveaway on HiP to keep on the look out for.

3 – Encyclopedia Destructica is a Pittsburgh art-zine with a collaborative process. Encyclopedia Destructica holds binding parties in their studio engaging artists, participants and the public in the production process with a DIY ethic. And, in the spirit of collaboration, the ED crew shares their skillset by providing support and resources for local artists to create their own book/zine projects. Encyclopedia Destructica is collaborating even further through a partnership with Pittsburgh tech and design firm deeplocal to create an artist-in-residency program.156 41st Street.

4 – Tugboat Printshop - The dynamic duo of Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth are Tugboat Printshop located in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. When not etching away in their workshop they travel to shows, events and exhibitions spreading their love of print wherever they go. Tugboat’s prints and process offer a glimpse into true craftsmanship as every piece begins as a hand drawn image then hand carved from block and printed through a in-house etching process. Tugboat Printshop offers customers the chance to visit their studio where you can see their process first hand, choose the perfect print and Paul will frame it for you on the spot. 298 Main Street, (412)621-0663.

Where would you go from here? What are groups stand out in the area? Share your favorite handmade printmaking stops around Pittsburgh in the comment section below.

I love to cook and bake, but I was in awe when I saw Charynn’s shop. With spring approaching that means Easter, Mother’s Day, and many people tying the knot. I know with my daughter’s current obsession, I may have to order these toppers for her birthday. I thought it was the perfect time to show you what Charynn does and the many sweet options she provides. Enjoy a day in her life!

somewhere between 7-7:30am: My personal alarm clock (my almost 2-yr old son Keaton) wakes everyone up and announces that he’s ready to go downstairs and start his day. I am not a morning person, so I stumble downstairs and hit the power button on the Keurig on the way past so my coffee can be ready ASAP.

8:00 am: I typically start my day by checking my email and responding to Etsy conversations. Being mostly an online crafter, a lot of my time is spent going over designs with customers, figuring out the colors they want, specific designs they’ve found, creating/editing listings etc.  I will pretty much make any design into a cupcake or cookie topper!  A lot of times, people want specific images from an invitation or other party decoration, so I sketch out a design idea and then email it to them for approval. This morning, I’m doing a sketch that I’m really getting into—a cake for someone’s granddaughter. She wants a rock star cake, complete with sparkles and hearts with Nick Jonas’ name on them! The grandmother is baking the cake, but asked me to help her come up with a cake design and then create all of the decorations for it. I’m so excited!

10:00 am: At this point, I have my daughter Madelyn off to preschool (apparently we’re the only district in Western PA with school-darn!) and I start gathering all of my supplies to pack orders. I write personal thank you notes, include instructions, and fill out my mailing labels. Then I start layering the toppers in tissue paper and bubble wrap. If I don’t have any orders to go out in the mail, I start coloring fondant to the colors I’ll need later while cutting out toppers.

11:30 am: Time to head to the post office and then pick up Madelyn from preschool!

3:00 pm: This is the part of my day that changes depending on the day. Today, the kids haven’t taken a very long nap, so I’m working on a few new designs in my sketchbook, and answering some more emails. If there is some sort of divine intervention and they take a longer nap, then I can usually finish an order or two.  A dozen of toppers typically requires between 45 minutes and 1 hour to complete, but complicated designs (like familiar cartoon characters) can take around 4 hours to get just right.

7:30pm: My husband has arrived home from work, so this is when I start the major part of my work day.  Tonight is a custom logo design drawn on toppers  that a fellow Pennsylvanian wants to send to new photography clients (on cupcakes, of course!) , and also some special valentine penguins and really cool custom owls that are built on lollipop sticks so they can stand up in a birthday cake. Tonight must be a night for custom orders—I really love doing them, though.  I think it’s pretty awesome when people let me be a part of a special event in their lives. Whether it’s a baby shower, 1^st birthday, wedding, or any other event, my custom designs are special to me!

12:30am: I finished my orders, and I also got caught up on a few of my favorite television shows that I’ve recorded earlier in the evening—House, Castle, and of course, Cake Boss! I check my emails and Etsy convos one last time, now I’m off to bed! Goodnight!

I was a printmaking major in college.  And because of that I am forever bonded to the process.  I can smell the inks and feel the texture of the block.  These prints caught my attention by Tugboat Printshop (Pittsburgh).

Photo credit: Nathan J. Shaulis

Pictures of Pittsburgh’s first all glass public art installation created by Jill Reynolds and Dan Spitzer. On view at 11 Stanwix, Downtown Pittsburgh.  Discovered through Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Wanna submit your own 5 handmade stops in a county or town or region of PA?  Just send five links to nick@pacrafts.org. This one comes from Carrie Nardini with the Pittsburgh Craft Collective.

Pittsburgh is for crafters – and we have a long history of arts education with hubs for learning craft from the masters. These five stops highlight some opportunities for making and selling, learning and experiencing craft hands-on. Pittsburgher’s are a proud people and we can’t wait to share more with you in upcoming weeks.

1 – Centrally located in Pittsburgh’s Strip District you can find the Society for Contemporary Craft. The SCC offers exhibitions, a juried gallery shop filled with beautifully handcrafted items, classes in their studios and short “Try It” workshops where master artisans provide a taste of their craft in one session enabling participants walk away with a final product. The SCC focuses on cutting edge exhibitions and non-mainstream art. Walk right into their gallery while shopping in the “Strip”.

2 – In Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, founded in 1945, sits on the corner of Mellon Park. The PCA offers classes in a variety of medium including ceramics, photography, metals, and printmaking, holds a summer camp for kids, and features a gallery and juried shop among some of the buildings on their campus.

3 – Outside of the city about an hour away sits an almost hidden gem resource called Touchstone Center for Crafts.  This unique organization offers week and weekend long intensive classes for beginners and artists seeing to fine tune their skill set. The Touchstone experience includes camping on site or in dorms during each of the three seasons of instruction offered. If you didn’t have a chance to go to arts camp as a child, or want to relive the experience as an adult, the Appalachian Mountain retreat boasts 150 wooded acres with only 25 developed acres of the property. They even offer kids classes!

4 – Now that you’ve learned how to make your own craft, where would you sell it in the Pittsburgh area? Two hot spots include the new retail outlet Wildcard in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood which has been enjoying an explosion in small locally owned business development, especially on its walkable mainstreet, Butler St. where Wildcard boasts all handmade wares with a focus on items produced by local artists and makers.

5 – And, the I Made It! Market, Pittsburgh’s nomadic indie crafts marketplace pops up 6-8 times a year throughout the city. The market will soon be celebrating it’s third birthday having held close to 20 events. I Made It! Market partners with arts, community and non-profit organizations to raise funds and awareness for the work they do to impact our communities as well as providing a venue for artists to sell their wares and expand their networks.  I Made It! Mine on Saturday, February 6 from 12 – 5pm at the Union Project in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park neighborhood

These five stops in Pittsburgh are just a taste of what the region offers for makers and lovers of all things handmade. We are looking forward to sharing more with you in weeks to come!

I’m not one to prepare for Valentines Day- but hey these might change my ways [love at first sight].

They were created by Mundania Horvath of RE:constructing Ideas. She enjoys taking apart found objects, images from the past and typography to construct art that evokes a genuine reaction.

She is definitely one to follow, be a fan and definitely give her a “hip, hip hooray.” These are fantastic!

Kate, along with her husband, bring together farm, food and design at The Steel Fork. They also design and create sculptural metalworks using recycled farm machinery – Gatski Metal. Kate is also the mother of two busy little children.

three gifts that were under my Christmas tree

brown leather journal by green trike press

original watermedia painting ‘marilla’ by sean huntington

casserole by mike yoder

all handmade in Pennsylvania and loved…does my guy have good taste or what?