Next Saturday, the 11th, after all the hullabaloo from July 4th wanes, the Make Piece crew (students, grads, staff, Board Members, etc) will be gathering for the annual Make Piece Design Party! The Executive Director, Maureen Ward, is graciously opening her home for an afternoon of delicious food, friends, and creativity. The goal of the party will be to have all of our talented artisans collaborate and agree upon a “Make Piece line” to be used in our upcoming (and exciting!) new initiatives, including producing our very first catalogue. Producing a catalogue is a big step for Make Piece as we have always encouraged each of the artisans create one-of-a-kind pieces using Make Piece materials to sell online or at shows under the Make Piece name. We absolutely love the diversity and originality of the pieces, and will still ask the women to produce such incredible work, but we’d also like to start a Make Piece “look” that we can market to an extended network of people. By producing a catalogue, we are also ensuring more work for our graduates as the pieces will be produced on a made-to-order basis.
At the party the graduates and students will be scheming with our recently acquired goodies along with tried-and-true favorites including: horn, bone, wood, obsidian, pyrite, pearls, Swarovski crystal, and the list goes on… Some hints on what we’re thinking: longer sterling chain pieces and chunkier earthy beauties, along with a line aimed at the young professional crowd with a reduced price point.
The artisans are looking forward to gathering as most of them have become good friends through the course and over the years that have followed. Not to worry, this blog will certainly leak a few of the secrets and pictures from next weekend’s pow wow! In the meantime, have a Happy July 4th!
