Local artists collaborate to create an eco-friendly boutique

Make Good blends creativity and sustainability through handmade goods

By Ashley Garman

Walk into the shop at 2207 Fern St. and the vintage-blue walls and handmade jewelry seem right at home in the quaint artsy community of South Park. The Make Good boutique’s retro chic vibe and eco-friendly focus seem a natural fit for the neighborhood, despite opening its doors only a few months ago.
Make Good has an array of products made from hand by local artists, designers and crafters. Journals fashioned from abandoned library books, handbags sewn from plastic Starbucks labels, and original paintings fill the store.
There are about a dozen artists who contribute their artwork and time to the store, and each has their own distinctive style. This mix of talents and focus creates an eclectic mix of art and knick-knacks.
“It’s a place that local artists can find themselves and their own audience,” said Sophia Hall, the owner of Make Good. “Somehow it works.”
From Lindy Ivey’s portraits inspired by faces of people she encounters every day in her part-time job at a local market to Lizette Greco, who makes art based on drawings and ideas from her children, everything in the shop has a unique story behind it.
“It’s like Anthropologie, but homemade. Everything’s one-of-a-kind, and that’s what I love about it,” said Kelsey Mosca, a local resident who attended Make Good’s grand opening.
In addition to unique handmade goods, the store also focuses on being sustainable.
“I know it’s a cliché, almost, that it’s a green shop,” said Hall, explaining that being eco-friendly isn’t about being trendy to her. It’s been a part of her life since childhood, she said.
Hall’s signature product is a handbag made from Starbucks packaging. When her recycler told her that the plastic labels were not recyclable and were being put into a landfill instead, she began to save the packaging and make handbags and wallets from them.
According to Hall, products such as the Starbucks bags are not only sustainable, but also provide an opportunity to educate potential customers on the importance of recycling and reusing.
Emily Grace Goodrich, one of the artists at the shop, uses colorful grocery bags to make decorations for headbands, hair clips and jewelry by using a ventilated-iron technique on the plastic and then cutting and sewing it.
Through Make Good, Hall hopes to inspire other local artists, and merge that creativity with recycling.
“Everybody’s creative, it’s just with what? Pulling that out of people is important,” said Hall.
Hall uses her intuition in deciding what products to sell in the store, and it was her intuition that led her to open the boutique.
“If you had asked me six weeks ago, I never would have thought I’d be owning my own business,” said Hall.
Make Good opened on May 1, but Hall and the other artists have been in the area for awhile.
In winter 2008, a group of about eight local crafters and artists worked together under the name Handmade Revolution, holding trunk shows and craft fairs at their houses. Hall’s home became the main location for quarterly shows and quickly became known by clientele as “the yellow house on B.” The Revolution’s most recent show was in February; about 500 people came out despite the rain falling that day, according to Hall.
Between the art shows, Hall and the other Revolution members sold their handmade goods at a local ice cream parlor, the Daily Scoop. They soon moved to Citizen Video, an independent film store less than a block away. At Citizen Video, the group gradually acquired a corner in which to set up their merchandise.
When the video store decided to close its doors, the Revolution artists were again looking for a place to stay.
“Should we just get our own space, maybe?” Hall remembers asking.
Soon, Hall was signing a lease for the same location where Citizen Video had been, and transformed it into a trendy handmade goods boutique.
The store relied mostly on social media as well as word-of-mouth from existing customers to spread the word about the new business. This method seemed to work for the store. The May 28 grand opening had a large turnout.
“I feel very welcomed and embraced by the community,” said Hall. Looking forward, she said she plans to stay flexible. “I’m open to what this might become.”
Make Good is open Wednesday and Thursday noon to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 9 p.m., Sunday noon to 7 p.m., and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. For more information, call (619) 653- 4600 or visit themakegood.com.