Meet the Maker: Portland Syrups

In 2012, before mocktails became trendy, Portland Syrups co-founders Chris Onstad and Dan McLaughlin stopped drinking. Chris was working as a food critic at the time, dining at restaurants on both coasts as well as abroad and noticed there were very few non-alcoholic drink options outside of coffee, tea, or soda. With that in mind, Chris and Dan set out to create a beverage that could rival a nice cocktail minus the booze; a high-quality mocktail that could be served at either a Michelin star restaurant or your favorite local spot.

More than a decade later, the Portland Syrups team have developed three dozen flavors – from classics like Mojito and Margarita to more unique takes such as Hibiscus Cardamom and Mango Habañero. The team takes time with research and development, sometimes going through up to seven different iterations for a single flavor. The syrups are all brewed, bottled, labeled, boxed, and shipped from their facility in Southeast Oregon. The brewing process begins with sifting, sorting, and weighing whole herbs, spices, vegetables, and fruits. These ingredients are sourced locally and organic as much as possible. The ingredients are then chopped, crushed, juiced, or toasted and placed in large brewing bags. The bags are added to 10-100 gallon vats full of filtered water and left to steep for a minimum of one hour, but often much longer. Once steeped, the bag is removed and cane sugar is added. This mixture is then brought to a specific temperature and hot-filled into their glass bottles. Once cooled the bottles are labeled. The end result is a concentrated syrup ready for you to add soda water to make it a mocktail or alcohol for an easy at home cocktail. 

To help reduce the overall footprint of the beverage industry, the team at Portland Syrups made a conscious choice to bottle in glass and to create concentrates rather than ready-to-drink single serve packages. The added bonus is that you can adjust the flavor level in your drinks and get more bang for your buck. Cheers!

Meet the Maker: Thistle Valley Farm & Apothecary

Mel Garcia was inspired to start Thistle Valley Farm & Apothecary by a chemistry course and a dive into lower-waste and less impact living. “As I began to farm and garden I found great inspiration connecting the process back to the soil, land, and seasons.” Mel uses the cold-process method to create Thistle Valley soaps. This process involves heating oils and adding a base, sodium hydroxide, which she does in her workshop and sets to cure for about 4 weeks. To create face masks, Mel dries and processes flowers on the farm. Once they’re dried, the flowers are added to a clay base that Mel sources from Mountain Rose Herbs in Oregon. All the flowers and herbs added into the products are grown in Mel’s garden plots and are also harvested, dried, and processed by hand.⁠

Mel often gets inspiration for her products from walking around and seeing a plant she’d like to use. From there, it can take as short as a month to produce a product and get it out, or if she’s creating a new recipe, trials and testing can last about six months. Mel’s favorite part of the process is also the most challenging part, growing and tending the plants. “It's a balance of challenge, reward, feedback and learning,” she says.

All of the soaps created by Thistle Valley are readily biodegradable and any packaging is minimal and compostable. We love Mel’s commitment to creating plant-based goods that work well and have little impact on the environment. You can find Thistle Valley Farm & Apothecary’s solid dish soap and face masks in store and online.

Meet the Maker: Mike Bencze

“I’ve been into drawing places that have left a deep impression on me and that I’m grateful to have experienced,” shares Santa Cruz artist Mike Bencze. “It’s been a nice way for me to process and relive past adventures differently than just looking at old photos.” Mike began drawing as a kid, attempting to sketch his favorite comics and video game characters. While he didn’t draw as much for fun in high school, those early years set him on the path of doing something in the visual arts. Throughout college Mike drew more and even published a couple of short-lived weekly comic strips with friends.⁠
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Mike is still very much aesthetically inspired by comics and illustrators in that orbit. His process sometimes starts with a thumbnail or two, but usually jumps straight into a sketch with loose pencils, referring to pictures he’s taken for key details and a sense of scale. After he’s refined the sketch a bit, he’ll ink all the linework and scan it in to work on digitally. Once in Photoshop, he removes the pencil work and creates a flats layer, “basically just solid color fills of the linework to make color selection and editing easier later on.” He then works on the final coloring, bringing in highlights, shadows, and textures until it feels done. All in all, Mike says it probably takes about 8-12 hours of work for each piece.⁠
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Mike’s hiking series is a great way to relive one of your own adventures. Whether it’s faraway like Joshua Tree or Thousand Island Lake, or close to home like Henry Cowell or Wilder Ranch, his attention to detail will spark all the amazing memories spent there. Check out Mike’s collection of prints, postcards, greeting cards, and stickers in store and online.

Meet the Maker: Big Sur Salts

In 2015, while watching the surf break against rocks and contemplating a move to LA, Carlo Overhulser got nailed by a wave and decided to take some of the seawater home in a bottle. “I like to remember things by bringing trinkets home,” he says. About two months later, he found the bottle tipped over with something in it. “For some odd reason I decided to taste it, and it was the best salt I’ve ever had in my life.” He returned to Big Sur, and then the Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz to collect water, let it evaporate and taste test to find the best tasting region. After passing samples out to chefs and seeing the demand, the idea for Big Sur Salts was crystallized. ⁠
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Carlo studied how salt naturally forms on the cliffs of Big Sur and wanted to recreate that process in a kitchen. “Once I started to learn about ocean water,” he explains, “I learned there are a variety of things you do not want in your food.” Microplastics being one of them. Carlo heavily filters the water he collects, giving him the cleanest salt possible. The water is then evaporated over the course of three months, leaving behind a tasty layer of crystals. For his flake salt, Carlo uses propane to speed up the process down to a day. It can take a few months to lock down flavor ideas, using only organic, non-GMO farm products. Carlo makes sure the flavors, "truly represent the aroma, color, and taste of Big Sur.” He’ll have a few friends and maybe one or two chefs try it before releasing it. ⁠
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Carlo mostly works alone until summer harvesting season, when he hires a few people to help with production. He emphasizes that while Big Sur Salts has grown leaps and bounds “the process will always remain the same. The same filtration process leads to the same results.” Carlo’s commitment to taste and quality is clear in each flavor of Big Sur Salts. Grab one or two next time you’re in the store or shopping online to easily step up your flavor game! ⁠

Meet the Maker: Sara Pilchman Ceramics

“A huge part of pottery is learning to accept the joys and heartbreak of the art blamelessly,” reflects potter Sara Pilchman, “which translates well outside of the studio.” Ceramics started as a hobby Sara learned at camp and then rediscovered at Idyllwild Arts Academy. After continuing her arts education at Juniata College, she moved back to Long Beach and began teaching ceramics. Her business was the result of needing to offload all the pots she was making, and has evolved to include the creation of the much beloved Tiny Pots collection.

Sara and her team Teresita, Dana, Annabelle, and Skylar work on a weekly schedule that culminates in one big firing each week. The process begins with Sara throwing on the wheel and making 100 to 400 pots per session. This is in fact Sara’s favorite part of the process, as she thinks about the Buddhist idea of having a mirror-mind while she works, “Taking in and experiencing the world completely, while being, at the same time, able to let it flow back out unaffected.” The pots spend a day or two drying to a leather-hard state, which is when Sara’s assistants refine them. Once fully dry, the pots are driven to Angels Gate Cultural Center to be fired in an electric kiln where they harden and become less fragile, yet still porous enough to accept glaze. “Glaze chemistry is where I get to be most creative,” Sara shares. “With hundreds of pieces I can test on, I'm able to find and tweak different glaze recipes and see which elements will affect the colors of my pots in different ways.” On Fridays and Saturdays, her team glazes 800-1,000 pots while Sara loads the gas kiln. The big firing takes place Monday morning. Over the course of 10-12 hours the kiln gets to about 2,380 degrees, intermittently cutting off the oxygen to achieve the rich colors in both the glaze and clay. All in all, it takes Sara and her team about 1-1.5 weeks to complete a batch of pots.

Sara’s passion for ceramics shows in each of her Tiny Pots and her ability to create unique glazes and one-of-a-kind pots means every time you come into the shop to check them out, you’ll find a new one to love!

Meet the Maker: Seven Ravens Studio

The work of Seven Ravens Studio focuses on threatened, endangered, and charismatic species in California. Inspired by the natural world, Meegan Painter enjoys telling ecological stories with her work and helping people make connections between organisms in a visual way. The name Seven Ravens Studio emerges from Meegan being “the 7th generation of my family to live in the collection of ecosystems we call California. Though I claim ownership of no part of it, California is everything I am.” Ravens are a constant in Meegan’s life, seeming to show up wherever she is; a testament to their adaptability in the face of human pressures. Ravens are also smart, creative, and curious, all qualities Meegan strives for.

Coming from a family of artists, Meegan was encouraged from a young age to pursue art. She took her first formal class at the age of 7 or 8 and has been drawing ever since. Meegan’s process usually starts with an experience, such as visiting a national park or helping out with a project like butterfly surveys. She then digs into research to learn more about how a particular organism fits into the bigger picture of its habitat and ecosystem by reading scientific journals, looking at observations on websites like iNaturalist or CalFlora, and talking to experts. Once she’s narrowed down the species she wants to include in a particular piece, she sketches them to figure out how they’ll fit into the composition. For this, she uses a sketchbook along with blue and graphite pencils and will occasionally do color studies with watercolor or colored pencils. Once the composition has been finalized, she makes one final drawing and transfers it onto a full sheet of watercolor paper using tracing paper. Meegan tweaks things a bit one last time at this stage, rearranging the composition, refining the drawings, or adding/removing elements. She then inks the whole thing and adds watercolor. The watercolor phase is her favorite part of the process. “I love working on capturing accurate colors and creating a compelling finished piece,” she says. “It's so satisfying to see if all come together.” Meegan estimates that with the time it takes to research, she spends about 80 to 100 hours on each piece.

With her collection of prints, tea towels, and totes you can see and learn how the various organisms in ecosystems work together and how we can better coexist with the natural world. “I like telling ecological stories with my work and helping people make connections between organisms in a visual way.” Meegan is currently working with Heyday Books on a book featuring her writing and illustrations; she hopes to share some new work from that project later this year. We carry Seven Ravens prints, totes, dishtowels, and stickers.

Meet the Maker: Megan Sofia Pottery

Megan Hinton took her first pottery class as a sophomore in high school where she learned the basics of hand-building and had her first attempt throwing pottery on the wheel. It wasn’t until her first year at Cabrillo College that she learned to throw and fell in love with pottery and the collaborative community that came with her class. Over several semesters, she developed a style that she continues to incorporate into her work under the name Megan Sofia Pottery. She continues to experiment with new designs and finds inspiration everywhere, but as a lover of home decor she gets most of her inspiration from textiles, patterns, and the experience of being in curated spaces. 

Megan’s process includes three major steps: throwing, trimming, and firing. She uses speckled laguna clay, a Skutt wheel to throw on, various tools to shape, coyote glaze, and a Skutt glaze kiln for firing. Accidents can happen during any one of the steps in her process, like getting an air bubble, trimming too thin, s-cracks, or a piece blowing up in the kiln. Megan plans for these accidents by throwing more pots than she needs and not getting too attached or emotionally invested in her work. Even then, Megan says that the hardest part of creating is when she pulls something out of the glaze kiln and there are uncorrectable errors, “It feels like being five feet from the finish line but being asked to start the race over again.”  She produces in batches of 20 and estimates that with firing time included, 4 to 6 solid days of work goes into each batch.  

Megan often asks herself, “What feeling would I want someone to have while drinking out of one of my mugs?”; she hopes that you feel a sense of coziness and delight and that her pieces compliment your kitchen, dining room, and bedside table. “There is no better feeling than knowing that hundreds of people have a mug that I have created in their cabinet that they use for their morning cup of coffee.” You can find a variety of Megan’s mugs, vases, and spoon rests here at the shop. 

Meet the Maker: Marley & Alfie

It all started with a horseshoe that almost got away. Cindy Tung, the creative force behind Marley & Alfie, found a horseshoe at an estate sale, but the owner didn’t want to part with it. “I could tell he was attached,” she recounts. When asked what she would do with it Cindy told the owner that horseshoes are known for good luck and so she planned to hang it up somewhere, possibly adding a little color to it. It took 15 minutes of persuasion, but the horseshoe went home with her and brought with it a whole new career path. Seven years after that fateful purchase Cindy now purchases horseshoes from a farrier and painstakingly wraps each with an intricate combination of acrylic yarn. “I draw inspiration from nature, travels and textiles. South American and Moroccan art has had a huge impact on many of my pieces.” Cindy produces hundreds of horseshoes a year for customers and wholesale accounts like Home/Work. “I put a lot of time and effort in all my pieces and quality control is very important to me. I love that all my pieces are seamless front and back. I appreciate being able to be a part of other people’s spaces and if my horseshoes can bring joy to someone’s day, my job is complete.” ⁠Check out Cindy’s collection at Home/Work.

Meet the Maker: In Situ Jewelry

Ever since she was a young girl Suzanne has made things with her hands, “I loved the creative outlet of painting, drawing and beading,” she says. Five years ago Suzanne made herself a pair of hammered metal earrings. Once friends saw them they ordered pairs for themselves, “so I just kept making more,” and In Situ was born. The brand’s name is Latin, meaning, “in place,” referring to something that exists in its natural or original place. “What I take from it is authenticity and being true to yourself. Being present in this very moment, with the confidence and trust that everything is in its place.”⁠

Suzanne uses a variety of metals, from sterling silver to 14k gold fill. She also sources special stones and shells to incorporate into some of her earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Most of her pieces begin as sheet metal or wire, which the Santa Cruz maker then hand cuts, forms, hammers, and finishes. “I am captivated by the process of transforming raw metals and stones into beautiful pieces to be worn and loved.” Suzanne’s favorite part of making jewelry is the design process. “I love dreaming up new designs and working out the kinks to perfect them. I also love that I have been able to connect with so many amazing and inspiring individuals over the years. That’s honestly one of the best things about this business.” ⁠Check out Suzanne’s collection at Home/Work.