Meet the owner and craftsman of Sidetracked Workshop, Peter Huizenga! Peter lives and words in Portland, OR and has enjoyed working with his hands since he was very young. In the summer of 2020, Peter had the opportunity to build a Tiny House on wheels, and he jumped at the chance. After completing that project, he decided to turn his budding shop into a woodworking business and create handcrafted home goods and furniture. Peter sources almost all of his wood from local area sawmills and starts many projects with dried wood slabs. “Throughout the creative process, I strive to preserve as much of the natural form and beauty of the wood as possible,” Peter explains. To accomplish this, he uses organic shapes and live edge design in his pieces. Peter works out of his 500 square foot home workshop and uses power and hand tools to create a variety of home goods including charcuterie boards, cutting boards and candle holders. He is also available for custom commissions and bulk orders. When Peter isn’t creating in his workshop, you might find him hiking, snowboarding or lounging with his Newfoundland puppy, Appa.
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Cassie Kogut started Shower Tree Soaps in 2014 with an Etsy store and a booth at holiday craft fairs. She creates vegan soap, bath and body products using essential oils and skin-loving ingredients like organic olive and coconut, sweet almond oil, shea butter and avocado oil. She does not use animal products and selects high quality ingredients to make high quality soaps.
When Cassie crafts her soaps, she can make nine bars from one loaf. One loaf of soap takes her “three hours, tons of dishes and four to six weeks to cure” but the gorgeous soaps that result from her work are worth the wait. “I’m inspired by fragrance to choose color and names,” Cassie explains. “I do a variety of techniques to make the patterns, but each soap is unique. You never know until the cut!” Cassie loves living in Oregon where it is so beautiful and green and she enjoys visiting waterfalls and Lincoln City. You can see those colors of Oregon reflected in the lovely soaps that she creates with such expertise. The artist behind Quirky Gnome, Joan Steiner, has always loved art. After retiring from her career as a public school educator, she was able to pursue her artistic interests. Living in rural McMinnville, OR, Joan buys wool for her art from the farmers she meets. With this local wool, Joan uses a needle felting process to create bears, hedgehogs, Santas, Yetis, gnomes and more. Her art started with her love of magical creatures, especially gnomes. She is also intrigued by Sasquatch and Yeti and you can find a variety of these figures in her shop. “Each creature I make speaks to me as I’m creating it and helps me define the colors, shapes and personality necessary for each individual,” Joan explains. “Many of them come with stories that I write; stories inspired by each creature as I’m needle felting.” Leopold the Love Gnome, Stick it to Cancer Gnome and Voodoo Gnome all come with these special stories. Joan’s artistry doesn’t end with needle felting! She is also interested in using found and recycled objects to create collages. Whatever the medium, it is clear that Joan has a gift for bringing life and joy to the pieces she creates. Each creature I make speaks to me as I’m creating…” I’m Belle Raponi, creator of all things magical! My mission is to keep life fun, bring smiles to faces, walls and hands! I’ve always done some sort of craft since I was little, and it’s just evolved over the years. I need a creative outlet. In 1991 I was in a serious car accident and was home bound for about 12 years. Amidst many therapies and re-learning to do many basic human functions, I started doing different types of crafts. The shadowboxes emerged from my wanting to make a good friend a birthday gift and one of the only things he enjoyed was beer, so I made a beer shadowbox. Another friend saw that and wanted one and it took off from there. I made those under the name Shadowboxables for several years, then branched out to other things as I was gifted a silhouette machine. It’s allowed me to do more creative things both in my shadowboxes and with things like wood signs. I had a craft booth at a local store for about 8 years and would often switch up my decor in there. I’d done an extensive Christmas project with a magic theme and had started making magic wands. On a whim I decided to bring some into the shop and they sold out. Twice! So, I put on my thinking cap and figured it was a good time to switch to all things magical! The store did a Saturday market that I attended that year, and found that I loved doing vendor events, so I left the store atmosphere and opted for the vendor events for the next couple years under the name “Magic & More”. When the pandemic hit and all the vendor events were cancelled, I realized the necessity of a web page and settle on “Enchantinglymagical.com” as the domain name was not taken and I loved everything about the sound of it. It takes me about a week, sometimes two to make the magic wands. Some of that time is finding the parts and pieces and stones then creating each piece, some of it is drying time, painting, wiring, last minute touch ups and then the naming and pricing process. Lots of care and love goes into each one of a kind item. The magic wands are each given special properties, or names, if you will. I sit with each one and get the feel of the energy of the piece and then gift it a name. Whoever the wielder of the wand is gets to unlock it’s full potential. I figure it’s less like the wand chooses the wizard and more like they choose each other in a symbiotic relationship. 🙂 My wands are made for mature young people (not young kids) and the young at heart as many of them are breakable. I know lots of people who collect them (including me!) They are heat sensitive so don’t leave them in direct sunlight or in a car in the summertime. The dragon eggs also take a week or so based on how many colors are in them. Once I have all the pieces painted (they are made with thumbtacks, so they are not for young people), it takes me about 4 hours for a large one. They are then sealed for an extra layer of protection! The baskets are also hand made by a friend of mine who uses the scraps from making wool blankets and rugs. They are made specifically for each size and color. I’m a lover of learning, a believer in self development, meditation and quieting the mind. I’m all about having fun in life, no matter the circumstance, especially now. I’m a believer that we get to choose how we perceive things, and our choices equal the kind of life we have. The more we look for the good stuff, the more we find it, and I like the good stuff! |
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