Browsing Tag

This Just In-spiration

Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet Gardening Gurus Nathan Littlewood & Robert Elliott

May 25, 2018

Robert, left, and Nathan, pictured here with the fruits of their labor

Apartment-dwellers—especially those of us in large cities—know all too well how difficult it can be to bring a little bit of greenery indoors. After all, plants are mysterious creatures that seem to get mad when you care about ’em too much, and starting something from seed can be a real rollercoaster. Can you tell I’m a helicopter parent to my houseplants? Anyway, growing your own stuff with minimal space is now much, much easier thanks to Nathan Littlewood and Robert Elliott, creators of our foolproof Bottle Stopper Garden Kit. With only a wine bottle, seeds, and Nathan and Robert’s expertly engineered “smart soil” capsules, you’ll be harvesting buckets of sweet basil, purple basil, and lemon balm in no time. (OK, maybe not buckets, but trust us: you’ll be seeing a lot of happy little leaves.)

After meeting at NYC’s own Columbia University back in 2016, Nathan and Robert bonded over shared interests in food and sustainability—and when they started a business together, they, like us, vowed to use it as a force for good. To find out what that means to them, we spoke with Nathan and Robert about their product, the ethos behind it, and cool stuff they’ve got lying around in the office… like, you know, a betta fish. Read on for more.

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Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet Master of Babysuits (& Puns) Maggie Kleinfeld

May 8, 2018

Maggie Kleinfeld | UncommonGoods

We love many things here at UncommonGoods. As you may have learned from our interview with artist Meghan Cochran, do(ugh)nuts rank pretty high on the list. A close second? Babysuits. Lucky for us, Brooklyn-based designer Maggie Kleinfeld combined the two with a garment that tells it like it is—because sometimes, you simply donut care. But if you’re feeling more affectionate than sassy, don’t worry: she’s got a babysuit for you and yours, too.

Maggie’s I Donut Care & Rainbow Love Babysuits | UncommonGoods

We adored Maggie’s designs as soon as we saw them, and it certainly didn’t hurt to learn that she crafts her appliqués from eco-friendly felt. (It’s made of recycled bottles, which we think is pretty cool.) So we asked her a handful of questions about her inspiration, sustainability, and the ever-elusive “typical day” in an entrepreneurial maker’s life. Read on for more.

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Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration:
Meet Artist & Doughnut Aficionado Meghan Cochran

April 16, 2018

There’s little we love more than snacking in the Marketing department here at UncommonGoods. We even have a weekly rotating snack schedule, which means that Wednesdays are everyone’s favorite days—days to gorge on bagels, cookies, fruit, or soft pretzels with a variety of vegan dipping sauces. (Ugh, this content creator’s mouth is watering now.) It was only natural, then, that we’d all go positively loco for artist Meghan Cochran’s Doughnut Art Portraits, which celebrate twelve different types of everyone’s favorite pastry. Decked out with frosting, sprinkles, and glazes of all types, they look good enough to gobble up. And yes, if you’re wondering, that is a French cruller.

We spoke with Meghan about her background, her career as an artist, and her inspiration—that is, her two daughters, Eva and Elle. Read on for our Q&A session with Meghan, complete with sneak peeks at new paintings and pictures of smiling kiddos with real live doughnuts. Hungry yet? Don’t worry; you will be soon.

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Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet Unicorn Cupcake Entrepreneur Jillian Donaldson

April 3, 2018

Photo by Inspired Life Photography

It doesn’t take too much to please us here at UncommonGoods. Give us a creative handmade good or a heartwarming story and we’re more or less set. Throw in a unicorn or a sweet treat and we’re even better than set—we’re stoked. So perhaps it’s little wonder that pastry chef Jillian Donaldson and her Unicorn Cupcake Kit so readily caught our attention. I mean, vegan-friendly fondant alicorns, anyone? It’s hard to say no to something so cute… and so tasty.

Unicorn Cupcake Kit | UncommonGoods

If Jillian’s—a.k.a. Jill’s—sparkling sprinkles haven’t enchanted you yet, we don’t know what will.  If they have, sit tight, ’cause you’re in for a treat. For the latest installment in our This Just In-spiration series, we spoke with Jill about family, the joy of baking, and sturdy mixers that double as special trinkets. Read on for more. Continue Reading…

Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet Jennifer Zamudio

March 13, 2018

When asked to envision an intriguing kitchen item, your first thought might not be of a sponge. You could say that Jennifer Zamudio is out to change that, but then again, she doesn’t really make sponges. Her Reusable Dish Scrubbers are much more than that: super-cute squares of hand-crocheted nylon tulle inspired the handiwork of her grandmother, Dot. They’re also extra easy to clean, which is something we’d never say about a sponge. Yick.

Reusable Dish Scrubbers | UncommonGoods

We heard tell that Jennifer’s scrubbies had a good story, so we thought it only fitting to reach out to her about nabbing a spot in our This Just In-spiration series, where we chat with artists new to the Uncommon family. Read on for more on Jennifer’s love of handmade napkins, scrubbers, and more, with a little Depeche Mode thrown in for good measure. Continue Reading…

Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet Lori Sandoval

February 28, 2018

Does this face look familiar? It’s not just you. Loyal readers may recognize Lori Sandoval as one-third of the WomenMadeLA team we spotlighted back in December last year. For those who aren’t already in the know, Lori recently teamed up with fellow makers Sashee Chandran and Debbie Mullin, both of whom sell their wares here at UncommonGoods, to form a collective of lady entrepreneurs taking the City of Angels by storm. And now it’s her turn to take a dip in the limelight.

Mexican Cooking Sauces | UncommonGoods

Like Debbie and Sashee, Lori’s creations are edible—sauces inspired by the diverse culinary landscape of Mexico, her parents’ home country, and ever-so-aptly dubbed “Mexican Cooking Sauces.” We’ll let you in on a secret here… they’re amazing. Like, “Where have you been all my life?” grade amazing. So it’s only natural that we had to ask her about them, just like we asked Sashee all about Tea Drops and Debbie about her delectable pour overs.

Read on for a full account of our conversation with flavor guru Lori, including talk of art history, sauce-loving kids, and wise words from the mouth—er, pen?—of Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalist extraordinaire.

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Maker Stories

This Just In-Spiration: Meet Govy

February 20, 2018

To French artist Govy, planets are much more than big rocks throttling in circles throughout the sky—they’re measures of time, markers of our place in the universe, and fodder for some really cool creations. Creations like her Personalized Solar System Art Print, a joint venture with Martin Vézina that takes a date and time that’s important to you and turns it into a piece of sleek, custom-made artwork that highlights where, according to NASA, the planets and dwarf planets in our solar system were at that very moment. Pretty cosmic, huh?

We first caught a glimpse of Govy’s work here in our Brooklyn office, a world away from Japan, where she now lives with her beloved cat, Taiga. We love the inviting, but minimal look of her prints, with their personal flair and art-meets-STEM approach, and we knew we simply had to reach out and see if she’d tell us more about how she developed the idea. Read on for Govy’s answers to our burning questions (you know, burning like big balls of gas, billions of miles away), plus a couple of photos of Taiga herself.

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Maker Stories

This Just In-spiration: Meet
Jonathan Bobrow

January 9, 2018

Here at UncommonGoods, we’re always on the lookout for newcomers to our assortment of artists whose creations make us smile, think, or say “wow” when we glance at our homepage (a daily activity here). The latest in this parade of intriguing creators? One Jonathan Bobrow, a self-described “artist, designer, programmer, math lover, and constantly curious individual.” A former student at the MIT Media Lab, Jonathan is best known ’round these parts for his Troxes: Origami Building Blocks—toys that fold together to create intricate shapes without the aid of glue, tape, or any other sticky substance… excepting a little elbow grease.

For someone (wink, nudge) whose favorite part of their job often involves interviewing new artists, Jonathan was an ideal study. Talkative, open, and excited to share the story behind his Origami Building Blocks, Jonathan provided us with more fascinating material than we could possibly pack into a single quick-and-dirty blog post. That didn’t stop us from trying, though. Read on for a full account of our attempt, including an explanation of what A League of Their Own has to do with designing laser-cut toys.

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