ADX To Launch Shop Featuring Locally-Made Products

September 20, 2011

There is something special about things made in Portland. We’re home to a number of “cottage industries” that develop inspiring and authentic designs. Using handmade, local, and beautiful materials, local craftspeople seem to have their finger on the pulse of both quality and what’s next. Not only are they making, but they are making better.

As men and women are learning new skills within ADX and our community, they are also applying them to producing items they’d normally buy. We call these folk the “New American Makers” — and since opening this June we’ve certainly met a lot of them! Just like food tastes better when you make it yourself, things become more meaningful and are much more beautiful when you have spent so much time with them: crafting them, and learning from them. We are actually forming deeper relationships with the objects around us, and as a result questioning what we really need: Do we really need to be surrounded by meaningless things that we have consumed or is it more interesting to surround ourselves with things that we have made, or that our friends, neighbors, and colleagues have handcrafted?

Eric Black UTR Table ADX Made Shop

ADX Director Eric Black's "UTR Table"

As part of our greater vision to help support the local manufacturing economy, ADX is preparing to launch its own online store featuring locally-crafted, handmade products. This digital marketplace will be home to a suite of products and projects we love: many were made within ADX, and others by community members and designers whose vision we support.

These first inklings of a local manufacturing facility will take the prototypes developed within ADX and produce them on a larger scale (batches of 200 or fewer, for example). And of course it makes sense that we introduce this concept via a product created by our own Director Eric Black. His stunning UTR Table was crafted on our CNC Router. Stay tuned for more details about this exciting new venture. Or, to submit your product for consideration, please call Kelley at 503.438.8171.