As with many small creative industries, Trakke started out in my living room. I use this term loosely, as there wasn’t much space to live. Nicknamed ‘Studio 82’, piles of fabric, tools, hardware and thread dominated, and with work-in-progress occupying any other available space, any hope of achieving the ‘minimal design studio’ aesthetic we had in mind was lost. Shelves, desks and seating were all improvised from discarded items found on the streets of Glasgow. In fact, most of our original products were made like this too. With little money, we scavenged fabrics and tarpaulins from skips, buckles and hardware liberated from abandoned suitcases and leather from defunct sofas. We developed our skills and our designs with virtually no investment, and began to build a brand.

Two years on, we finally moved out of ‘Studio 82’ and moved in with our friends at the Glasgow Bike Station. We occupy the mezzanine level in a 10,000sq ft warehouse, surrounded by mountains of bicycles and people who love cycling. It’s the perfect place to work. With two industrial sewing machines in pride of place, fabric storage and a pattern cutting table in the main gangway, customers can come up and buy a bag or chat about a custom order in full view of the production line. Every step of manufacture is right there in front of them. This transparency is such a crucial part of the ethos of Trakke. Our ‘Handmade in Glasgow’ philosophy centres around the idea that people can come in and speak to us directly. They can suggest changes to the bags, or request custom details, and we can respond to that feedback immediately. We don’t need to call up some distant factory, wait for prototypes and then produce a huge run of products. We can make a change spontaneously, so our product development happens continuously.

So if you are in the neighborhood, come in and grab a coffee with us! If not, check out our latest video below for a bit more insight into the Trakke philosophy.

Find out more:
Website | Vimeo | Facebook | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

Matt Pierce has been a builder and tinkerer for as long as he can remember. This curiosity – to see how things work, take them apart, customize and create new things – led him to start Wood&Faulk, a blog about projects and DIY. He tells us more here…

Wood&Faulk represent well-made, classic lifestyle items with the familiarity of objects your grandparents might have carried. Taking inspiration from the old and the new, the classics and the future classics, Wood&Faulk make items that are built to last with timeless Americana style.

Wood&Faulk started as a simple blog by Matt Pierce in 2010.  It began as a place to document projects, ideas and DIY. Derived from project experiments on the blog and items used in the workshop, Wood&Faulk has developed into a little company known for bags, belts, accessories and other objects inspired by its Oregon home and its Kansas roots.

“The quintessential Wood&Faulk project has to be the Official Campstool. It was first produced as a DIY project, and turned into a more refined piece for customers and friends.” says Pierce. “Have you seen modern-day camp stools? Your grandpa would be ashamed to see you using one!”

Another such project is the Wood&Faulk belts. They were originally created as a project on the blog about how leather wears-in according to the way the user wears it. More and more people requested them, and they were later introduced as a regular store item.

Matt Pierce was born and raised in the Midwestern state of Kansas. He grew up learning auto mechanics, carpentry, plumbing and welding from his family and friends and has continued to build things his entire life. All of these trades came together when he was living in and working on refinishing his own houses in Kansas. The origin of the name Wood&Faulk harkens to streets in his old neighborhood – Woodrow Ave. and Faulkner Street. After selling the Woodrow Ave. home, he moved to the Pacific Northwest, where he found an excellent community of DIY culture, building, making and design that continues to inspire.  Nowadays he spends his free-time refinishing a small 104 year-old house and a FJ62 Land Cruiser.

The majority of W&F products are made in the Beam&Anchor building, where my studio resides. We’re a little family with a painter, soap maker, treasure hunters, upholsters, cabinet and furniture makers, and a retail shop on the ground floor. It’s an amazing building that faces the Union Pacific train yard, under the Fremont bridge in Portland Oregon. The sound of trains, the tools roaring inside, some great music and the sun falling over the West Hills all make this place really amazing. I’m really fortunate to be in the building.

Find out more:
Website | Facebook | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

Between the 10th and 14th of July, 47 graduates from the Glasgow School of Art will show their work in the NEW FIRM exhibition at Candid Arts Trust in London. To raise funds for this exhibition they are holding an auction of unique artist-designed canvas bags, donated by alumni and tutors from Glasgow School of Art.

The auction includes original, non-reproduced, works by prestigious names such as Alasdair Gray, John Byrne, Peter Capaldi and Toby Paterson, among many others.

For details and images of the artist canvas bags, please go here.
To go straight to the auction and place a bid click here.

This first leg of the auction will close on June 23rd, but there will be another group of bags (including, among others, Turner Prize 2011 winner Martin Boyce) up for bidding the next day.

NEW FIRM
Candid Arts Trust
3-5 Torrens Street, Islington
OPENING: 10/07/12 6pm-10pm
RUNNING: 11/07/12 – 14/07/12 10am-8pm

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.