Launching this year, The Make Works Directory makes it easy to find makers, manufacturers and material suppliers.

Detailed information in each listing includes high quality photography and short films about factories that Make Works have visited themselves. They offer information on what each manufacturer/maker does and what you need to know before approaching them.

Think of it like digital video dating for creative professionals with fabrication.

Here is a selection from The Make Works Directory so far:

Bespoke Atelier are a textile based screenprinting studio in Glasgow working on commissions, their own collections and renting out their studio facilities to other designers.

NPI Solutions are a subcontract machinists based in Irvine, mainly working in metal. They will work with entrepreneurs looking to manufacture prototypes and small batch runs of products.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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

Hi, my name is Fi Scott, and I’m the founder, and design director of a start up called Make/Works.

Make/Works is an organisation that facilitates and celebrates the making and manufacture of creative work in Scotland. It is primarily focussed on the creation of a digital service, The Make/Works Directory; a database of makers, manufacturers, material suppliers and facilities to be openly accessible for the needs of the creative industries. Make/Works was based on a simple observation; that when it comes to the physical fabrication of work (across any creative discipline) in Scotland, it is often difficult, confusing and time consuming. Make/Works aims to change this, and to empower the creative industries to be able to locally manufacture with ease.

So, if you are a designer looking to metal-cast a prototype in Glasgow; the Make/Works directory will be able to source filtered results of facilities, manufacturers and makers that would be of use, and willing to work with you, in the local area. Equally, this is applicable to sourcing materials; (“where do I find a square piece of glass for an exhibition?”) finding processes; (“which printing service is able to perfectly bind this book?”) facilities; (“where in glasgow can you use a ceramic kiln?”) and trade skills (“who is able to spin copper, or teach me how to do it myself?”).

I began the initiative after working as a designer at DMFD in Brooklyn, New York; where I was making cork furniture. The experience made me realise the importance of making and materials – which as well as improving the quality of work itself can also be a empowering and exciting part of the creative process. There is nothing more satisfying than coming home at the end of the day, head to toe covered in cork dust!  So, on returning to Scotland, I combined this idea about the importance of making with my parallel background in service and experience design. I started out by interviewing artists, designers, craftspeople and consultancies (to check my observation wasn’t just a hunch!) and quickly realised there was a gap between those in the creative industries and access to the practical resources that enabled people to realise their projects. The more and more people I interviewed about the problem, the more people were really expressing the need for a service that connected the two.

I continued to develop the idea in my final year at Glasgow School of Art, along with a business plan for the final of the Deutsche Bank Awards in Creative Practice. Now that I’ve graduated, I’m spending my days visiting factories, studios, workshops and designing the Make/Works digital service. I’m making sure I find manufacturers that are wiling to work with the creative industries; as well as co-designing the service with users, so I can really ensure it will work to suit people’s needs. Aside from the directory being a useful resource, the background is really about empowering the creative industries to manufacture locally. Not only is this beneficial to Scotland’s local economy and small businesses, but more sustainable aswell.

What’s next for Make/Works?
At the moment, Make/Works is based at the MAKLAb studio, in the Lighthouse. It’s an awesome place to be, as (despite getting a wee bit distracted by using the machines at times!) there are lots of designers, artists and architects around the place to bounce ideas off of and find leads to new resources. I’m hoping to launch a beta version of the site in April 2013 as a Glasgow pilot, before going Scotland wide.

We can make work in Scotland!

More information:
Website | Twitter

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See more blogs by creatives here.

My name is Iona & I run ‘i heart…’, where we do a whole host of different things including organising community arts projects, freelance crafting & facilitating craft workshops. We also have an online eco-shop full of handmade arts & crafts made from a range of talented designers & artists.
My workspace is at home beside my beloved Singer sewing machine where I sew, cross-stitch & knit my own work. However, my various balls of yarn, fabric, needles and other bits & bobs have a tendency to end up scattered throughout the whole house!

Visit the I Heart… website.
Follow I heart… on 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.