Small Business Owners Use Maker Space to Boost Their Name
January 26, 2021 — Like so many small business owners, Cherrelle and Samuel Hitchcock are do-it-yourselfers. Early life lessons taught them to be resourceful; their artistic skills led them to use their hands.
“We do everything ourselves if we can,” Samuel says.
Together, they are Flora & Forge.
On their plot of land north of Springfield, Cherrelle grows and creates individualized flower bouquets, unique houseplants, heirloom vegetable plants and herbs. She makes gifts for individuals and also offers CSA shares – Community Supported Agriculture. Members of Flora & Forge Flowers CSA buy “shares” of the flowers they grow each season, and delivers shares to central locations for pickup.
Samuel, the “Forge” side of Flora & Forge, crafts custom metalwork including ornamental iron gates, stair railings and chandeliers – “Basically jewelry for your house,” he says.
And like so many business owners, they are always updating, repairing or expanding something. That led them to the Library’s Maker Space at the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library.
The couple envisioned laser-engraved signs of their distinctive logo on pieces of red oak from an old barn, vinyl lettering for a refrigeration unit to store flowers, and repair of their welding unit using a soldering tool.
They did it all at the Maker Space, housed in the library’s Edge Community Technology Center.
Equipment at the Maker Space allows you to use a laser engraver to create signs, program a vinyl cutter for signs or iron-on transfers for T-shirts, bags or signs; make gadgets or replacement parts with a 3D printer, and repair electronic components or jewelry at the solder station. Video transfer equipment also allows you to convert and save your camera film negatives, slides, VHS and DVD movies to a USB drive or SD card. Use of the equipment is free; fees apply for 3D printer filament, vinyl or solder.
"A lot of what is offered at the Maker Space, people want to do, but cannot afford the equipment," Samuel says. "I’ve known of people who have been interested in 3D printing for years, but have never gotten into it because the cost of the machine is a large expense. The same could be said of every other piece of equipment in the Maker Space. If you’re willing to put in a little bit of work, you can make for yourself something that may have otherwise be unattainable."
In making their appointment, the pair researched what they needed to bring for their specific projects: a computer picture file of their logo that they could download for the laser cutter. Samuel also made sure the laser printer could accommodate the two pieces of barn wood he had for their signs. The turnaround time to cut the wood: 36 minutes. Come spring, they plan to display them at a farmer’s market booth.
They brought a picture file of their logo font to load for the vinyl cutter, and chose black vinyl for the letters. The Maker Space stocks a variety of colors. A part on his welding machine at home had failed, so Samuel also brought the small replacement component to install at the soldering station. Solder is provided at the Maker Space.
"Having a Maker Space with all of this top-of-the-line equipment and low-cost material is wonderful," Cherrelle says. "As a new, small business, we want to be sure our resources are spent where it counts. When you have a DIY mindset like we do, this means we can put capital that would have otherwise been spent repairing equipment or hiring out marketing materials into new varieties of flower seed and better equipment for our shop and farm. This enables us to provide more variety, products, and services to our customers."
The Hitchcocks foresee more expansion for Flora & Forge in 2021. Samuel envisions more metalwork for gardens and home improvement projects. Cherrelle looks to growing organic heirloom vegetables and herb seedlings, houseplants, cut flower bundles, CSA flower shares (bouquets), farmers markets and, later, workshops to spread their DIY spirit.
They feature their products and CSA shares, along with their personal stories on their website, flora-forge.com.
Use of the Maker Space, including tours to get acquainted with the equipment, is by appointment by calling the Edge at 417-837-5011. Watch demos of Maker Space tools at thelibrary.org/edge and click on Maker Space.