By makers, for makerS
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Missoula Makers Collective is here to connect the Missoula community with local makers and artists. Why? Because shopping small businesses in your community supports the local economy, creates relationships between the maker and consumers, and bolsters the already vibrant handmade culture of Missoula.
How do we do this? We provide a variety of avenues for makers to sell their products and help create visibility around the handmade economy, host educational opportunities for makers so that they feel supported while growing and operating their handmade business, and are cultivating a culture of sharing knowledge, engaging with one’s community, and spending with intention.
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To create visibility around the local handmade economy, to educate the community on the benefits of shopping local, handmade micro-businesses, bolster the legitimacy of handmade businesses, and provide resources to makers that include opportunities to sell their handmade products.
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Visibility
Accessibility
Community
Transparency
Meet the Founders:
Bailey Durnell & Rachel Cowan
Bailey and Rachel were both makers, prior to starting the Missoula Makers Collective. Rachel is the owner of Throwing Darts, a precious metal jewelry business. Prior to being a metalsmith, Rachel worked in healthcare with a background in Neuroscience and Psychology. Bailey is the owner of Montana Clay Creations, a polymer clay jewelry business. She has a Graduate degree in political science and a background in gender studies.
The two founders met during transitional periods in their lives. They were bartending together, and were both running their jewelry businesses and in graduate school. Their friendship began on the foundation of sharing their experiences as business owners, realizing that they shared a certain feeling of isolation, and relishing in the opportunity to workshop their obstacles together.
They soon realized that they wanted to connect makers to one another, and create a community on the basis of sharing knowledge that would empower and encourage makers. The Missoula Makers Collective serves to do just that, while also increasing visibility and accessibility of handmade products, encouraging handmade shopping, and providing learning opportunities to women entrepreneurs.
“Missoula Makers Collective intentionally embodies what got me started and kept me going as a maker through offering encouragement, support, friendship, and collaboration to local makers” - Rachel
“How you spend your money is one of the most constant political decisions you make- choosing to shop handmade is a political decision that benefits your community and so much more” - Bailey
Women + Handmade
Missoula Makers Collective recognizes that a majority of makers are women and people who have experienced misogyny-based barriers, and that creating a handmade business existing mostly online is an accessible avenue to starting a business in the face of gender-based barriers. More information on the barriers that marginalized genders face when starting traditional businesses, check out our blog “The State of Women-Owned Businesses”. For this reason, we prioritize allocating resources and opportunities to people impacted by misogyny-based barriers when making decisions about who to include in the Missoula Makers Markets.