Rooted Collective 201 in Blanchardville at 201 Main Street is a business full of items made by local artisans from jewlery and macrame to pottery. Here are a few makers behind the items being sold at Rooted Collective 201.
The Cutting Cottage LLC
Courtney Kluender is the maker behind The Cutting Cottage LLC. Based in Oregon, Kluender makes a variety of home decor and accessories with a boho flair as well as lightweight jewelry including: macrame (jewelry, accessories, and home decor), wire-wrapped diffuser jewelry, faux leather (earrings, bows, and mommy and me sets), and handpainted wooden mushrooms and hand-painted canvas magnets.
She could never find what she envisioned in any stores, so she began creating her own items.
“I started out making a few pieces for myself and loved ones and just like that, a small business was born,” Kluender said.
This business was born from the desire to have beautiful lightweight jewelry that emphasized quality, affordability, and comfort. Since then she has expanded her work with different mediums with a primary focus on modern macrame.
She is sometimes inspired by a book that she is reading or music that has newly been released. Inspiration also came after the loss of her pets.
“Each piece takes a different amount of time. It depends on the medium that I’m working with and how much detail the piece has. Some items like my essential oil diffuser rings can take 20 minutes while my macrame disco plant hangers can take around an hour.”
Not only can her items be purchased at Rooted Collective 201, but her items can be found on her website or at Oregon Floral & Crafts in Oregon, WI and Twig & Rue Boutique in Evansville. She can be reached at thecuttingcottagellc@gmail.com.
Ash Kyrie Ceramics
Life began wanting to become a lawyer but then changed to creating something honest, beautiful and useful. Ash Kyrie sells high fire ceramics; including bowls, cups, platters, and crocks at Rooted Collective 201.
He uses local clay to color the stoneware. The stoneware is fired to 2,345 degrees Fahrenheit, this melts the locals clays into a glaze and vitrifies the clay body, which makes it food safe, microwave safe, and oven safe. Vitrifying the ceramics is a process of melting the natural silica in the clay into glass, where Kyrie often referrs to it as glassification.
Although he started making ceramics in high school and he was naturally talented on the pottery wheel, his plan was not ceramics but to become a lawyer. At 18, he joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard to pay for college and start his path to become a lawyer.
“My plans to become a lawyer changed after my military unit based out of Rhinelander WI, was called up to serve in the war on terrorism,” Kyrie said.
In 2003, he was deployed to Iraq, mostly in the southern city of Nasariya. His service in Iraq was based at the foot of a large pyramid shaped stone building that was built over 5,000 years ago called the Ziggurat of Ur. Ur is the city that was the birthplace of Abraham, the man that is considered the father of three of the major religions of the world, Judaism, Chrstianity, and Islam.
“When I returned from the war I wanted to make something honest, beautiful, and useful. I realized that I no longer wanted to be a lawyer and that being a ceramic artist was the road I would take.”
He is inspired by the history of ceramics. Ceramics is one of the oldest technologies, it predates the wheel and fire. Living in the driftless region of Wisconsin gives him access to clays that in other parts of the state are covered by glacier drift.
“When I was in Iraq I collected shards of pottery that could be as old as the Ziggurat I was living next to, I could feel the finger prints and the techniques of how the potter made the vessels.”
This technique is similar to the techniques his teacher Bruce Howdle from Minearl Point made his works.
” A teacher gives their knowledge and skills to their students, and there is a direct lineage to the pottery shards I found in Iraq.”
Other than Rooted Collective 201, Kyrie sells his work at his pottery stand at his home studio at 15815 Valley Road, Argyle. He can be contacted at ashkyrie@gmail.com.