Student-Made App State and APPS Appalachian Heritage Council hosted a Handmade Market from 6-8 p.m. Friday in Central Dining Hall. A total of six booths lined the hallway of Central Dining Hall, and some students took interest in them, stopping to browse and purchase handmade pieces.
Student-Made is an organization dedicated to helping students at App State promote their small businesses, and grow as entrepreneurs. Many students who sell their work started making their designs simply as a hobby.
“I got into handmade collages and I have thousands and thousands of scraps from magazines and I just started putting them all together one day,” said Corryn Heath, a junior communication sciences and disorders major.
Heath is a member of Student-Made and owner of Corryn’s Collages.
Even as Heath moved into college and began focusing on studies more than art, it was hard to let go. The collages serve as her creative outlet, and with Student-Made, she gets to share her work with App State.
Miranda Beauford, a junior studio art major and owner of BCI Vibez, was selling fandom-related stickers, pins and more.
“These are all the things that make me happy, so I like spreading that out into the world,” Beauford said.
Her inspiration for making her art is sharing love for fandoms with other students at App State.
Hallie Zava, a freshman management major, is the owner of Hook with Hal, where she sells crochet items. At the event, she brought pieces from her current inventory in hopes of making room for her new fall collection items.
At her booth, Zava featured a pickle plush that took her around four hours and two skeins of yarn to make, along with fried egg and octopus plushes and potholders.
Zava said she loves making double-sided pot holders, a craft she’s practiced for several years, inspired by her family’s love for cooking and baking. She said creating them can be more tedious compared to some of her other projects because of the details she adds to each pot holder.
“There’s a lot of sewing that goes into it. I have to crochet both sides, with multiple colors of yarn, and then I have to weave in little accents with the black for seeds,” she said. “I have to sew them together. So, it’s more of a process.”
Kat Davis, a senior art and visual culture major, is the owner of Foxcrow Crafts, and has been creating items for her business for around three years. She sold an assortment of stickers, buttons, keychains, prints and earrings at the event.
Every item with the exception of the prints is printed by Davis herself. She said she has to cut out each sticker, and she creates original artwork for all of her products.
Overall, students at App State use Student Made and the Handmade Market to help promote their businesses and build community, all while selling their products.
