Have Company is not your grandmother's traditional general store. The new shop in a live/work space at 136 S. Division Ave., Grand Rapids, will offer customers a selection of handmade goods by local and non-local artists, as well as a number of independent publications and underground zines. But that's not all.
Every few months the store will feature one of its artists, who will have one of the two expansive storefront windows to style with his or her own creations. The first featured artist,
Sally England, has created a modern macramé and glass globe art piece that store owners Marlee Grace and John Hanson hope will entice customers inside to explore England's contemporary macramé plant hangers and leather-and-rope jewelry.
"The general store embraces kind of the old dry goods aspects of handmade clothing, fabric goods, (and) household goods like handmade soap and handmade laundry soap," Grace says. "We carry things from people in lots of different places; we like to support other makers that inspire us or have stores of their own that we really like."
Jacob Vroon, owner and creator of
Harbinger Leather Design, shares the live/work space with the store in an unusual way: his living space is the rear section of the store and his leather studio is in the basement. Harbinger Leather goods will be a staple offering at Have Company.
Other artists and their works include
Rose Beerhorst's rag rugs,
Eliza Fernand's ceramics and clothing, and Bjorn Sparrman's pottery.
Regarding the zines and indie publications, Grace says these, like the visual arts, are forms of self-expression that she and Hanson want to promote.
"These (publications) can be small or big, professionally bound, or not -- where anyone can write about anything or draw about anything and they don't have to wait for some publishing company to tell them it's good enough to put it out to world," Grace says. Have Company will carry publications already created, and will have in-store workshops where people can ceate their own.
The store opens Sat., July 13, noon to 10 p.m. The opening corresponds with the
Avenue for the Arts street market of art and music. Regular store hours will be Tues. thru Sat., noon to 9 p.m.
Read more about the store and its Artist in Residency program
here.
Source: Marlee Grace, Have Company
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Have Company
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