Forging an artisan economy
Initiative brings together craftspeople and the businesses that might buy their products
Kelsey Henson was making furniture in her woodworking shop in September 2015 when officials from Trek Development stopped by as they toured the Homewood business incubator where her small firm, Bones and All, was then located.
The Trek team liked the handcrafted pieces built by Ms. Henson and her spouse and business partner, Zak Kruszynski, so much that the officials asked the couple to design benches for the lobby of the Brew House Lofts building Trek was redeveloping on the South Side.
A few months later, Brian Keyser, a New York restaurateur, also stopped by. He ordered a handful of tables for his venture, Casellula @ Alphabet City, a cheese and wine cafe that opened last month in the City of Asylum project on the North Side. That initial order soon grew to 55 cafe tables.
For the fledgling woodworking company, the custom orders provided a significant boost to the bottom line, Mr. Kruszynski said.
And they didn’t occur quite by happenstance.
The restaurant owner and Trek had been made aware of Bones and All’s expertise through the Craft Business Accelerator — an initiative that matches Pittsburgh-area craft and artisan enterprises with real estate firms, designers, architects and other businesses interested in using locally sourced products in residential and commercial projects.
The accelerator was launched as a pilot effort in 2015 by Bridgeway Capital, a Downtown-based nonprofit that makes loans to startups and organizations promoting revitalization in underserved communities in Western Pennsylvania.
Another nonprofit, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, had suggested Bridgeway explore ways to connect local makers to the economic development community, said Adam Kenney, CBA’s director. The foundation provided $185,000 to back the effort to grow the maker movement in Pittsburgh.
Then last May, the Hillman Foundation granted Bridgeway another $360,000 over three years to formalize the accelerator, with the funds paying for a full-time staff member and for grants to help emerging craft businesses.
Growing reach
Since its launch two years ago, the Craft Business Accelerator has helped pave the way for 17 business transactions worth more than $200,000 in total for the makers involved, Mr. Kenney said.
The deals ranged in value from $570 to $40,000 — small amounts when compared to the millions of dollars that might be raised by tech startups but still enough to make a difference.
And the project’s reach is growing. The accelerator has a pipeline of 33 “opportunities” that could be worth more than $500,000 in revenue for maker businesses, he said.
For Bones and All, which employs two people in addition to its founders, the help has been appreciated.
“We are at a place where having big projects like those come through allows us to know there’s income coming in and lets us invest in manpower and equipment,” said Mr. Kruszynski, 32, who left a career in graphic communication design with retailer American Eagle Outfitters several years ago to pursue his craft full time.
Until last April, the woodworking studio was located in 7800 Susquehanna — a former Westinghouse Electric factory that Bridgeway owns and redeveloped into working space for small trades and artisan businesses. Bones and All’s business outgrew that space and moved to another location in Homewood.
The work for Trek and Casellula led to other projects.
The owners of the City of Asylum building asked Bones and All to refinish bookcases and other pieces of reclaimed wood in the space that also houses a bookstore and performance space.