We are asked fairly often how we find the artists/designers/items that are in the store.  Here is an example of one of those stories - how we found SKT Ceramics. 

It started with a trip to NY where we caught up with our friend Michelle Gabriel.  Michelle is an amazing artist and designer in her own right, and also a former MiCA employee.  She will always be part of the MiCA family.  Michelle lives in Brooklyn now and suggested we all go check out the Brooklyn Flea.   Like Cincinnati’s "City Flea" it is a craft & vintage market, with tables of items by designer-makers and tents full of interesting vintage finds, gourmet street food, & coffee.  This sunny morning in Brooklyn brought vintage bicycles that my great grandparents might have owned, cowboy boots, books and bags, jewelry made from found objects.  Tiny pinhole camera prints that I loved.  And under one tent a table full of simple, wheel thrown, porcelain ceramics caught my eye with their soft, muted color & sweet animal designs.  I loved the work right away and picked up a business card, but  I wanted to think over whether the work would be right for the shop.  Hand made items like these, made in the artist's studio, by the artist, with the overhead cost of running a kiln, as well as all the time involved in hand making and decorating each piece, can be high end when it comes to cost.  Mike and I have a rule that we don’t buy things right away.  We have to take some time to think about it, to consider the pricing, budget, whether it competes with other things in the shop, how it will be displayed and how it will fit in.  So I walked away to think and it wasn’t long after that when Mike and I bumped into Cincinnati’s very own Michael and Maya of VisuaLingual, (who make great Cincinnati-centric things that we sell in the shop), in one of those it’s-a-small-world moments.   The ceramics were forgotten for a while as we got over our surprise at running into each other, wandered the rest of the market, and eventually went on to enjoy the rest of our visit in NY.

Months and months later, on New Year's Day, Mike & I were invited to a neighbor’s house for a dinner party.  Located in a beautiful loft style place in Over-the-Rhine, we got to eat good-luck foods, and meet some interesting people. We met a family who have lived on Prospect Hill here in Cincinnati for years.  Mother, father and one daughter were there, but they told us there was another daughter currently living in Brooklyn and making pottery with animals painted on them.  I remembered the artist we met at the City Flea and after describing the work we had seen and loved, discovered, sure enough, that the artist - Susannah Tisue - is their daughter.  It was another one of those it’s-a-small-world moments.  Susannah had grown up here in Cincinnati.  She babysat the children of mutual friends.  After that we revisited Susannah’s work and fell in love with it all over again, and loved it all the more for the Cincinnati connections.  Soon we were in NY again and we ordered them right away.

So that’s how we found Susannah Tisue and SKT Ceramics.  But there are lots of ways we find work for the shop.  Very often customers refer us to someone, or an artist walks right into the shop through the front door with the request that we take a look at their work.  We are always looking for new items for the store so if you know an artist or craftsperson, or you make something wonderful yourself, send us some images and info to carolyn@shopmica.com.