4 minute read
Shop Local
by Colleen Kennedy
Glass Menagerie
“I’ve always been interested in beer, wine and coffee,” says stained glass maker and barista Maria Milton. “With all of those beverages comes really cool art.”
Born and raised in Atlanta, Milton grew up in a family that made stained glass as a hobby. She fondly recalls making glass apples for her teachers and suncatchers for classmates’ birthdays with guidance from her artistic parents.
After moving to Arlington in 2014, she continued making glass designs as a stress reliever in between restaurant shifts. The pandemic is what finally prompted her to leave her career in hospitality to make art full time under the name MarzDM Studio (it’s a nickname she had in school, plus her middle and last initials).
Milton revels in the unpredictability of glass. She sources materials with unusual markings, and while she does create templates for her works, she also embraces the moments when things don’t go as planned—like the time she was designing a series of stars that ended up not being stars. “It was an accident,” says the artist, who sells her pieces online and at pop-up markets (including a recent art exhibit at Northside Social), “but I made beautiful snowflakes instead.”
Her wares include geometric suncatchers ($47-$150), plant propagators ($125-$250) and triangular glass earrings ($28-$32) in vivid hyaline hues, some with nature-inspired motifs such as roses, cherry blossoms or feathers. She finds inspiration in beverage containers, too—upcycling wine and glass water bottles into Art Deco etched vases ($27-$50).
And she hasn’t completely left the hospitality business. Joining forces with her sister, Randi, Milton recently launched a mobile espresso truck, Rossana, named after their beloved late mother. The truck serves light bites and coffee drinks—using beans from local roasters—at Amazon’s Met Park in National Landing and at various arts and cultural events.
“We love the counterculture of coffee,” Milton says, “and how it creates community.” marzdmstudio.com; rossanatoyou.com
Farm Style
Heather and Josh Mazen have turned a spare bedroom in their Falls Church home into a creative space where he makes artisanal soaps and she designs wooden signs. They call their homespun studio FrontYard Farm in reference to their first shared project, when they planted their yard with natural wildflowers.
On the soap front, what started out “more as a science experiment than a business” is now a thriving little enterprise, Josh says, using traditional soap making practices and local ingredients. Forgoing palm or soy oils, his “Farm Bar” products are made with essential oils and pasture-fed pig lard procured from small Shenandoah farms, while the vegan “Garden Bar” line swaps the lard for olive and coconut oils. The coldpressed soaps—available in scents such as lemongrass, peppermint, tea tree and orange-charcoal—are sold as single bars ($5.50) or via monthly subscriptions ($15.50-$36).
Heather’s signs ($20-$55) express that same rustic sensibility in a different medium, with hand-lettered phrases and motifs such as sunbursts, plants and coffee cups. She also does commissioned work for local shops and businesses. (Check out her custom, bird-themed signage for The Toy Nest in Falls Church.)
The Mazens donate 10% of all sales to racial and climate justice organizations. For the Ward 8 Woods Conservancy in D.C., Heather designed signs based on community input for #CleanItClaimIt, a litter cleanup campaign.
“We didn’t start making, thinking we would meet all these people and create community,” Josh says. “But that’s been a very pleasant surprise.”
Find FrontYard Farm soaps and other skin care products online and at Shop Made in Virginia in Alexandria and Virginia Mercantile in Clifton. Decorative signs are sold at The Urban Farmhouse in Arlington and Lemon Lane Consignment in Falls Church. frontyardfarmva.com
