Making
MAKER Berkeley’s Sabine Herrmann is the owner of the Etsy shop Plantillo.
Moves
Local creators thrive despite pandemic
BY Casey O’Brien
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EmmaClaireShop), after meeting at their daughters’ competitive cheer competitions. The two women share an interest in design, and wanted to open a business together. Succulent globes hung up in Disneyland—where they went for a cheer competition for their daughters— inspired them to create air plant products. “We wanted to create something different than what we were seeing everywhere,” Whitehead says. “We wanted something unique, unique to the aesthetic of the Bay Area and California.” That was in 2016, and the two women have sold their products on the online platform ever since. California remains their muse—and
the place where all their products are sourced. “Our air plants are all grown by a family farm in San Diego, and our wood is from local hardware stores,” Albers says. Originally, Albers and Whitehead went with Etsy rather than a brick-and-mortar shop because Claire had run an Etsy shop before; but the choice served them well during the pandemic. “For the last year, we have just kept thinking, ‘Thank God we didn’t do brick and mortar. We would be in so much trouble.’” Whitehead says. “We were in shock for a few weeks, but after a few months, things began to pick up. People can’t go shopping, so they come to our shop.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ETSY
D
uring the last year of the pandemic, we’ve all developed new hobbies: baking bread, making cocktails, gardening. But for the Bay Area’s Etsy sellers, “making” is more than entertainment; it’s a livelihood. During the course of the pandemic, the Bay Area’s makers devoted themselves to creating products inspired by their homes, from wine barrels to succulents, and the results have paid off—for some makers, this has been the most successful year of their business. Beth Albers and Claire Whitehead developed their Etsy Shop, Emma Claire Shop (www.etsy.com/shop/
EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | JULY/AUGUST 2021
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