Senior Mary Boudreaux ices pumpkin cookies in the Dow House kitchen.
Lauren Bixler | The Collegian

While munching on Meckley’s donuts and sipping Checker Records coffee, families made their way through this year’s Maker’s Market, included in Parents Weekend festivities for the first time.

The Student Activities Board combined the sixth annual Maker’s Market with Fall Fest, an event which always aligns with the fall semester Parents Weekend. This partnership worked well for the community and the business, according to senior and cookie vendor Mary Boudreaux.

“It was super fun to see all of the parents and siblings come,” Boudreaux said. “I think it was a great idea to combine it with Parents Weekend and Fall Fest so that family members could get a sense of the college community.”

Tables of student wares lined the South Quad. A notable stop along the way was senior Rachel Moeller’s tastefully arranged art display. The table showcased charcoal drawings, watercolor postcards of vegetables, small paintings, and a book of her sketches, all alongside her decor — a tin of watercolor paints, small tubes of paint in a “Lemon Tea” box, and the antique tissue box that serves as her artist toolbox. This was her first time selling at Maker’s Market, but the promise of profit was a secondary goal to sharing her artwork.

“I love the beauty of simple things, everyday things, the beauty of creation, the beauty of life, and the little moments that you can capture in a painting, and seeing life from almost an external perspective helps you to appreciate it more,” Moeller said.

Many of Moeller’s pieces for sale showcased the beauty of everyday things, such as the fine lines of a friend’s face, the front of her home, or gourds from the Hillsdale farmer’s market. She said most of her artwork, though, was not made intentionally for the event — she curated a few watercolor postcards for her audience, but she went in with few expectations to sell anything.

“Even though I’m entrepreneurial in a way, I was very thoughtful in the way I put together my design and put together my stand,” Moeller said. “I was praying before this, and I was like, ‘If I sell one work, God, I’m happy with that.’ That honestly makes me very pleased, and I’ve sold more than that. And honestly, that’s such a gift.”

At another stop along the Maker’s Market, sophomore Gabrielle Wood showcased shirts from her business, Cloud Creations. Wood hand-designed the 100% cotton, Comfort Colors shirts with phrases such as “The Lord Will Provide” and verses such as John 15:5 and Ephesians 6:16-17. Wood crafts and designs her products with the intention to add more options for young Christians seeking faithful attire, she said.

“I want to create Christian shirts that don’t look tacky and corny and that people our age would actually wear, and that are a little more subtle. So when somebody asks you, ‘What does that shirt mean,’ you’d be like, ‘Oh, it’s based on this Bible verse,’ which can maybe lead into some evangelism,” Wood said.

In addition to the spiritual value of the shirts, Wood said she uses her strength as an artist to create her designs, without reliance on ChatGPT.

“All these are hand-drawn and hand-designed. The philosophy behind drawing my own shirts is, I see a lot of AI-generated or stock imagery that people put on shirts to sell. And I really don’t like it. It looks very cheap,” Wood said. “Another part of why I hand draw it is creation for the glory of God and using my own hand to glorify Him in that way.”

Adding to the lineup of Maker’s Market, baked goods and trinkets exhibited the niche interests and hobbies of students. Senior Anna White described her “army” of crocheted animals that she has sold at the market for years.

“I’ve been crocheting for a few years, and it is just a hobby. Honestly, I sell them because I end up with an army of mini stuffed animals that I have nothing to do with,” White said.

In preparation for Maker’s Market, White said she ramps up crochet production, but she is usually already working through one or two projects at a time during her regular class load. Although she enjoys crocheting plushies, the joy of Maker’s Market comes from something more, she said.

“What I enjoy over the years is when people I have sold to before come back and say, ‘Oh, I recognize that, I bought that this many years ago and I still use it.’ So that’s really fun to know that people remember I do this and are still getting joy out of it,” White said.

A corridor of the market hosted the Hillsdale Homestead and artisanal baked goods. Boudreaux and sophomore Mary Margaret Maleski displayed trays of about 300 cookies, with both regular, gluten, and dairy-free options. They served free samples of an herbal tea, which they said paired nicely with their array of sprinkled sugar cookies, chocolate chunk cookies, and iced pumpkin cookies.

“Mary Margaret is a very organized person and had all of the recipes and respective pricing planned out in advance, which definitely helped. We decided to make all of the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it, so that we could work around our schedules and not have to try to make everything at the last second,” Boudreaux said. “The morning of Maker’s Market, we started baking and decorating cookies at 10 a.m. and worked all the way up until 2:30 p.m. or so.”

The pair decided to sell cookies for fun — they often bake in Dow Residence, so Maker’s Market gave them the chance to do something they love, with a slight entrepreneurial gain, Boudreaux said.

“Obviously, both of us wanted to make some money, but I’m a bit of a weirdo and actually really enjoy anything related to customer service, so I was honestly mainly there just for the fun of selling things,” Boudreaux said.

Whether at the market for purely making a profit, or just for the opportunity to participate in a hobby, Moeller said vendors should utilize the opportunity to build their character and put themselves out there.

“I think it’s really important for students who have creative talents to share their gifts with the world and be okay with being vulnerable with their work,” Moeller said. “It doesn’t always matter whether or not you sell something — sometimes it’s for you, and it’s a matter of you growing in confidence with your own work.”