Made in Utah

01/02/2024

In 1996, Randy Ramsley made a career change and purchased a 50-acre piece of land in Caineville with his first partner, Deborah. Though Randy was raised with a farming background in Yankton, South Dakota, he moved in and out of the agricultural world for decades. Many of these career moves appeared lateral, but these skills would later play into his farm, as help and resources are slim in that part of the country.
https://utahstories.com/2024/01/mesa-farm-market-the-purple-store-on-hwy-24/

Mesa Farm Market, on Highway 24 between Hanksville and Capitol Reef National Park, offered home-produced goat cheeses.

07/25/2023

Immigrant success stories and the unique opportunities in America are discussed in a captivating interview between Rich and Dali, owner of an amazing crepe shop. Dali shares his journey from Serbia to the Grand America Hotel, eventually starting his own business, Dali Crepes. Despite challenges, he prioritizes growth and reflects on the importance of hard work, dedication, and seizing opportunities. They also explore resources like Spice Incubator Kitchens, regretting not knowing earlier. Dali's successful candy-making business, Sir Walter, and plans for expansion are mentioned. Maintaining quality and meeting customer demands are key. Dali plans to separate his brand into two spaces, offering sit-down service and catering. Visit their website for more info.

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07/25/2023

Check out Rich's interview with JP Bernier, the founder of Hammer Spring Distillery in Utah. They discuss JP's journey, challenges in a competitive market, and the focus on quality and careful distillation. They also touch on liquor laws, local distilling scene, and JP's passion for creating unique spirits. Discover their range of farm-to-glass products, including habanero vodka, barrel-finished gin, bourbon, and coffee liqueur. JP's Hidden Vodka supports a cause against human trafficking. Listen to their conversation and visit Hammer Spring Distillery for a taste of their exceptional spirits.

Visit UtahStories.com for more and to subscribe to our free digital newsletter. There you can also support our journalism by subscribing to our print magazine for $2 per month.

Follow us on:
Instagram
Twitter

07/21/2023

Jordan Hess holds a $24,000 violin aloft by the neck, like a popsicle. It’s not actually a $24,000 violin … yet. First the bare, white-looking wood needs to get colorized with a red oxidizing solution. After that dries, he’ll coat it with another solution to “activate it,” and then it’ll go under an ultraviolet light to turn it “hopefully old-colored,” Hess says.

“It’s like going to a salon to get a tan, except it’s wood.”

Hess is the owner of Sugarhouse Violins. As he talks, Hess never stops working. His hands are in constant movement, slathering the watery red solution generously over the violin with what looks like an ordinary paint brush from a hardware store. After the colorizing treatment it will get lacquered and delivered to the buyer who commissioned it.

Salt Lake is a home of five major luthier schools in the country and half a dozen local shops offering custom violin and restoration services

07/18/2023

There is a farmers market in Torrey, Utah called Wayne County Farmer's Market. It is held Sundays from 4 -6 pm.

07/16/2023

Host discusses craft breweries, community revitalization, and homelessness in Utah. They highlight Helper's transformation through a brewery and Saturday market. Criticizing the Housing First model, they propose alternative approaches like Switch Point's job opportunities combined with housing assistance. The conversation explores challenges, accountability, and the need for structured support. They discuss affordable housing, mental health housing, and the barriers faced in implementing effective models. Carol emphasizes the need for deeply affordable housing and alternative funding sources. They touch on welfare limitations, success stories, and the distrust of capitalist systems. Accountability, client involvement, and collaboration are emphasized. The conversation concludes with discussions on case managers, resources, affordable housing investment, and the need for accessible housing through zoning.

07/14/2023

Immigrant success stories and the unique opportunities in America are discussed in a captivating interview between Rich and Dali, owner of an amazing crepe shop. Dali shares his journey from Serbia to the Grand America Hotel, eventually starting his own business, Dali Crepes. Despite challenges, he prioritizes growth and reflects on the importance of hard work, dedication, and seizing opportunities. They also explore resources like Spice Incubator Kitchens, regretting not knowing earlier. Dali's successful candy-making business, Sir Walter, and plans for expansion are mentioned. Maintaining quality and meeting customer demands are key. Dali plans to separate his brand into two spaces, offering sit-down service and catering. Visit their website for more info.

07/14/2023

Artists David and Brigitte Delthony share their own gallery in the town of Escalante, where they have found grounding and inspiration for their work in separate crafts for more than 20 years. A woodworker and a sculptor, David designs and sculpts custom furniture pieces using a process of wood laminating that allows strong, complex designs. Brigitte designs and produces original pottery using ancient techniques.

“It’s very harmonious to look at his work and my work,” Brigitte says. “Together, they’re very compatible .”

The couple are enthusiastic about sharing both their work and the region that has inspired them with visitors. Trained and working in West Germany, the artists visited Utah themselves for the first time on vacation. The experience satisfied their fascination with prehistoric cultures so well, they returned the following year.

Artists David and Brigitte Delthony own a gallery in Escalante, where they have found grounding and inspiration for their work for more than 20 years.

07/12/2023

Check out Rich's interview with JP Bernier, the founder of Hammer Spring Distillery in Utah. They discuss JP's journey, challenges in a competitive market, and the focus on quality and careful distillation. They also touch on liquor laws, local distilling scene, and JP's passion for creating unique spirits. Discover their range of farm-to-glass products, including habanero vodka, barrel-finished gin, bourbon, and coffee liqueur. JP's Hidden Vodka supports a cause against human trafficking. Listen to their conversation and visit Hammer Spring Distillery for a taste of their exceptional spirits.

07/09/2023

The folks at KLOS aren’t just making another guitar. They are making a guitar that can tag along with the world explorer. Ian Klosowiak who, along with his brother Adam Klosowiak, founded KLOS, put it this way: “We wanted our guitars to be a piece of gear. Your wood guitar is a piece of art that you want to protect. We want you to throw our guitar in the trunk with your other adventure gear and not worry if it can handle the trip.”

KLOS Guitars, Utah’s only large-scale guitar manufacturing facility, is internationally distributed and rugged enough for world exploring.

07/09/2023

Kevin Hicks calls himself a dumpster diver for wood. But in truth, he is a visionary, a maker and a discoverer who turns urban trees into useful and beautiful things.

Hicks is a woodturner and the owner of Big Ash Bowls, a South Jordan-based one-man shop that makes artisan wooden bowls, serving utensils, and French rolling pins.

The wood comes from discarded urban trees—some felled by nature—and some to make room for a sprawling population. Several arborist friends are quick to alert Hicks to wood that needs to be recycled, repurposed and reused before it’s otherwise hauled to the dump or burned.

Using recycled, repurposed and resued wood, Kevin Hicks creates artisan bowls.

07/08/2023

While Bridgette was content with painting as a personal expression for the Utah landscape she loved, it wasn’t until she attended an encaustic hot wax/paint workshop in 2009 that she realized she wanted to create a career from her art. Her husband built her a dedicated studio out of a shipping container and she began painting full-time. Bridgette showed her first works at Gallery MAR in Park City in 2010, and now her encaustic and watercolor paintings are also shown in Colorado galleries as well.

As an established local artist, Bridgette also conducts annual outdoor watercolor workshops. “I find that a lot of people get hung up on the definition of ‘outdoorsy,’” she explains. “I want to show people that there are many ways to enjoy being outside, including simply bringing your art outside. You don’t have to be a person who skis or mountain bikes all the time to enjoy the outdoors.

Bridgette Meinhold was trained as an engineer but when economic crisis hit in 2008, she decided to transition her art from a hobby to a full career.

07/06/2023

“I begin almost every painting with an idea in mind,” says artist Samantha Long, “be it a line from a hymn or a verse of scripture or something I’ve just been thinking about.”

“Zion Rising,” “What Souls are Worth,” “Raising the Saints,” “Fruits of the Spirit,” and “Fleeing Babylon,” are just a few of the names Long has given her paintings. The name of each piece gives you a glimpse into the story behind the painting, but in art, the real story is up to the interpretation of each individual.

Rich, bright colors and fairytale style characters that inhabit artist's Samantha Long’s paintings give her art a whimsical feel.

07/05/2023

With no art business experience, there was a steep learning curve. Being an artist is so much more than creating. Havoc found that for success you have to build your own brand and carve your own niche. Luckily, he found the place where those essentials intersect. It was a few years into painting when drawing lines on a napkin inspired Havoc to create the mountain line work he’s so well-known for. These picturesque murals now grace the walls of the Gateway Mall, buildings all over downtown Provo, Jackson Hole, New York City, and more.

Artist Havoc Hendricks has made a living drawing original fine art on walls, snowboards, clothing, canvas and more.

07/04/2023

Lee acquired his love of model trains at an early age from parents who were both employed in the railroad industry. Lee’s father, Joe, started as a brakeman and later became a conductor, passing away just three months short of a 30-year retirement. Lee recalls that when he was four or five, “Dad would take me down to see his caboose so I could climb up in the cupola and hang out the window,” and he has a picture to prove it.

In the early 1940s, Lee’s mother, Bernice, worked as a waitress in Ogden’s Union Station at the beanery—what we would call a coffee shop today—serving passengers as they disembarked from their train journeys. “Trains came in at all hours of the day and night,” Lee says. “You might have a train that arrived at three-o-clock in the morning, so you’d suddenly have a hundred people get off the train and everybody was hungry.”

Model trains and railroading attracts teenagers, 80-year-olds, and everyone in-between, proving that train buffs like Lee Witten are on the right track.

07/03/2023

Metal endures. It can be hammered or melted but it is resilient. Such qualities also help form the character of the people who work with it; men such as third-generation metalworker Marcelo Galvan.

Galvan immigrated to the United States from Argentina as a young man and built up a successful business creating ornamental ironwork, only to see it crumble in the 2008 recession. But he has restored the business and it’s doing better than ever.

Galvan learned his trade from his father in Buenos Aires. “I’ve been doing this since I was 12-years-old,” he says. “I had to learn — it’s not like I have a choice to do whatever I want. The business of the family was metal,” he remembers.

Marcelo Galvan immigrated to the United States from Argentina as a young man and built up a successful business creating ornamental ironwork.

07/02/2023

Ivory is the rare jewel of the animal kingdom, but elk and ivory are two words that are normally not put together in the same sentence. Yet these regal animals are a source of this coveted substance. Elk ivories are the upper canine teeth in bull elk and cow elk. These canine teeth are made out of the same hard white material as the tusks of an elephant, or the teeth of a whale, hippo or walrus.

“They are a hidden treasure,” says Megan Clarke, local metalsmith artist. “Not many people think to look into an animal’s mouth when they just hunted it.”

Local artist Megan Clarke makes sterling silver jewelry using elk ivory, turquoise, and other precious stones.

07/01/2023

Cocktail imbibers can now join the rest of their can-chugging crew to raise a toast and rejoice as a handful of local distilleries are making canned cocktails for portable enjoyment.

Cocktail imbibers can now join the rest of their can-chugging crew as a handful of local distilleries are making canned cocktails in Utah.