MEET THE MAKERS
Co-Owner & Maker
Bria Swartout
Rhinelander native Bria Swartout owns and manages Northwoods Embroidery in addition to her partnership in Maker North. Bria prints and embroiders small-batch apparel and home goods for individuals, local clubs, organizations, and small local businesses all day long.
Bria spent the previous two decades at the Oneida County Humane Society, the last ten of which she served as director. Bria and her partner Justin have a family of 2 pigs, 6 dogs, and 4 cats as well as participating in the foster system.
Co-Owner & Maker
Jill Kuczmarski
Rhinelander native and Maker North co-founder Jill Kuczmarski is a creative director, designer, writer, and illustrator living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with her husband Jeff, daughter Juniper, and Tater Tot the tabby.
Jill is the sole creator, author, and illustrator of Happy The Hodag books, plush, apparel and home goods. Available at Maker North, at other local businesses and online.
Maker
Keri Kelley
Keri, a lifelong resident of the Northwoods of Wisconsin, is a multi-media artist and graphic designer. Kerry lives near Lake Nokomis with her husband and son.
Find her at CreativeOnNokomis.com
Maker
Megan Parsons
Megan is a homeschooling mother of 4 who also works part-time. In her ‘spare time’ Megan enjoys crocheting, watercolor painting, gardening, and reading.
Megan was inspired by both of her late grandmothers to take up crocheting 10 years ago. “I wanted to be able to have something to continue to connect me to them. I have all of their crochet hooks and use those for all of my projects. I make many things, but enjoy making blankets the most.”
Maker
Jen Anderson
Jen has lived most of her life in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and has been a professional potter since 2006.
Maker
Cindy Sistler
Cindy is a Wisconsin native who enjoys giving orphaned vintage depression, liberty and cobalt glass pieces a renewed purpose as garden ornaments and bird baths.
Maker
Susan Berto
Susan is a retired RN living in the unincorporated community of Tripoli, Wisconsin with her boyfriend and Callie the cat.
Susan loves making functional crafts such as baskets and brooms. She uses all natural materials and special touches to her works such as cat tails, birch bark feathers, grasses and antlers.
Maker
Raphael De La Vega
Raphael and his wife Bobbi specialize in working with resin from their home in thNorthwoods. They also create a variety of other homemade items, learn more at www.northern-creations.com
Maker
Diane Dohm
Diane finds her happy place at her Northwoods retreat near Harshaw. Diane creates fused glass works of functional art including bowls, garden art, pendants and window decor.
Maker
Emma LaPine
Emma and her husband migrated to the Northwoods from Milwaukee during the pandemic to be closer to the woods and to her family living in the area.
Emma works in a variety of mediums creating unique paintings, illustrations, crafts and fake dessert sculptures. Her ‘little creature’ series, currently in the shop, are created of everyday, mundane moments from throughout the day, captured to be appreciated infinitely.
Emma's over here blogging at emmaklingbeil.wordpress.com
Maker
Elizabeth Mantey
A Rhinelander native Beth makes Green Bay home with her husband Ryan and children Claire, Grey and Jack. She has cats Ollie and Cairo and dogs Mojo and KC. She is a avid paper crafter with a passion for mixed media and scrapbooking.
Recently she has combined her love of vintage glass and memory keeping to make glass garden art.
Maker
Shannon Ward & Kelley Little
Here is our introduction: Shannon Ward and her daughter Kelley Little have started 3rd Act as a way to honor their husband and fathers military service. We enjoy creating stitch markers, earrings, and zipper pouches ranging in sizes from 4x4.5 to 6x8. Shannon lives in Rhinelander where she has many friends and family and Kelley lives in Wausau with her husband and son and she works through Marshfield Clinic Health System
Maker
Rita Wagner
Bio coming soon!
Maker
Jody Isaacson
Jody and her husband are lifelong residents of Tripoli.
has been knitting, crocheting, and sewing since she was a young girl. After retiring two years ago from a career of secretarial and bookkeeping work, she finds her "happy place" behind her embroidery machine as often as possible. She does not sit down or leave the house without her knitting in tow. She loves volunteering at school, and is on the town board, school board, and active in the music department of her church. She and her husband of 45 years are lifelong residents of Tripoli, have three children and ten grandchildren.
Maker
Tammy Boersma
Tammy is a retired healthcare worker of 40 years who splits her time between her home in Madison, Wisconsin and her happy place here in the Northwoods.
Tammy started taking pictures with her Instamatic back in grade school and she took several darkroom classes long before digital photography, several courses in college and more recently classes from the Camera Company.
Now that Tammy is retired she is able to follow her true passion for photography and loves capuring the natural magic of the Northwoods.
Maker
Lorry Kuczmarski
Lorry is a lifelong Northwoods resident who grew up looking over Hodag Park and Boom Lake and
raised her family with her husband Jerry looking out over the potato fields in Starks.
Lorry is a master seamstress who also enjoys crochet, quilting and spent many years practicing as a stained glass artist.
Maker
Deanna Tushoski
Deanna is a lifelong Rhinelander native who enjoys gardening, motorcycles, traveling, baking and the great outdoors.
Deanna creates seasonal and upcycled military uniform fabric wreaths. Custom wreaths are available, inquire with Maker-North to be connected to this maker.
Maker
Kathy Amberg
Bio coming soon!
Maker
Linda Thomaschefsky
Bio coming soon!
Maker
Mary Grafelman
Bio coming soon!
Maker
Susan Bolte
A native of Antigo now living in Parrish, Susan has recently taken up stained glass, fused glass, and torched glass, designing original patterns and uses purchased patterns as well.
Susan is most known a fiber artist and has taught free-motion quilting classes in the community. She perfected her knitting skills during lockdown by knitting herself 27 colorwork sweaters. Not only did she knit these sweaters, she learned how to dye the wool and spin it into yarn. Susan enjoys hand stitching with wool appliqué and Sashiko.
Other mediums she currently works with are pine needle basketry, wood burning, and resin. There’s hardly a hobby she hasn’t tried and is constantly evolving and perfecting her wide variety of skills.
Maker
Julee Radtke
Since retiring to her Lac du Flambeau cabin about ten years ago, Julee has been keeping busy with various projects. One of her favorites is painting small 2' x 2' barn quilts that look great on garages, sheds, and houses. Julee's husband prepares the quilt boards with treated plywood and frames them in cedar so they can hang outdoors all year.
More recently Julee has become enthralled with recycling wool. She scours thrift shops and garage sales for old wool blankets, coats, and suits and after a hot water wash-and-dry, the wool is ready to become pillows, wall hangings and even birch trees!
Maker
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While we will maintain a more modern and simple Northwoods esthetic we also promise to be as inclusive as possible. That means if what you currently make is not a good fit, we will provide guidance on how it could be in the future.
All Maker goods start out on consignment and you will need to sign an agreement. But first, stop in or email us to inquire about an items acceptability.