Portland Made, Part II

Today's post is written by Eric Gold, a freelance writer in Portland and editor of portlandmade.com. This is Part II of a Portland Made miniseries. 

See: Portland Made, Part I

Caravan Pacific Sullivan (pictured above)
One of several wood and ceramic lamps created by ex-Brookynite Shannon Guirl, the Sullivan is named for the Portland neighborhood of Sullivan’s Gulch. This summer, Guirl moved her business into a new, shared production space and is developing new prototypes. Guirl says she designed the Sullivan right on the lathe. “I noticed I was making this beautiful curve,” she says, “so I just kept following that curve.”

Kinn Bikes Cascade Flyer
Alistair Williamson designed his Cascade Flyer to be long enough to hold a rider (like his grandson, Max) on the wooden back platform but still short enough to fit in an elevator or on the front rank of a city bus. By putting the passenger inside the wheel base, the bike gains stability. “I like to go a decent speed,” Williamson says, “and so do the grandkids.”

SchuttenWorks iPhone 5 Dock
Rindert Schutten’s SchuttenWorks wooden iPhone docks feature acoustic amplification—cone-shaped holes in the base make your music or FaceTime call louder and clearer. Available in many woods like curly maple, black walnut, and bamboo. The docks’ precision and simplicity reflect Schutten’s engineering background. “Nothing starts without having yourself a kind of desire for it,” he says.

Plywerk
Plywerk mounts your digital images on various sizes and styles of maple or bamboo panels. Kjell van Zoen and his wife Kim Oanh Nguyen-van Zoen started out selling her photography mounted on the panels at Portland street fairs, then graduated to an inner-east side industrial facility, shipping Plywerk around the US and Canada. “We take peoples’ creative intentions,” van Zoen says, “and turn them into something tangible.”

Thanks, Eric.

(Photos courtesy of Portland Made.)