History
5 years ago in Joliet Illinois, a friend gave me a length of copper guttering that had been removed from her 100-year-old house. It was a beautiful green color and was most likely the strangest gift anyone had given to me. As she handed it over she said 'I wanted to find someone who could make something with this and I thought of you.' It sat in my basement for a year until one day I had the idea to cut a piece, write a phrase on it and attach it to my leather cuff, as my personal reminder. People started to ask where I got it, and then, if I could make one for them. After a couple of other creative endeavors, and a life of being a touring musician, in 2013 whilst on a trip back to Australia visiting my family, the idea for The Handmade Society was born. My goal was to take my love of words, and my love for encouraging people and combine them with my love for cuffs and provide a product that people could keep close to them that would be their own, unique reminder for their lives.
Specialties
Australian artist Martine Locke has spent the last 20 years touring the US & Australia as an independent singer/songwriter, a journey that drew her to Indianapolis, where love kept her. In 2014, after a year of staring at a 100 year old piece of copper guttering that was given to her with the mandate 'to go create something', she meshed her love of words and her love of leather cuffs and created The Handmade Society. Now a resident maker in the Ruckus Makerspace in Indianapolis, Martine creates one of a kind, made to order leather cuffs using verdigris copper, preferably reclaimed, to stamp/etch or carve inspirational, thought provoking words and messages into the metal.