On December 13th, 2023 I hit the road with all of my belongings and said bye to my parents, family and friends in Santa Barbara. Just for now, see ya next season kind of thing because Iāll be back down to SB to visit the HOMER MAKERĀ @homermakerĀ store in Montecito sometime next month. So, I headed North on the 101 where I picked up Kiel JohnsonĀ @kieljohnsonĀ a long time friend and college buddy back from the Long beach state days now living in San Luis Obispo CA. heās also down for a good road trip, especially if it involves what he calls, and I quoteā āa life chapter flipā which Iām guessing is a reference to the thousands of books he reads every year. That man wakes up at 3am and powers through the pages like a soldierās duty. Anyhow, it took a few days to get set up, but I now live and work in Portland, OR. And Iām proud to announce that I feel quite comfortable here. As my mom pointed out, Oregon is in my blood. She was born in Eugene OR before her family moved to Santa Barbara a long time ago so we have lots of family in the area near Astoria. Portland is a great city and I canāt wait to see what develops here, so please reach out if you are in the area so we can connect!
More updates will be coming in the near future, like: where will my design studio be set up? Will there ever be a retail store in Portland for Make Smith?
All these questions will remain in development over timeā¦ but in the meantime, the website is live and I am shipping products now after the Holiday vacation. Please feel free to check the website if there is something you would like to purchase, and just DM me and we can work it out. The above image is the first piece I've made in my new Portland OR custom leather crafting studio.Ā
Cheers!
Steven