Nora Blog

Abigail Murray loves Detroit because there are so many people positively impacting culture here. She takes her eggs over-easy and laid by her neighbor’s chickens and she grows her own watermelon. Her love of ceramics began at Andersen Ranch, where Ken Price taught her how to make cups, and that passion has carried over into her products for Nora. She has created stacks of black porcelain planters and vases that were made from slabs cast on plaster molds. The textures were taken from reclaimed materials from her project Afterhouse, which converts an irreparably damaged home into a greenhouse. The...

If you are someone who doesn’t shy away from politics at the dinner table, this collaboration between Iris Eichenberg and Nadege Roscoe Rumjahn might be for you. They’ve embroidered, stitched, stained and printed an incredible tablecloth that merges mundane needlework and the language of industry. This experimental collaboration uses abstract presentations of city grids and plants taking over the grids as a Detroit table drawing. They love blue chicory and wild flowers breaking through asphalt. Fun fact about chicory: if you put it in a vase, the flowers will brown by the end of the day and every morning new...

The husband and wife team of Melissa and Shane Douglas founded Douglas & Co. in Detroit. They drink coffee with coconut oil, raw milk and butter for breakfast. They also make beautifully crafted leather products in small production quantities. They see their joint endeavor as an experiment in growth and learning. Their favorite green space in Detroit is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory at Belle Isle. They design products for people who love the elegance of simplicity. They see a positive impact in the people who have persevered through hardships in Detroit as well as newcomers to the city who...

Ruth Koelewyn (pronounced cool-eh-wine and meaning fresh wine in Dutch) makes products for people who love to try new things, and who feel a strong connection to the their belongings, their place and their people. She started making jewelry when she was 12 at a community art course and has not sopped since. She has created earrings and necklaces from sterling silver and upcycled maps of Metro Detroit. Her favorite greenspaces in Detroit include the River Walk and Woodmere Cemetery. She believes that everyone in Detroit who is thinking creatively and trying to do or learn new things makes a...

Fran Gross has likely been knitting for longer than you’ve been alive. Her first knitting project was something known as a half hat. As a child she would spend Saturdays at Kresge’s on Livernois or on Wyoming at Spitzer’s Knit Shop with her mom and sisters waiting for a turn with Mrs. Spitzer, who would take their measurements and create a pattern for whatever they dreamed up to create. Fran has knitted some beautiful heirloom pumpkins for Nora that serve as festive autumnal home décor. Growing up in Northwest Detroit, Fran loves Palmer Park and all the newer farms and...