Around Wilmington, creative spaces are plentiful. 

Whether community members want to paint a mug or build an invention, local entrepreneurs have created spaces where people can access the needed materials. From Pinspiration in Mayfaire Town Center to the Cape Fear Makers Guild downtown, creative outlets serve as resources and social hubs for the like-minded. 

A nonprofit organization, Cape Fear Makers Guild is located on the basement floor of 273 N. Front St., with Rose Pilates above on the street level. The guild provides a smorgasbord of equipment – most of which is donated, and the rest is government surplus that the guild’s executive director, Doug Hamerski, can get cheap. 

The guild is one of the only local public makerspaces. There’s a digital makerspace at the University of North Carolina Wilmington accessible to students. 

“These things just appear here,” Hamerski said, pointing to a new machine tucked into a corner of his makerspace.  

The small space includes a laser room, woodworking studio, 3D printer and circuitry area and community gathering room. The group’s members can create events for each group meeting. “Take-apart Tuesday” is displayed on the mounted community schedule. It was not Hamerski’s idea, but he said he’s excited to see how it turns out. 

Hamerski said one inventor took his product from an idea to commercialization in the guild. The product is a plastic knife attached by a magnet to the inside of a peanut butter jar cap. “Not brain surgery,” Hamerski said. But it works. 

Hamerski began this project in 2022 when he and his wife purchased the building housing Rose Pilates and the guild. By day, he is a kidney doctor at Eastern Nephrology Associates on Medical Center Drive. He started the guild because he was interested in joining a makerspace in town but found the existing one in Wilmington had shuttered after Hurricane Florence in 2018. 

Although makerspaces are in short supply, do-it-yourself art studios are abundant. 

Sonja Cook opened her Pinspiration store on Inspiration Drive in 2021. She was looking to start the next chapter of her life after her kids left the house and found her education in art therapy could be put to use.

The store is a franchise, and she opened the first location in the state, Cook said. Since 2021, four more locations have popped up across North Carolina. 

The store offers a variety of crafts, including adult projects such as whiskey flight stands and child-friendly activities such as splatter paint on canvas. Cook and her staff can be hands-on, guiding clients through the crafting process or uninvolved after handing clients their materials, depending on the client’s ability and attitude. 

Building confidence is a big part of her job, she said. Cook said some of those who come to the store as a member of a birthday party or trying something completely new will doubt their ability to be creative. 

“There’s been many times when that person who has felt the least creative has become the most creative and created something beautiful,” she said. 

Cook has one full-time employee and three UNCW students who help her run the shop, along with her husband, she said. She was hesitant to open a shop in the bustling Mayfaire Town Center, knowing competition like Michaels craft store was right across the street.  

She’s found that the demand for craft spaces in Wilmington is large enough that everyone gets business, she said. 

Hamerski is interested in expanding into the arts and crafts space as well, he said. His goal for 2024 is to grow the guild’s art component. The space has tools such as a heat press and sewing machine for those interested in art, but the group doesn’t see many artists working in the space, he said. 

One issue with the lack of makerspaces like Hamerski’s is public libraries used to provide that resource for the community. But since many cannot afford trained staff to teach people how to use the machines, many are no more, he said. 

Project Grace, a public-private redevelopment of the county-owned, 3-acre block bordered by Third, Chestnut, Second and Grace streets, includes plans for a new county library. Hamerski said when he asked the New Hanover County Library director Dana Conners if the project would include a makerspace – the answer was “no.”

Conner told the Business Journal that the new library will have a “library of things” for people to check out and use on their own. Metal detectors, sewing machines and STEM kits for children, among other things, can be checked out for free with a library card, she said. 

As for 3D printers, the library does not have the staff to accommodate the machine, she said. Makerspaces were a trend that hit its prime about 10 years ago. Since then, libraries have been phasing them out, she said.

“The makers guild that’s downtown on Front Street – they definitely have more of the expertise,” Conners said. “Our role doesn’t really extend that far. It was great when makerspaces were new, and everybody wanted to have one … It’s not really a focus of public libraries anymore.”