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Tricia, Iris, and Matthew Jensen, with their laser cutter. Photo by Michelle Colby.
Saline home business looking for local opportunities to display and sell their products.
What happens when a maker of things lab instructor meets an artistic seamstress, jewelry maker, and bulb glazer? Well, he teaches her how to use a laser cutter, knowing she would make awesome stuff with it.
Tricia Jensen has been a maker of things, like earrings and necklaces (using materials like metal and resin) and sewing for most of her adult life. She developed her home business name, Wonder Fool Art & Designs, almost 6 years ago when she began working at Motawi Tileworks and learned about their twice-a-year staff art sale.
Matthew Jensen worked in the YOUmedia teen space at the Chicago Public Library. After meeting Tricia in 2019, they travelled back and forth for 4 months before deciding to settle in Saline. He currently works at the Chelsea District Library, where he runs the Makerspace Lab. The Ingenuity Engine is located on the second floor of the library and has equipment such as a 3-D printer, laser cutter, sewing machines, vinyl cutters, Adobe Creative Suite, and more. Their purpose is to help bring your creative concepts to reality.
Since showing Tricia how to use the laser cutter, the design concepts have become more creative and possible to make. Their next big art project is taking place at the Michigan Regional Burning Man event, located at Lucky Lake Campground in Montague from June 15-19. They are designing a large space craft, for this year’s theme of Lakes in Space! Nevada’s Black Rock Desert plays host to the annual Burning Man event, which is a 501(c)(3) as an arts funding organization. This event takes place from August 28-September 5. The Jensens received an art grant to be able to participate at Regional Burn event at Lakes of Fire.
“It has been a lot of fun,” Matthew shares, “Having the business in your home is so nice, because if we have an idea, we get to execute it immediately.
This has led the duo to expand their curiosities to products like tiles, signs, puzzles, and more. They are able to do custom projects on wood and acrylic.
Because of the liabilities involved with having a home business, such as this, the Jensens began their journey to changing Wonder Fool Art & Designs to a LLC in January 2022. Their business can be found on Facebook and Etsy.
