Meet one of our makers ... Christine Mehling opened Better Bit of Butter Cookies shop about two years ago.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland is proud of its Rust Belt roots and history steeped in making things. This year, instead of profiling smart creatives or top CEOs, we decided to feature a new generation of craftsmen and women ... We affectionately call them "makers."
As the maker movement grows across the country and advocates the comeback of urban manufacturing, these folks from Northeast Ohio embody the maker spirit. They produce everything from reclaimed furniture to green tea products to one-of-a-kind stained glass pieces.
This week, the Plain Dealer will feature three makers per day ... this is one of those makers. We not only talked to them about what they make and how they make it, but also about some of the things they love about living and working in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
Meet one of the NE Ohio Makers ...
Daniel Owen of Mentor-on-the-Lake runs along Buttermilk Falls Parkway in the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. Christine Mehling, Better Bit of Butter Cookies
Former jewelry designer and Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Christine Mehling opened her first Better Bit of Butter Cookies shop about two years ago, and now operates out of a new store at 5353 Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst.
What she makes: Mehling creates edible works of art on miniature canvasses of homemade sugar cookies for weddings, special events, and custom orders. Her hand-decorated cookies are baked with local ingredients, including all-natural butter, and Ohio-farmed, cage-free eggs, and contain no trans fats or preservatives.
Why square sugar cookies? "A square cookie looks like a canvas," Mehling explains on her website, https://betterbitofbuttercookies.com/ "But more importantly, who doesn't want to bite off the corners?"
Her favorite place to take a visitor: The Cleveland Metroparks. I love to walk the trails in North and South Chagrin Reservations with my kids, it is a beautiful getaway without going very far.
Her favorite restaurant: The Standard on East 185th Street in Euclid. I really love their sauteed brussel sprouts with blue cheese.
Better Bit of Butter's Dr. Seuss-inspired sugar cookies. Her favorite all-time creation: A batch of Dr. Seuss-inspired cookies for a local school that wanted to reward the performers in a Dr. Seuss musical.
I really like the Dr. Seuss cookies, because they are the design that is most like a drawing, and I secretly would like to illustrate a children's book some day.
This is the video she made for a Kickstarter campaign two years ago, when she raised more than $10,000 to open her first store.
Better Bit of Butter Cookies [Kickstarter Video] from Window Frame Productions on Vimeo.