Neighborhood bars and restaurants, many with an Irish theme, have long been the catalyst for fun and frolic in Kamm’s Corners. An annual Hooley brings out the Irish (and honorary Irish) in the neighborhood almost as effectively as St. Patrick’s Day. But it’s not just food and drink here lately: New businesses, including two craft-centered shops, have recently joined the neighborhood.
The Kamm’s Corners business district spans an area on Lorain Ave. from W. 165th to W. 176th streets. This area includes Kamm’s Plaza as well as more vintage storefront shopping that lines Lorain Avenue. Decades ago, this was a prime shopping area for residents – the area is even named after Oswald Kamm, a 19th-century grocer. Furniture stores, a shoe repair shop, and a movie theater were mainstays. Bakery and butcher shops partnered with drug and grocery stores, restaurants, and bars to serve the community. Slowly, the business community lost its variety.
West Park Kamm’s Corners Neighborhood Development, the nonprofit community development, has been promoting the area as a place to do business. At the same time, the area is a decade into a long-term effort to revive the Lorain Ave. commercial district and re-do the streetscape.
Ward 17 Council Member Charles Slife says welcoming more businesses that will attract visitors is a focus of his, and he hopes these shoppers and restaurant patrons will “fall in love with West Park.” In particular, he says “thriving retail districts are those that offer visitors interactive experiences,” including those that offer hands-on crafting.
Recently, two new and innovative arts-centered shops have joined the community, and each owner says her shop has been supported by the neighborhood and is also drawing customers from outside the area.
The Mud Room Pottery Studio
You know you are in a place of serious creativity when you walk into Danielle Doré’s space. Quiet and serene, much like her, The Mud Room Pottery Studio is lined with art of all kinds, much of it her own creation. Crafting gets down to business in the middle of the room. Works-in-progress from her varied classes and tools of the trade are arranged on tables waiting patiently to be in use again. Cloth-covered projects and clay hunker mysteriously, later to emerge as finished projects.
During class time, activity picks up with conversation, exclamations of joy, or a little disappointment sprinkled with giggles and the physical feel of accomplishment.
Doré’s youthful appearance belies the years she has of experience in the arts. After receiving her bachelor of fine arts degree from The Cleveland Institute of Art, she spent 16 years, primarily drawing and pottery, at Beck Center for the Arts. Part of that time included duties as the visual arts liaison and assisting with art shows in the gallery there.
She taught in and ran the pottery studio at Notre Dame College as an adjunct professor, taught ceramic classes at The Rocky River Senior Center, and found time for her own creations. Her portrait work is a surprise addition to The Mud Room’s exhibit of her work.
The Mud Room opened in February 2023. Doré, who was familiar with the Kamm’s area through family ties, originally looked for space in Lakewood. As it turned out, the space in Kamm’s was a good fit for both her needs and her budget.
Doré’s face lights up when she says she loves to teach. She teaches both adult and children’s classes, and The Mud Room also has open studio time available for artists to book access to tools and equipment to continue their own work. Classes for seniors are available at a discounted rate.
When asked if The Mud Room has classes for couples (a la Demi and Patrick in the movie “Ghost”), she laughed and said the pottery wheel area is not set up for two to use, but couples do come together.
To get more information on this ancient craft of pottery, visit The Mud Room at 16848 Lorain Ave., Cleveland. Call (216)379-4967 or email mudroomps@gmail.com to reach the studio, or find them online.
Imagine That & More
Imagine a place so bright, cheerful, and happy you cannot leave without feeling better. You don’t have to be a quilter or even a crafter to leave this space happy, but you may also leave Imagine That & More inspired to start a project of your own.
From the first greeting, likely from Karol (with a K), you move along on a wave of amazing possibilities.
That is the design of owner Megan Sorn and all the other instructors who share their knowledge and skills to help people create and craft a project of their dreams.
While recovering from a serious head injury in 2018, Sorn spent time during her six-month recovery looking for a way to develop a business and use her art school background. She saw a welcoming atmosphere in West Park and loved the diversity and hometown feel. When her good friend asked her to take a free quilting class with her, Sorn found her own passion.
Plans for developing a business were severely altered during the pandemic. Sorn was fueled by dreams when she and her mother, Linda, opened a space to accommodate a small, social quilting group meeting space during Covid. The new space, Imagine That, was just a few blocks east of the main Kamm’s’ downtown district.
When the pandemic came and created new needs, Sorn responded by organizing the creation of 5,500 face masks that were made available as part of the City of Cleveland’s Giving Tree Project. Kamm’s Corners was a distribution point for the masks made by Sorn’s band of frantic sewers. Sorn says she never wants to sew a mask again.
Dreams get bigger when there’s time to think, and Megan’s dream of a larger space to create and share with plenty of parking came true with the opening of Imagine That & More in the Kamm’s Plaza Shopping Center in fall 2021.
Classes in sewing, crochet, quilting, wool applique, and more are held at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, as well as children’s classes. Long-arm quilting machines can be rented to finish an existing project. Small sewing groups, book clubs, and more can use the comfy sofa seating area to meet for an hourly charge.
“I believe that classes have lasting value. Every time you learn a new skill, that knowledge can be applied to your future handmade projects and help you to create them more quickly, skillfully and beautifully than you have in the past,” says Sorn.
One satisfied customer, Lee Nageotte, who used a long-arm machine to help complete a large quilt project said, “Although I could have worked on this by hand, the project is so large, it would have taken me a great deal of time to complete. Using the long-arm with Karol’s assistance was really fast. I am very happy with the result.”
Sorn is going beyond traditional classes, too: Pillow projects for charitable donations, evening retreats, and wine and cheese gatherings are all successful events that are scheduled beyond class time.
Sorn has no limit to her ideas to make her store and downtown Kamm’s Corners a destination. From Aug.1–Sept. 30, Imagine That & More is an advertised stop on this year’s All-Ohio Shop Hop. This is an opportunity for quilters to visit quilt shops throughout specific vicinities and timeframe. This has brought some out-of-area customers already, says Sorn.
To experience the MORE at Imagine That & More, visit the shop at 3756 Rocky River Drive, Cleveland. Call (216) 417-1155 or email imaginethat&more@gmail.com to reach the store, or find them online.
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