When something is designed and handcrafted in a mom-and-pop workshop somewhere in Texas, it’s always going to cost a bit more than a mass-produced widget from a foreign mega-factory. It’s also going to mean a lot more when you give it as a gift. Here are 43 ways to support Texas’s vibrant maker community for less than $100. Often a lot less.
Our Made in Texas Gift Guide appeared in the December 2017 issue of Texas Monthly.
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Bergamot + Teak Candle
Manready Mercantile • $28
Travis Weaver started Houston’s Manready Mercantile to translate products traditionally marketed to women, such as scented candles, to gentlemen. He made his first candles by repurposing a whiskey tumbler from his cabinet and experimenting with soy wax and essential oils on his stove. Buy Now.
Pocket Square
Wrong Side • $18
Brothers Josh and Sam Newman, from Austin, make their surprising patterned pocket squares and bandanas using leftover material from iconic Texas brands such as Hamilton Shirts and Dickie’s. The floral pocket square, made from Hamilton scraps, turns any old navy blazer into a dandy. Buy Now.
Willis Collar
Son of a Sailor • $48
Pick your own paint colors to customize a natural leather collar made by the prolific East Austin company Son of a Sailor, which makes everything
from leather-bound notebooks to a mid-century-inspired wall clock. Available in three sizes and dozens of color combinations. Buy Now.
Dopp Kit
W Durable Goods • $60
The origins of the heavy canvas dopp kit made by Daniel Wright in the historic O.B. Macaroni building in Fort Worth began when he taught himself to sew in order to mend holes he’d get in his work clothes as an electrician. Today, Wright makes rugged yet refined overnight bags, briefcases, and water-resistant dopp kits like this one in canvas and leather. Buy Now.
San Jose Sake Set
Linda Perez Ceramics • $85
Ceramicist Linda Perez has raised cattle and taught in rural Zambia, but it was at the potter’s wheel where she found her great passion, making dinnerware for top San Antonio restaurants and collaborating on pieces like this sleek sake set inspired by Austin’s Hotel San José. Buy Now.
Work Sock Sweater Kit
Madeline Tosh • $61
In 2006, Fort Worth’s Amy Hendrix started a small hand-dyeing outfit, which quickly grew into a thriving e-commerce source of natural fibers with wholesale accounts across the world and monthly yarn and sweater club memberships for crafty DIY-ers. Buy Now.
Indigo Bracelet
Billy Baker • $80
Josh Madans, the dapper founder of Dallas-based Billy Baker Co., makes stylish and subtle bracelets and jewelry for men using beads sourced everywhere from Madagascar to Afghanistan. Buy Now.
Vase
Angel Oloshove • $90
The modern lines and bubble shapes of Houston artist Angel Oloshove’s whimsical vases in bold hues reflect a Japanese influence, one she discovered while working as a toy designer in Tokyo over the time she lived there. Buy Now.
Sustainable Teak Steel Razor
Old Factory • $98
Madeline Novak got interested in natural skin-care products after struggling with severe skin allergies, so she and perfumer Jonathan Savoie founded Old Factory, in Blanco, to create handmade soaps and other essentials. The razor has a handsome teak handle and fits Mach 3 blades. Buy Now.
Daytime Moisturizer
Hard Night, Good Morning • $30
Real Housewives of Dallas star D’Andra Simmons followed in the footsteps of her mother, Dee, and started her own line under the family’s company umbrella, Ultimate Living. The aloe vera-based daily moisturizer is a rejuvenating addition to your facial routine. Buy Now.
Lavender & Cedar Soy Candle
Slow North Candles • $29
The soy wax and essential oils that make up one of the delightfully fragrant Slow North candles are hand-poured in small batches by maker Michelle Simmons in her North Austin studio. From her recently opened shop and studio, she hosts DIY candle-making workshops and sells artisan goods from other Texas makers. Buy Now.
Elizabeth Street Café Cookbook
McGuire Moorman Hospitality • $39.95
The prettiest little French-Vietnamese café and bakery in Austin, Elizabeth Street, is the subject of McGuire Moorman Hospitality’s first cookbook, released this fall by Phaidon. With recipes for everything from their highly Instagrammed macarons to the scrumptious sticky rice in lotus leaves, the 200-plus page book is an ode to this gem founded by restaurateurs Tom Moorman and Larry McGuire in a colorful bungalow on South First Street in 2011. Buy Now.
Boot Scootin’ Sweets
Maggie Louise Confections • $38
Each piece of chocolate in one of Maggie Louise’s boxes is a work of art that has been meticulously crafted around various themes, including dozens for the holidays alone, by confectioner Maggie Louise Callahan, who opened her flagship store and studio in East Austin in 2014. The “God Bless Texas” collection features boots, cacti, and an outline of the state in delectable chocolate forms. Buy Now.
Flying Cactus Catchall
Bexar Goods • $65
The two sets of brothers who founded this fast-growing San Antonio company have become darlings of the Texas maker scene thanks to their timelessly handsome leather goods and Yeti-like branding prowess. The catchall tray is made of bridle leather and hand-hammered with copper rivets. Buy Now.
Long Time Bandana
Design Build Adventure • $30
Welder-meets-designer-meets-artist Jack Sanders recently opened the Long Time, an event space and studio and baseball field in East Austin. The venue’s official bandana, hand-dyed with indigo at the Long Time, is a replica of Sanders’s fine-art print West Texas Night Sky. Buy Now.
Crocodile Clip
Lucchese • $95
This magnetic money clip is made with exotic crocodile leather by Lucchese, a brand created by Salvatore Lucchese, an Italian immigrant to the United States who started his first boot-making shop at Fort Sam Houston, a U.S. Cavalry School in San Antonio. In 1986, the heritage company moved its operation from San Antonio to El Paso, where it still handcrafts boots. Buy Now.
Chili Bowl
Castroville Pottery • $45
Rustic yet elegant, these stoneware chili bowls with a handle are a fitting addition to any Texan’s dish collection. Tim and Gloria Kelley have been operating their Castroville shop since 2008, making everything from bread bakers to beer steins. Bowls come in four glaze options. Buy Now.
Chester Mini Purse
Gaia • $48
The socially responsible Dallas brand Gaia employs local refugee women to make bags, accessories, and jewelry for a living wage and progress toward financial independence. The couldn’t-be-cuter mini purses come in cat, mouse, and heart shapes with colorful pompom accents. Buy Now.
Oscar Wall Clock
Son of a Sailor • $75
Husband-and-wife team William and Jessica Knopp of Son of a Sailor offer a vast array of products, from apothecary to home décor accessories like this walnut wall clock. Inspired by Knopp’s time in the Navy, the design feels nautical and mid-century with brass geometric hands. Buy Now.
Best Hikes with Dogs: Texas Hill Country and Gulf Coast
Melissa Gaskill • $17.95
Writer Melissa Gaskil shares the best hiking trails for pups—think terrain that won’t harm their paws and is hazard-free. All of the trails are in driving distance of Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Buy Now.
Come and Take It T-Shirt
Paris Texas Apparel Co. • $24
Best known for its silk Texas-themed ties and bowties, Paris Texas Apparel Co. also carries guayaberas, tees, food products, and more online and at its Houston store (it’s expanding in January). The super-soft children’s tees are designed in-house or in collaboration with Texas artists. Buy Now.
Austin Motel Scarf
ELOI • $50
Paige Russell’s process begins by cutting shapes out of construction paper, which she then pieces together to create vibrant designs that are printed onto silk fabrics. The Austin Motel scarf was created in collaboration with the Bunkhouse Group, which creates cleverly curated stores for each of its hotels, including this Austin landmark. Buy Now.
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The Texanist
David Courtney and Jack Unruh • $24.95
Must I really dance with the one that brung me? Can a person have too many Texas-themed tattoos? May I pick the bluebonnets? Whether you come for the good guidance of the acclaimed national advice columnist of Texas Monthly or the whimsical Jack Unruh illustrations that accompanied the popular column for its first nine years, The Texanist: Fine Advice on Living in Texas, a hand-picked collection of the best of the long-running back-page feature, is guaranteed to educate and entertain. Buy Now.
Prada Marfa Sketch
Jessica Fontenot • From $55
Starting in April 2016, Austin artist and designer Jessica Fontenot spent a year drawing a different building every day, focusing on structures in Austin as well as other places she traveled to during that time. She brings each one to life with rich details and shadowing. The Prada Marfa drawing is one of three limited-edition pieces she created exclusively for the Texas Monthly General Store as part of the new Texas print collection. Buy Now.
Handmade Blue Splatter Paint Coffee Mug
Box Sparrow Studio • $42
Houston ceramicist Abbie Preston marries the organic with the glam in these handmade coffee mugs featuring a handle painted with a 24-karat gold luster. In addition to the blue-and-white splatter style, the mugs also come in a deep blue color. Buy Now.
Corpus Hat
Produce Goods • $30
Show your South Texas pride in this “Corpus” ball cap, one of the best-selling items from popular local DJ and producer Horacio “El Dusty” Oliveria’s line of well-designed goods that celebrate his hometown. Buy Now.
Art Print of “I Want it All” Tapestry
Lauren Williams Art • From $90
Dallas artist Lauren Williams creates one-of-a-kind dip-dyed tapestries, called Canvas With Movement, that are inspired by nature. Thanks to Williams’s more than 80,000 Instagram followers, new collections quickly sell out, but you can buy prints of her work. Buy Now.
Pucker Box Set
bell’Invito • $60 (with digital bespoke personalization starting at $400)
Former fashion art director Heather Wiese started printing her European-influenced line of letterpress paper goods on late nineteenth-century printing presses in 2004. The Dallas-based outfit designs custom invitations and stationary for the city’s style setters and has created an online tool called “digital bespoke” that can help you customize your own letterpress design, which is then shipped out in eleven business days or less. Buy Now.
Brown and Blue Aromatic Smoking Fuel
No. 4 St. James • $12
Bring the rich flavor of Texas pecan wood to your next BBQ with this mixture of pecan shells and dried juniper berries, packaged in a high-quality drawstring bag. Made for the pit or the grill, the shells help to bring that smoky flavor to the grill or the pit. Buy Now.
Totally Texan Letterpress Calendar
Color Box Letterpress • $55
Boots, Big Tex, and bluebonnets—this pretty, hand-drawn letterpress calendar features an iconic Texas essential for each month of the year and comes with an acrylic stand for resting it on your desk or the kitchen counter. Buy Now.
Trapper Pocket Knife
Moore Maker • From $38
Brothers Wayland and Glynard Moore started making spurs and buckles in the Panhandle in 1985 and graduated to making knives for George Strait and Bush 43. The trapper has a bone handle and master and spey blades. Buy Now.
Texas Saddle Shop Keychain
No. 4 St. James • $12
No. 4 St. James, an Austin-based designer and developer of Texas-centric products, has partnered with Clint Wilkinson of the late, great North Texas saddlery Weldon’s Saddle Shop, to make a good-looking vegetable tanned bridle leather keychain with a solid brass or nickel key ring. Buy Now.
Texas Flannel Sport Shirt
Texas Standard • $99.50
Every Texas man needs a quality plaid shirt. To the rescue comes Dallas-based men’s clothing brand Texas Standard, which recently released this super-soft flannel that comes in several different snappy plaids. Buy Now.
Horse Of Course Print
Humble Donkey Studio • From $25
A former illustrator for NASA turned painter, John Lowery has set up a shop and studio in Round Top to showcase his Texas farm scenes—cows in a vibrant pasture, horses against a blue sky, and of course, a donkey, the mascot of the gallery. Prints of the original paintings are available online. Buy Now.
Margarita Glass
Salado Glassworks • $30 each
Gift a set of these glasses to the margarita or Topo Chico devotee in your life. Stop by the studio in Salado to watch the art of glassblowing, or make reservations to work with a glassblower to create your own mug, Pilsner glass, or tumbler. Buy Now.
Cutting Board
Petrified Design • $65
Choose from an array of colorful handles and wood types for these cutting or cheese boards made by Petrified Design. The Austin-based duo, Tyson Pendergrass and Gable Bostic, make other wood and steel home accessories and furniture, like the stylish mid-century Nodo Chair.
Te Amo Vaquero Print
Snake Hawk Press • $40
Cruz Ortiz transformed a former train station on San Antonio’s South Side into a compound where he lives, paints, and runs a design and branding business, Snake Hawk Press. The Vaquero is one of several special-edition hand-pulled prints inspired by the cross-cultural city he loves. Buy Now.
Tetra Earrings
EM Jewelry + Design • $48
After moving from Oregon to Waco, Ellen Mote decided to become a part of the burgeoning creative scene in her new hometown and started to make jewelry again (she had studied the craft at Texas Tech). The result is a line of delicate geometric pieces for any occasion. Buy Now.
Jackalope Tea Towel
Kimball Prints • $18
Austin artist Carolyn Kimball paints nature-inspired watercolors and screen-prints them onto flour-sack cotton towels. Choose from palms, cacti, wildflowers, longhorns, and mythical wildlife. Buy Now.
Picturing Texas Politics
University of Texas Press • $45
This coffee table book is full of rare, historic photos of iconic Texas politicians, from Sam Houston to Ann Richards and Rick Perry. Chuck Bailey dove deep into archives, museums, libraries, and private collections to source these photographs, many of which have not been published before. Buy Now.
Spanish Sage Hand Salve
Newton + Co.• $9
The mixture of white sage, lavender, and myrrh creates a soothing scent that deeply hydrates. Handmade in Austin with all-natural ingredients, the salve comes in a pretty tin to slip into your bag for moisturizing on the go. Buy Now.
Want more? Get creative with this cute collection of gifts for Kids & Pets. Be inspired to get outside with our round up of ideas for the Outdoor Adventurer. Or take another look at our other categories.
