15 Gift Ideas from Rust Belt Market

(Crystal A. Proxmire, Dec. 15, 2017)

Ferndale, MI – Looking for holiday gifts?  The Rust Belt Market has over 50 small businesses under one roof, including many artists and local small manufacturers.

A recent visit showed a variety of gifting possibilities. Some of our favorites included a decorative, re-purposed brick from Motor City Brick that featured Grand Rapids, cactus and succulents from Lady Lazarus, and sweatshirts from Great Lakes State.

Speedcult has a variety of artistic prints, plus lots of stickers and magnets that might make great stocking-stuffers.  The Loaded Die has a wall full of board games. During our visit they were featuring Queen Domino.  Bitichin’ Stichen is another shop with a variety of items, ranging from scantily clad characters on aprons and pillows to the exceptionally sweet smiles of Will Farrell as Elf.  And for those with men whose facial hair needs grooming, Bear Care has beard wash, beard balm, and combs.

Several vendors have clothing and jewelry, including Uniquely Different, Hypknotica, Shionne, and Desert Wizard.  Tooth & Nail also has unique jewelry options, along with all kinds of strange and wonderful things. This year it was a lighted display board of medical slides that really captured our imagination.  We Feed Detroit also sells clothing, with a percentage of the revenue going to help local food banks.

We also checked out records from Stay Pressed, wooden bowls from Live Edge Detroit, kids shoes from Orikami Organics, handmade cards from The Workplace and vintage toys, including a Sega system, from Blue Jay Way.

Rust Belt Market has special holiday hours being open from now until Dec. 24. Dec. 16-21 they will be open 11am-7pm. Dec. 22-23 it’s 11am-9pm and Dec. 24 it’s from 11am- 3pm. Their address is 22801 Woodward (at the corner of 9 Mile and Woodward in Downtown Ferndale).  And you can find them online at www.RustBeltMarket.com.