Maker Spotlight: Kelly McVicker

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Maker Spotlight: Kelly McVicker

Name: Kelly McVicker
Home: San Francisco, California
Makerspace: McVicker Pickles
Dream Project: Traveling and pickling with grandmas around the world—and writing about it!

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Kelly McVicker is the owner of McVicker Pickles. After spending several years raising money for women’s rights, she returned to her 4-H roots and jumped headfirst into the cutthroat world of small-batch pickling. She’s a fiend for farmers markets and goes bonkers for a good brine.

Going from professional fundraiser to professional pickler might seem like a strange career transition, but in essence it’s a pretty classic story. I think many of us who find ourselves in office-based, sedentary lifestyles feel this real urge to make something with our hands and see a product at the end of the day that we can look at and be like, ‘Yes, I made that.’ I just felt like I needed to get back to that and that led me back to the whole food preservation world.

I have always gravitated towards making multiples, as opposed to masterpieces. Before I launched McVicker Pickles, I had a small screenprinting studio called Deadbeatsister. In a lot of ways, pickling and printing are very similar: you’re making these editions of the same thing, all of which have subtle differences. Both are process-based, and both require you to have a system that allows you to work quickly. And both offer the satisfaction of tangible results at the end of a day.

Pickling, as with all food preservation that requires canning, is inherently communal. Of course it can be done alone, but it’s so much easier and more fun when you get a crew together to make an assembly line—someone chops the veggies, someone adds the spices, someone fills the brine. I love teaching those steps and seeing how they bring people together.

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You can find Kelly online at:
Website | Verlocal | GoodEggs


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A typical day for Lisa includes: getting up to see the sunrise, bicycling, interning at Make:, reading and writing short stories, and listening to audiobooks and podcasts for hours while working on projects or chores.

View more articles by Lisa Martin

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