A Place for the Maker | Flying Cow Tallow

Place for the Maker: The Artisan Collective Inside Flying Cow Tallow Walk into one of our shops and you'll find a shelf that isn't really ours. There are speckled ceramic cups with raw clay bottoms, clay earrings shaped like little cowboy boots, woven textiles folded at the end of a counter, and small cards in acrylic frames that read handcrafted locally. That shelf is A Place for the Maker, and it holds work from more than 20 artists across our four stores in Midland, Lubbock, and Fredericksburg, Texas, and Franklin, Tennessee. We started Flying Cow around a kitchen stove, whipping small batches of tallow by hand, so we know what the early years of a handmade business actually feel like. You make a few things, you carry them to a market, you hope the weather holds, and you carry home whatever doesn't sell.

When we finally had shelves of our own, giving some of that space to other makers felt like the obvious thing to do. Here is how it works. We buy the work outright. When a piece comes into the store, the maker has already been paid for it, and what happens next is our concern rather than theirs. A slow February doesn't follow them home. It means we're careful about what we bring in, because we're standing behind each piece the same way we stand behind our own, and it also means a maker can plan around a real number instead of a maybe. Each maker gets their own sign, not just a price tag. The sign carries a photo, a short piece of their story in their own words, and a QR code that takes you to their shop or their page. The codes live on the signs rather than on the individual pieces, so you can read about someone while you're holding their work, then follow them from your own kitchen a week later. Joanna of Particle Ceramics is one of them, and her sign tells you how she found clay in college, kept the practice going after graduation while her career took her elsewhere, and eventually built a permanent studio with her husband that became the business she runs today. Cambrie of Aster Clay has been part of the collective since 2018 and her jewelry is usually somewhere on the wall.

The Franklin store gave the collective its newest home. It sits at 418 Main Street, right across from the Franklin Theatre, in a space Joshua built out and Britney designed. We soft opened in December 2025 in time for the Christmas tree lighting, then held our grand opening on February 13, 2026. Middle Tennessee has no shortage of people making beautiful things by hand, and the shelf there has been filling up ever since. If you're shopping for someone who already owns plenty, this is usually where we point you. A mug that someone threw and glazed and signed carries a story that a catalog item can't, and you'll know exactly whose hands made it. If you're shopping for yourself, the same thing is true, and there's no rule that says the good mug has to be a gift. We'd love to have you come see it. The tallow is what we make, but the makers are a good part of why the stores feel the way they do. Flying Cow Tallow418 Main Street, Franklin, TNMonday through Saturday, 10am to 6pmflyingcowtallow.com