Meet Your Maker: Headbadge crafter Laura Crawford

[Note: We announced vendor sign-ups for BikeCraft just last week, and we’ve already got over 30 amazing artisans ready to share their creations with you. This is the first in our Meet Your Maker series of BikeCraft vendors that will give you a closer look at the makers behind the products. The audio slideshow below was created by new BikePortland contributor Russ Roca.]

Laura Crawford.
(Photo: Russ Roca)

Today’s profile is of Laura Crawford. Laura is a metalsmith who creates custom bicycle head badges (among other things) under her Tangerine Treehouse banner.

Here’s how Laura explains head badges (and why you might want to consider one yourself):

What’s a head badge? Think of it as a hood ornament for your bicycle. It gets mounted to the front part of your bike’s head tube. Most bicycles these days have a wimpy plastic head badge or, even worse, a painted logo. But you’re unique, and you want your bicycle to reflect you (not the company that you bought the bike from). Which is where a custom head badge comes in…

If you can draw it, Laura can make it (see some examples below). She offers copper or sterling silver and since she makes them by hand, she can also offer any patina you might like. Prices run $80-125 for copper and $95-140 for silver (depending on complexity).

You can meet Laura and many other excellent artisans at BikeCraft VI on December 4-5th. Major thanks to Russ Roca for his work on the audio slideshow. Stay tuned for more Meet Your Maker profiles in the months to come.