Software, built like good bread.
The third craft, made the same way as the other two.
Bread, a rag quilt and a piece of software are the same activity to me: measure honestly, work slowly, and keep the thing afterwards. This is the half of that practice made of code — the calculators on this site, the framework underneath them, and a kitchen that reports on itself. I take on a few contract projects a year, when the fit and the pace are right; this page is about the making rather than the hiring.
Four habits, borrowed from the kitchen
Built for the thing I was doing anyway
Every tool here started as my own problem. A yardage calculator because I was cutting fabric; a baker's percentage calculator because I was scaling a loaf. Nothing was built to have been built.
Slow where it counts
Patient with the parts that matter and plain about the parts that don't. It is the same instinct as a long ferment: most of the work is waiting properly.
Made to be understood
Documented, tested, and legible to whoever comes next — including me in a year. Software you cannot read is software you cannot keep.
Kept, not shipped and forgotten
The things on this site are maintained because I use them. That is the difference between a portfolio and a kitchen.
What Gina Makes LLC has built
The studio’s brands and the tools inside them, all designed, built and run by one person. Start with this site — the whole thing is hand-built, and it’s the portfolio piece.
ginamakesbread.dev — the whole site
LiveThe site you're reading is the portfolio piece: a hand-built static site (one Python generator, no CMS) with a live Node/Express backend on Render — real-time appliance data, affiliate-offer and newsletter automations, and the interactive tools below.
Olive & Flame
LiveA ministry platform (pnpm monorepo of two web apps). The Lantern — a free, open library and reading room: 311 openly-licensed works with a verse-anchored reader, a daily lectern, a saints' calendar, reading plans, and a press that typesets its own print-ready books. Plus The Chapel, a virtual candlelit prayer space. Next.js + Postgres/pgvector on Render.
Sasquatch Wars
LiveA full-stack, browser-first 4X strategy game — base building, alliances, a shared 200×200 world map, hunting, eight mini-games, a 30-tier battle pass, and Xsolla-powered payments, all in a Bureau of Forest Operations parody voice. React + Express + SQLite on Render; a Unity 3D client in progress.
The Loop & The Line
LiveA self-directed course site for punch needle rug making — six modules from foundations to sculpted pile, a $25 DIY frame build, four progressive projects, and a troubleshooting matrix. Hand-written HTML/CSS, no frameworks, built with a small Python generator.
Baker's Percentage Calculator
LiveAn interactive baker's-math calculator that scales any sourdough recipe by weight and hydration — ported from a React draft to dependency-free vanilla JS.
The Kitchen Dashboard
LiveA live view of my King Arthur Sourdough Sidekick, read straight from the SmartHQ v2 cloud API, decoded into plain fields and refreshed on the page.
Weekly Dinner Planner
LiveA diet-aware weekly dinner planner that auto-assembles a menu per diet and one aggregated, aisle-grouped grocery list — fully client-side.
A note on The Starter
The Starter is my shared code framework — the reusable spine under the products I ship. It isn't a company or a product you buy; think of it the way I think of my sourdough starter, but for software. Products built on it are licensed by Gina Makes LLC to the organizations that use them under perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive terms. You get working software you fully control, with a clean paper trail.
This site, right now
The same machinery I build for clients, running on my own site. Read live from the server every 30 seconds.
Recently shipped
- Pantry link-checker: fail the build on links to unrendered formulas
- Pantry: public-site content type (/pantry/) with draft-gated rendering
- Close four inbound automation gaps (Lucy, quote confirm, send, rates)
- Flat-rate service catalog (labor + parts) for quote lock
- Pantry: Batch 1 formula drafts (BB-02..14, SB-01..06)
- Add pantry cookbook project foundation
From Field Notes
How I Built the Baker's Percentage Calculator
I didn't understand it until I built it.
Read Issue No. 02From my kitchen, right now
The Kitchen Dashboard
A live view of my King Arthur Sourdough Sidekick — read straight from the SmartHQ cloud API.
Open the dashboardHave something you want built — or fixed?
Tell me what you're trying to do in plain language. I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit.