At MiCA 12/v, the Deiningers are ‘telling a story’

Mike Deininger and Carolyn Deininger’s story is a tale of love and art and leaps of faith. It’s taken them around the world, from Portland, Maine, to Cornwall, England, to Chincoteague Island in Virginia’s Eastern Shore region.

But it was Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine that ultimately won their hearts – and benefited from their entrepreneurial spirits. For the last 18 years, their gift shop and gallery MiCA 12/v has been a fixture on the corner for which it’s named, showcasing design-based, handmade local art at 12th and Vine streets. 

Chapter one

Their story begins like this: 1990. Maine. Carolyn: A student at Portland School of Art (now Maine College of Art & Design). Mike: A former Cincinnatian whose wanderlust had brought him to the Navy and Bath, Maine, the shipbuilding town where Carolyn grew up.

Both spent their childhoods surrounded by makers. Not only did Carolyn’s mother knit and make toys, but she was also the bookkeeper for a craft co-op.

“I spent a lot of time in that store,” Carolyn said. “They were mostly women taking care of kids and selling things on the side that they could make.” 

Her father, meanwhile, remodeled their entire house, even building the staircase and vanity. Similarly, Mike’s mom ran a handmade shop in Madeira in the 1970s, and his father built things.

By 1990, they were living in very different settings.

“I was around art students and here was this very clean-cut, super-polite military guy who opened the doors for me. (And you still open doors for me.) I was very different than the Navy people,” Carolyn said.

“I thought you were exciting to be around,” Mike replied. “You were in art school; your apartment was cool.”

Despite those contrasts, the two were alike enough to get each other’s jokes and have fun together. 

“You had such an innate goodness about you, and that meant a lot,” Carolyn added.

In the days before email and FaceTime, sending letters and postcards while Mike was at sea fueled Carolyn’s love for stationery – a love that, many years later, manifested as Paper Wings, the couple’s stationery shop. (It opened in 2019 in its own space, just up Vine; in 2024, they moved it to the second side of MiCA 12/v.) 

They married in 1993 and spent the next decade traveling with the Navy. Immersion in the artistic traditions of Cornwall (not to mention the many other parts of Europe they visited) and years working in an artist-owned shop on Chincoteague Island fueled the dream Carolyn had had since college of owning her own shop. Importantly, she wanted it to be a store with a point of view.

“There was not a specific aesthetic in the stores (back then),” she said. “It’s something that’s really changed in the last 10 years … where stores have a really thought out vision instead of just having handmade items from everywhere that aren’t a specific look.”

Finding their place

When Mike got out of the Navy, they might have stayed in Chincoteague to pursue that dream. But by then, another important character – 2-year-old Madelyn – had joined their story. 

The couple saw Cincinnati as having better opportunities for their daughter, including the chance to grow up around Mike’s family. They moved here in 2003, opening MiCA (a moniker that combined the first two letters of each of their first names) Contemporary Craft in O’Bryonville that same year. 

“We did everything you’re supposed to do – the business plan, and all that,” Carolyn said. “The tough thing was, and it still is really, is balance.” 

That meant being there for Madelyn, who would come to the store with Carolyn and make little drawings she’d sell for five cents. Mike worked second and third shifts in tech support at Fifth Third Bank for their first three years.  

“It was tough, but rewarding, because I was getting to do what I’d been wanting to do for years,” Carolyn said. 

Fortunately, they had a lot of support: Carolyn’s mom came from Maine and lived with them from the time Madelyn was 5 until she went to college. She and Mike’s mom each worked in the shop one day a week for the first year so it could be open every day.

With the security net of a military retirement, Mike quit his job in 2006 to focus on the store.

“We knew it might actually work; people were responding to it, and it was going to be OK,” Carolyn said, with Mike adding “probably.” 

The idea of a second store wasn’t even on their radar when, in 2007, 3CDC approached them about opening one in Over-the-Rhine.

“They brought us down here and showed us all these beautiful spaces that were completely raw at the time,” Carolyn said. The 1,000-square-foot space that’s now their shop “had a toilet in the middle and the windows were completely boarded up. 

“It was for sure a leap of faith,” she said. “But you could just see it.”

“It” was not only the potential of a neighborhood in transition, but also the possibility of one day owning a beautiful corner space on what would become the streetcar line. 

When MiCA opened, it had a handful of shops and restaurants, as well as Ensemble Theatre, as neighbors.   

“There weren’t a lot of us,” Carolyn said. “It looks very different now.” 

“It was exciting,” Mike said. “There was always something new opening.” 

Their intention was to operate both stores, each with its own style and inventory. But after two years of running both, the economic downturn hit, and they had to make a choice.

“We would have people come into the O’Bryonville store and find something they wanted to buy; they’d ask to transfer it here (to OTR) so they could pay for it and support this store,” Carolyn said. “It was kind of a clear decision based on that. … People were really loyal to this neighborhood.”

“And the idea of this neighborhood,” Mike added.

“It’s where our hearts were,” Carolyn said. “That’s hokey, but it’s what we wanted.” 

While the neighborhood stole their hearts, it also benefited from their presence.

“They’re trailblazers, really,” said Bertie Ray III, co-owner of Switch Lighting & Design, which opened two doors up from MiCA in 2008. (It has since moved to Fourth Street and, in 2023, to Sixth Street.) “They really took a chance on the neighborhood back in the early days.  

“I believe that their consistent presence at 12th and Vine has made it possible for other retailers to open up, especially in the Vine Street corridor, because they’ve seen their longevity there,” he added. “They’ve been a stabilizing force for retail in Over-the-Rhine.”

Ray attributes MiCA’s longevity to the couple’s creativity and leadership, as well as their “consistent high-quality merchandise, unique vendors, excellent customer service.”

“They really are just two stellar individuals, and together they are one of the best teams … that I know,” he said.

Even after nearly two decades, the Deiningers still enjoy working together. These days, Carolyn often works from their North Avondale home on behind-the-scenes tasks, like ordering merchandise; about half of it is by local artists. Mike is in the shop “about 50 hours per week – probably even more.” 

“They both work too much,” daughter Madelyn, now 24, affirms from the next room.

“It’s fun to work here; I love being here,” Mike said. 

“There’s no way I could have done this or could still be here without you,” Carolyn said. “We make a really good team.”

New chapters still being written

As their story has unfolded, the Mike and Carolyn have watched their community change during their long tenure on Vine. In the early days, “People would come in and just hang out and chat …  it was a lot of familiar faces over and over,” Carolyn said.

Today, many of their customers are tourists, visiting the city for conferences or events. 

“I think it is amazing that every day, what you can count on is somebody coming in who doesn’t live in Cincinnati and telling you how great Cincinnati is,” Mike said, noting that he’s excited to see if the renovations to the Convention Center will bring in even more groups.

“From our perspective sitting here on this corner, (tourism) feels like it’s building,” Carolyn said. 

They’d love to see the empty storefronts on nearby streets filled with more independent stores. With the number of visitors they get, they think there’s still plenty of opportunity.

“I don’t think you can have too much,” Carolyn said. “This is already such an arts-oriented area; it would make sense if there were more galleries and things down here. I think the independent stores and having all of that in this area, that is Cincinnati. It is the identity of this city … you’re getting a picture of the city that is unique when you have the ability to shop in a small store and buy locally made things.”

But they stress that there are already plenty of “very worthy options” to shop on Vine Street alone.

“I think people really care about where they’re spending their money,” Carolyn said. “That’s turned back to the early days; it feels like people want to support us because we’re an independent, small store.” 

And, as Carolyn always dreamed, it’s a store with a point of view, a distinct aesthetic. 

“I want it to feel like a collection of things that works together, that could all be in one person’s home,” Carolyn said. “I’m hoping that we’re telling a story.”