Shop Small This Fall

This article was originally published in the October print edition of The Bark, distributed at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.

As the leaves change color and the pumpkin spice starts being mass produced, festivals and markets occur in abundance. Duluth is home to many small business owners that are passionate about what they do. This is a snapshot of a few local artisans who were at the Chester Bowl Fall Fest on Sept. 21.

Duluth local Jeanne Lassard, has spent her whole life admiring Lake Superior and all that it provides. About five years ago she began working full time on her business, I Dream As Jeanne. Lassard recalls, “Rocks just feel so good that I wanted to wear them… so I figured out how to do it.” The time consuming process of making jewelry out of rocks does not scare her. She says, “It is tedious and it takes a tremendous amount of time but it’s time spent doing this really fun thing.” The stones are found in various places, most come from Lake Superior and some from the Sea of Cortez. Lassard is constantly searching with intention for the right rock for her next creation. “As we travel, we collect things, and then… we make things as we go, so they all kind of feel like the place they come from.”

Tom Hoff is a hobby painter who has been selling his art for the last 15 years. The inspiration for his watercolors stem from both photos and his imagination. “A number of the paintings are from places my wife and I have traveled,” Hoff said. Much of his work consists of prints of these beautiful landscapes but he also makes cards and other creations. Hoff describes, “I’m kind of drawn to odd shapes and architecture.” He is mainly self taught but has attended some workshops with the Duluth Art Institute over the years. Hoff claims he has been “fiddling around” with watercolor since 2000 and began selling it as a way to “promote my art and have people enjoy it.”

Shōr is a family run business dedicated to reducing the reliance on single-use plastic by hand-making beeswax wraps. Cassidy Rude and her husband, Micah Rude, inherited this business from Cassidy’s sister-in-law in 2018. In 2021, they bought a pottery wheel with their earnings and now make mugs, cups, bowls and more. The co-owners are both very involved in the making of the wraps and pottery. “On the wheel it's just me, with some of the designs and the glazing, we both do it,” Cassidy said. Their products are available in stores all around the country, mainly in the greater Minnesota area. Shōr also has a website and is starting to sell on Etsy.

Betsy Crist, owner of Rockview Soap Co., got a unique start to her empire. She had no plans to start a soap business when in 2010 she and her husband bought a pig from a local Duluth pig farmer. She says, “He (the pig farmer) asked if I wanted the lard and I yelled at my husband, ‘do we want the lard!?’ and he was like ‘why don't you make some soap?’ and he was kidding, and then I did.” Crist works with art and chemistry to create the soap from lye and oil, which makes a chemical reaction. She sometimes adds color by using spices such as turmeric or paprika, and makes the different scents with essential oils and fragrance. She frequently sells her soaps at Duluth markets and online.