Handmade Saskatchewan started out as a group of like-minded vendors, supporting and helping each other with shows.
Today, the concept has three retail locations – one in Regina and two in Saskatoon – with a fourth one to open in the near future.
Janelle Anderson, who is based in Regina, said the concept basically is an avenue for local makers to sell their products.
“Everything we sell is locally made aside from a couple of items that we order,” she said. “But everything is locally made by Saskatchewan artisans and we just found that they needed a place to sell their items besides just craft shows and trade shows. That’s why we started the store.
“And it actually started right before the pandemic and it came in really handy because nobody could go to trade shows or craft shows during the pandemic. So it allowed all the vendors a place to sell their items, get their names out there and make some money.”
The store in Regina is located at Cornwall Centre for the past four years. In Saskatoon, the Midtown Plaza location has been operating for about two and a half years while the other Saskatoon location in the Lawson Heights shopping centre has been around for about a year.
The concept is also available with products sold online at https://www.handmadesask.com/.
“We’re trying to push the online business. The malls do take a percentage of our sales. So anything that we sell through the website we don’t have to pay a percentage on and it helps our vendors a lot more.”
The first store opened in 2019 in Regina at another location.
Anderson said the concept includes close to 200 vendors.
“We carry everything from food items like local honey and jams and spreads and dips and soups. We’ve got Chocolate Moose Fudge Factory. We’ve got their fudge, candy, popcorn. Those are really popular. And we’ve got the freeze dried candies that everybody goes crazy for,” she said.
“We have high end pottery. We’ve got some really cool potterers. I own FLAT Clothing which we sell through the store as well. That’s the bunny hugs where we’ve got the bunnies hugging on the bunny hug. Everything from jewelry to home decor. Anything you can think of.”
When Anderson first moved to Regina from a small town near Saskatoon, as a way to supplement her own income, she started to design jewelry and attended all the craft shows. She met a lot of the other vendors that way.
“We all kind of just formed our little community. We started out with a Facebook group where we could talk about different shows coming up, help each other with displays, and with transporting our items and it kind of just grew from there,” she said.
“We ended up holding a really big Christmas market at Northgate Mall. That would have been in 2018. And the mall asked if we would like to start a store, if we’d like to stay. And that’s what we did.”
Anderson said a fourth location is coming but has not been announced just yet.
“I do have plans for a southeast Regina store and also a southwest Regina store. And then we would move out of the Cornwall Centre and have our two standalones,” she said.
“We’ve tossed around the idea of going into other communities but me managing three or four stores and then also the FLAT Clothing business is a lot and I’m tapped out with that.”
