We were lucky to catch up with Erin Welch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Growing up, I was always a “crafty” kid. From bins and boxes full of miscellaneous art supplies to swiping the tape and scissors and Sharpies from the kitchen to make little sculptures — I just loved letting my imagination run wild. Book covers and notebooks were always doodled on. From pumpkin carving to cookie decorating to dying eggs — any crafty project was one of the best parts of any holiday. Pretty much anything that meant I could make and create was time well spent in my book.

In high school, I started to lean more into the arts as my school had an exceptional variety of art classes offered. The handful of classes I took during my freshman and sophomore years made me realize that was where I most enjoyed spending my time. I was finding I wanted to spend more and more time in the art rooms after school than on the rink (I also grew up playing hockey).

As my junior year rolled around, I again enrolled in more art classes. By the time hockey tryouts started up in the fall, I knew that was a bit of a turning point. I don’t like giving up on things, but I knew that was one door that needed to be closed to pursue my other growing interests. I walked into the coach’s office mid-tryout week and, after 11 years of skating, hung up the skates so to speak.

I’ll never forget having a grown man laugh in my face when I told him — through tears — I was giving up my varsity spot to pursue art. Funny though how here I am 15 years later making a living from my creativity.

There was something in me back at 16 that just felt the pull to follow my interests in art and not spend all my spare time on the ice. Letting go of the organized sports world I grew up in allowed me to pursue other interests. I joined my high school’s scuba club, which further blossomed chasing a life of following my creativity and inspirations ever since.

Erin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

How I ended up making (primarily) cribbage boards for a living is somewhat of an accident/snowball effect of just following my inspiration as the years went on. It’s kind of a one thing led to another, led to another, led to another type of story.

I ended high school with a handful of art awards and a new-found taste for exploring via the world of scuba diving. I went on to pursue a degree in graphic design at the University of Minnesota Duluth. My parents were both originally from Duluth, so family ties and our cabin meant Duluth was always a bit of a second home — and living near Lake Superior quickly became one of my biggest sources of endless inspiration.

While in college I studied abroad in Australia (primarily led by my love for diving and wanting to experience the Great Barrier Reef). Once I returned I ended up working in both the study abroad office and the on-campus radio station. In the summers I returned on scuba trips scattered around the Caribbean with my old scuba club crew.

Being in Duluth for school meant I was also only 5 minutes away from my grandparents. I would often visit and play cribbage with my Grandpa while catching up and chatting with my Grandma. Even though cribbage was always something I grew up with at our cabin, it was in college and spending all that time with them that I fell in love with the game.

On the second day of my senior year, we found out my Grandma had cancer. By October she was gone and my world was thrown for the biggest loop I’ve ever had. I clung to school and work to get me through the rest of my senior year.

Upon graduation in May of 2015, I ended up staying on with both the study abroad office and radio station as my roles in both offices had evolved over my years there. I loved being able to combine my love of travel, music, and design work across my various roles.

One random night in the middle of October that year — a couple weeks after the one-year mark of my Grandma’s passing — I made my first cribbage board. I don’t really know what sparked it, but I realized as much as I love cribbage, I didn’t have a board for myself. So I took a drill to an unused Minnesota-shaped cutting board, pulled my wood burner from one of my bins of art supplies, and suddenly I had a handmade board in front of me.

After sharing it on Instagram/Facebook, I had a handful of family and friends inquire about custom boards over the next 10 months or so — the more I shared, the more people requested them. In the summer of 2016, I again returned for another scuba trip and spent most mornings painting by the ocean before the day of diving. It was on that trip that I realized I didn’t necessarily see myself working in a traditional graphic designer role long-term. I was enjoying creating cribbage boards and freelancing some design work on the side — and I loved the idea of having the flexibility that comes with doing your own thing.

Naturally, I was skeptical if that was even a possibility though — I mean who the hell makes cribbage boards for a living? That August/September I decided to give things a go and opened up shop on Etsy and the beginnings of North Country Craft were in motion.

Just a few months later I was approached by Herberger’s to create a Wisconsin-themed cribbage board for all of their WI-based locations. It was then that I realized I had something going with this whole cribbage thing.

I put in my notice at the radio station in March of 2017, knowing my end date at the study abroad office was already set for a few months later. That way I had a bit of a buffer for a few months while I got my footing taking North Country Craft full-time. Ever since May 2017, I have been fully self-employed — primarily from cribbage boards with a few freelance design gigs thrown into the mix.

Cribbage is just a simple card game, but I have found such a love of bringing art into everyday life for people through the form of functional art.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love being able to make and create every single day. I love working with my hands and seeing ideas come to life from the pages of my sketchbooks into tangible things — and the fact that people connect with my work is just an added bonus.

With creating cribbage boards specifically, I love the stories and connections that are tied to cribbage. It is just a simple little card game and one would think it’s just another little mundane part of life, but yet it runs surprisingly deep with all sorts of special memories shared with loved ones. Hearing all the stories from people of how much cribbage means to them and their loved ones just brightens my day and makes my work so rewarding.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Back in the summer of 2019, I was starting to feel a bit burnt out so I decided to take a few months break from the cribbage business and moved to Mexico. I spent my time doing freelance work and watercolor illustrations (I have a handful of children’s books I want to publish someday) and spent nearly every day in the ocean in some capacity. While there, I also stumbled across (and ended up applying for) a program that was based in Indonesia that combined my love of diving with social media/digital work.

I came back to Duluth for the fall/holiday season which is typically my busiest time of year with my cribbage boards. Then in January 2020, I was off to Indonesia for what was meant to be 6 months. As with the rest of the world, plans changed drastically in March and I had to scramble home where I pivoted back into my cribbage boards.

With not having in-person art festivals for a couple of years, I leaned into the wholesale side of my business, especially with my travel cribbage boards. Although I had been making them since 2017/18, they really took off over the last few years and I’m now closing in on nearly 15,000 of them out there wandering the world and my boards can be found in 100+ stores around the country.

One of the biggest components to being creative (and especially doing it for a living) is the ability to pivot and flow with where your work takes you. I am a firm believer in not limiting yourself to one medium or niche and allowing yourself to create wherever your inspiration draws you. I love to make cribbage boards but I also love to paint and illustrate and take photos.

Contact Info:

• Website: northcountrycraft.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/northcountrycraft
• Other: tiktok.com/@northcountrycraft