We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jess Wagner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jess below.
Hi Jess, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Having an advantage of being a small artist myself, I knew I wanted to run my shop completely different than others. I think the gap between gift shop owners and artists is not seen from those outside of the industry, but you rarely come across a shop also owned by an artist. I think I have quite the advantage here, as I know what artists want from a shop and now I know how to run a successful shop.
For starters, while wholesale would be an easier business model for sure, a consignment shop puts more money back in the artists pockets, and you’re able to work with much smaller and maybe not as popular artists. Artists are able to rotate inventory more, switch things out, and be a bit more involved than shipping off an order to an unknown store. I work hard to cultivate a community behind the scenes, we have an artist’s hub, and communicate monthly.
I think this also means when I say our shop is “curated,” it truly is. I’ve had my own work in galleries, and juried shows, and have worked in judging panels for art contest, shows and markets. Artists in our shop are hand picked and based on many factors.
This also leads to a new type of local shop. Isn’t it a bit disappointing when you are looking for the perfect handmade gift, and you stop in to several different shops, and they all carry pretty much the same thing?
There is nothing wrong with supporting the local artists in your community, but if you notice this, and your community offers markets for artists, there’s also nothing wrong with supporting very small artists in other communities. You’re still supporting very small- even if they’re not in your immediate community.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Jess! I am the founder and owner of Sagebrush Collaborative, a 29 year old fine artist residing in Boise, Idaho. A lifelong dream to open a small artist collective, and a dream of running vendor shows. I live in Boise, Idaho with my deaf cattle dog, Tanana, cat Daggett, and partner. When not running Sagebrush, I own my own art business, Jess Wagner Art/Equinox Fox Goods, where I am a fine artist, muralist, and secondhand enthusiast- printmaking on secondhand clothing and creating new outdoor gear from old materials. If I’m not at the shop or creating, I can frequently be found in the mountains, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, or seeking out new coffee shops and thrift stores. I landed in Boise in March of 2020 after years of seasonal work and solo travel, and never imagined staying in Boise, but I found a community.
As far as Sagebrush goes, the Sagebrush Collaborative was formed on a whim in October of 2022, a few artists over Instagram direct messages thought of a common goal: a new, inclusive art market. And thus, on Small Business Saturday in November of 2022, a small market was held at a local Kava bar.
Sagebrush expanded from doing just markets, and collaborated with a local coffee shop, and together we opened Sagebrush! Once upon a time, Sagebrush was nothing but a small shelf within the bakery, hosting 20 artists and a handful of goodies. In November of 2023, Sagebrush grew and moved right next door to that coffee shop. We were connected to the bakery in all ways, and honored to be able to say that that is where we started. In February of 2024 we were informed of the bakery’s closing. Unfortunately for us, since we were connected and co-owned by them, this meant we had to close as well. The community came together and helped us financially survive this, and we finally became our own entity and moved into our own shop.
Our shop is an accessible gift store with handmade, slow crafted goods from both local and regional artists(the Mountain West, Pacific Northwest, and Southwest) at various price points. Within our shop, we wanted to focus on community. We offer a lot of free opportunities for the local artists in our community, along with hosting one large holiday market a year.
We are all about supporting small, near and far. We want to focus on growing an inclusive community, and putting money back into artist’s hands for their work.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I do not think my shop would be as successful as it is today if I did not spend almost 5 years building a community in Idaho. When I moved in here 2020, I did not know a single person. In 2021, when markets returned, I continuously met others- regular customers, other vendors, market organizers, shop owners, the list goes on and on.
When Sagebrush first opened, our grand opening was insane. Years of community building unfolded in front of my eyes and it clicked… this wouldn’t be happening if not for the years of community building.
I think a lot of small shops fail like this because people decide one day they want to open a shop. Sure, it seems that easy, but it truly isn’t. Get out into your community. Meet the artists of work you want to sell. Volunteer at markets or events. Cultivate the community that you want to attract.
The artists in my shop hail near and far, from Wyoming to Alaska, Oregon to Utah. I spent several years and summers traveling for fine art shows for myself, and this is where I have met so many other artists. Also building a community online, Instagram to be specific, really helped. I knew and became friends with these artists, and I am so honored everyday that they trust me to help sell their work here in Idaho!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Sagebrush had humble beginnings, as mentioned before. I was working in a local coffee shop part time and the owner wanted to open a retail section. I jumped at this opportunity- I have ALWAYS wanted to run and curate a gift shop but I did not feel financially secure enough to do this on my own.
In July of 2023 we launched a little shelf full of products, and by September, we were renovating the empty store front next door to expand the retail and seating area of the bakery.
By late November, our grand opening on Small Business Saturday gave us our busiest days yet, and I felt hopeful. I spent that holiday season working the kinks out and growing a community.
A cold snowy day in late January, I was approached by the owner before an evening class. The bakery would be closing… and since I was still just an employee at this time, this meant everything I had grown would close.
The community rallied for us and helped us tirelessly search for a new location, and crowdfunded around $5,000. I don’t know if all the business owning facts were public knowledge or the community just really loved our new store, but without that money I never would have been able to continue the shop, as I didn’t own a single thing in the business.
$5,000 doesn’t seem like much to open a shop, but I’m resilient and…. scrappy. Resourceful? I found a modest tiny storefront that was currently an office, 10 minutes away, tucked in a quiet plaza off of a main road. By no means will this be a permanent home, but it works. The money paid for our LLC, our first month rent and security deposit, a UHaul to move our handmade and hand tiled counter, buy a new POS since we were previously integrated with the bakery, and our flooring (which I scored for $.69 a square foot and did myself with my partner, after never having laid flooring, while having the flu…).
Throughout March of 2024, I learned to lay flooring, built shelves, scoured thrift stores and marketplace for displays, painted murals, worked on my own graphics for our new branding, put up trim and wainscoting, and spent my last few dollars on mustard yellow paint to offer pops of color.
Opening a store with $5,000 is absolutely crazy, but I did it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sagebrushcollaborative.com
- Instagram: @sagebrushcollaborative
- Other: TikTok: @sagebrushcollaborative
Image Credits
Ashleigh Monaco
Jess Wagner