BILLINGS — The old IGA store on the Billings South Side has new life. It stood vacant for about two years but is now home to a one-of-a-kind market featuring Montana made products.
The new store opened in June and offers a chance for artisans to sell their goods, and for the public to shop the 16,000-square-foot space.
The official Made in Montana program is extremely popular with some 3,000 registered makers between the made, grown and Native American Made in Montana members.
“There are makers everywhere. Everywhere you turn around there’s somebody that you know that makes something or enjoys doing something,” says Victoria Eichel, owner of The Maker's Market.
A lot of those makers, like Minted Raven Creations, now have a place to make their side hustle more successful as The Maker's Market business model focuses on solving the pain points for Montana makers.
“That's the only business plan we have, is how do we help the makers succeed,” says Eichel.
“The opportunities at The Maker's Market were amazing being able to have the experts here, cause like I said, I’m very new to this, so having someone who can help me price my items, market my items, bring all these new opportunities has been fantastic,” says Darcy Tobin, owner of Minted Raven Creations.
Tobin studied equine business at Rocky Mountain College. She fell in love with reptiles during her vet technician internship. Now she crafts snakeskin jewelry and sells it at The Maker's Market.
“I do a lot of armor jewelry, snake shed jewelry. I believe in the beauty of all creatures, so I love reptiles," she said. "I just found that different reptiles have different colors to their sheds and it's just beautiful when you put it under jewelry.”
“It's always shocking to see the different levels of talent that come in. Someone will come walking through the door and I think what are they going to bring me, and I’m always just blown away by what they bring through the door,” says Eichel.
Now, Victoria, Darcy and the nearly 100 vendors who fill the space on a shared floor, invite the public to walk through the door for a grand opening event on July 22.
“There's a huge hunger to support local,” says Eichel.
