Regina store showcases homemade Saskatchewan goods

The collection of crafts in With These Hands, a new store in Regina's Cathedral neighbourhood, came about thanks to some little hands on an iPad.

In 2016, Cory Montgomery's son — three years old at the time — saw a video online about Legoland in California and asked her to take him there. Montgomery had just a few hundred dollars in her bank account and couldn't afford the vacation. 

"So that wasn't an option for me, because it's just him and I and $300 in the account," Montgomery said. But she wasn't willing to just give up.

Montgomery had been making bath bombs for her own use for years, but had never considered selling them. She drained her account, bought enough material to make a batch of the dissolving bath products and hit some trade shows. 

"Four months later, he and I went to Legoland. We went to California for a week. It was wonderful," she said.

As Montgomery prepared to return to her office jobs, requests for bath bombs kept coming.

She kept doing trade shows. After a year of spending almost all her weekends at shows, she saw an opportunity. She wanted a storefront to sell her merchandise. At the same time, she didn't want the pressure to pay a lease by selling just her own products.

With These Hands was born. The idea is that vendors lease a spot in the shop and keep all of the profits from the sales of their own products. Vendors pay a flat monthly fee for a six-month contract.

"I thought I was brilliant because I came up with this idea, but it's actually done several places around Canada already," she said. "I was just trying to think of a way to be able to always pay the lease on a commercial space and a way that we would never have to struggle to keep our doors open."

Montgomery approached other artisans she had met at trade shows and other events. She got more than 120 applications in the first six weeks.

The model is working for Mario Deshaies, of Bags by Mario. He's one of more than 40 craftspeople who rent space in Montgomery's store.

Deshaies works in airplane hangars by day and makes bags as a hobby. He said he is not doing it for the money.

"I should report myself to the cops, because a bag takes six hours. So I definitely do not get paid to make the bag," he said. "It's a hobby. It's keeps me busy." 

Instead of selling his work at trade shows, Deshaies can now let Montgomery make the sales for him in the store. 

"My stock is exposed to the public," he said. "Instead of chasing show after show every day, or every weekend, I can just have my bags there."

After six months in operation, Montgomery is experiencing her first turnover of vendors who signed the initial six-month lease. Most have chosen to stay. Those who have moved on have already been replaced.

Montgomery still makes bath bombs and has quit her old day job.

"For me, this isn't even work," she said. "It's fun. I get to come to work and I love it every single day."