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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Before her very eyes, Yellowknife homemaker Kristen Gagnon's kitchen table soap-crafting, is quickly changing from just a hobby, into a full-fledged business.

Yellowknife entrepreneur Kristen Gagnon, owner of the handmade soap company Sassy by Kristen, has taken her craft from a hobby business to retail scale. - Thandie Vela/NNSL photo

The mother of two small children began selling her hand-crafted soaps out of her Range Lake home under the banner Sassy by Kristen last year, and her products are now being carried by Yellowknife retailers.

"I suppose, for me, what I'm trying to get a handle of, wrap my mind around, is how a small hobby business -- something I did at farmers' markets or craft sales now and again, is sort of making the leap into retail, into a larger business," Gagnon said. "I'm at this wonderful crossroads where I haven't really marketed it, but it's already taking off."

Gagnon's transition into retail began last fall, when the Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Cooperative approached her about carrying her soaps. For the past year, she has crafted candles for the cooperative as well.

Word about Gagnon's soaps spread around town after they were sold at Folk on the Rocks and the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce spring trade show, and eventually reached Sutherland's Drugs front store manager and buyer Dana Martin.

"We are always looking for great products," Martin said.

Artisans often approach the Franklin Avenue drug store to have their products carried, Martin said.

"Most of the time, it's someone doing it as a hobby, wanting to bump it up that extra level."

Luckily for Gagnon, who does not list sales as one of her strengths, despite hand-picking the oils that go into her soaps, making the soaps from scratch, and packaging them herself, Martin approached her, after hearing of her soaps from an employee.

"She has a wonderful product," Martin said, adding of the five or six handmade soaps the drugstore carries, the quality of ingredients and overall presentation, make Gagnon's "the most classy."

"Her product is artisan-looking, without looking like someone made it in their backyard," Martin said.

"I think it's a product that we will be able to sell well."

With the tag line "Good reasons to drop your parka," Sutherland's bought Gagnon's Northern-inspired line of soaps and scrubs Naked North wholesale, which include a charcoal soap with green and purple swirls inspired by the Northern lights called Polar Night, and a sparkly Ptarmigan Tracks soap.

Based on the trial period this summer, Martin predicts Naked North will be a product they carry all year round, depending on the manufacturer's ability to keep up with demand.

"I couldn't possibly commit to something I couldn't maintain," Gagnon said. "It just requires that I'm making soap every other day on average."

Because she does not have to manage her own storefront, Gagnon still finds time to make customizable products for her personal client base, but still gushes over seeing her product on retailers' shelves.

"You go in Sutherland's and it's like, 'Oh look, there's my soap.' How cool is that?" she said.

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