Small Victories

We began as the Bower Studio in 2011 and had a retail shop located in Amherst. At the time, we were an herbal apothecary along with selling our plantable seed cards. Since Covid, we did a rebrand and switched to focusing on the cards, working out of our studio, which was located in Eastworks at the time. Once our refreshed brand got rolling, we felt the next logical step was a brick-and-mortar shop, especially since people were asking where they could purchase our products. We were lucky that both Assemble and 25 Central were carrying our cards, so we had visibility in downtown shops already.

When the space became available in Thornes, it seemed like the ideal spot at the ideal time. The size is just right for us, and it’s in a highly visible location on Level One, providing the perfect showcase for what we do, which continues to evolve. We also offer a range of pronoun badges, which used to be its own brand, but now everything lives together. Other items include felt patches, stationery, pencils, erasers, accessories, and much more.

Our whole ethos at Small Victories is that we are all trained artists and creatives in our own way, and we each get to bring our personal experiences, expertise, and passions to this business. I love that I get to run a business with other like-minded and artistic people, in a space that’s centrally located in Northampton. Everyone on our team has a part in creating something for our local economy, which feels really meaningful.

We’ve been having such a great time here. I really enjoy the community aspect of being in the building. It’s fun to get involved with organizing events, which Thornes encourages. We’re about to tap into Arts Night out in August, and our contribution will involve highlighting the work of our employee Brenda, who creates tufted art pieces that are in the shop and featured in the window. Tufted art has recently become very popular with crafters, so we’re thrilled to be able to highlight Brenda’s creations, which include small animals, bees, ladybugs, and mushrooms. The process involves using a tufting gun to shoot fibers or yarn through the back of a canvas to form a type of looped and tufted little rug. It will be fun to have an exhibition of her body of tufted pieces, and she’ll be available to talk about her work in tufting as well as her work as a bookmaker. Brenda is also considering offering some workshops in the future focused on basic bookbinding.

We like to keep in touch with what everyone is doing in the building, especially Firetype, as they also offer some gaming/nerdy merchandise in their cases and we appreciate that. We are pulling in a different demographic, including younger kids who are into nerdy culture. Hometown Arcade is also such an added benefit, and it’s fun to see them build up their space and attract more people. We also love the Photobooth upstairs; like the arcade, it offers such a fun and nostalgic vibe. We truly value the interactive element of being in Thornes. It’s more than just a place to shop; it’s a place that invites you to make memories as well.

We have a new stationery line this spring, which includes everyday utensils that students require such as stationery, pencils, erasers, and much more.  We also have some great art papers and watercolor postcards, which are actually coloring books that can be used as postcards. We are offering lots of items with which people can make things at home. We have needled felting kits now, for example—part of the more craft-related offerings.

Another recent addition is a baseball-style hat that says Northampton and features the official city seal, which includes silk moths to represent the silk industry and Nonotuck, the indigenous name for the area. It’s already been selling well, and people seem excited about it. It’s nice to have some kind of Northampton-related merch, as there isn’t much in the area currently. We wanted something that would appeal to both visitors/tourists and residents alike. We’re also working on a series of Zodiac cat cards with catnip seeds, which we think will make fun birthday/occasion cards.

There are always fun things happening, such as Pride Month and Stationery Store Day on August 2nd. For us, it's the day special stickers, bags, and postcards will arrive in the shop. We also recently moved our studio from Easthampton to Pleasant Street in Northampton, which has been great. It’s nice having our entire team in close proximity, and downtown Northampton just has more to do, explore, and experience on any given day. We had been looking for a new studio space, and this is the right size, with the amenities we needed, and has a nearly identical footprint to what we had in Eastworks.

I have a horse named Georgie that I ride pretty regularly. He lives in Belchertown at a horse farm called Clairly Differently. The nice thing about the owner is that she was trained in dressage, but specializes in liberty and natural horsemanship, which is about working with the horse’s natural behaviors rather than punishing them. I started riding at age four and it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to own a horse, so this is a dream come true. I’m really interested in animal behavior and training. Horses are amazing for therapeutic work, too; they are one of the only animals that mirror human actions and behaviors in real time. They will mimic your moods and behaviors and really encourage you to tap into yourself.

My partner Vincent does a lot of the illustrations for our cards. He studied horticulture as an undergraduate at UMass, and that translates into the sustainable elements and artistry of what we are creating. He does most of the design and illustration work, and I help with graphics. We really have fun exploring relationships between humans and animals/the natural environment. Living in this area, we have so much natural beauty around us, from parks to rail trails to botanical gardens. We really like offering that to people through what we create, whether it’s people from out of town who need a break from urban environments or locals who really resonate with what we’re offering.