The Lost & Found owner and founder Jenny Miller is celebrating her shop’s third anniversary this Saturday off Vista Avenue and Franklin Road. Jenny recently visited with the City Cast Boise podcast about the challenges of Boise’s maker economy, and how it’s grown.
The Lost & Found shop opened in 2021 — how did you manage that?
It was basically a combination of all my side hustles … I was tired of working for other people, had always wanted to own my own store, I had been saving money with my husband, and kind of realized that owning a home was not in our future — near future, anyways. So we decided to take some of that money we’d been saving up and invest it into a business instead.
You started selling jewelry at markets in 2006. What’s changed in Boise’s maker scene?
I feel like there [are] more opportunities. Some of it is more stores who have opened up and are trying to focus on more local and highlight local makers and give them a platform. There used to just be the Saturday markets, and that was the only option. There just wasn’t a lot, but now there is — No New Vintage has been doing this amazing once-a-month at the Linen Building, Sagebrush Collaborative has done some that they do a couple times a year, and [the Wintry Market].
Do you feel like there are enough resources for makers to start and develop their crafts?
There’s so many places to take classes now. If you want to try something out or revive an interest from your past, a class is a really good way to do that. The Catalyst Arts Collaborative has a huge variety of classes, so they’re a really good resource. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Reuse Market that’s upstairs at NEON (North End Organic Nursery), so that’s a fabulous place to go if you want to try something out and don’t want to spend $150 on tools and supplies for this thing that you’re not sure is going to last.
