Supplies for the Soul grows again
By Kelly Anne Smith
NIPISSING FIRST NATION— Beaders and artisans have been keeping Supplies for the Soul busy, especially since they moved into Nipissing First Nation’s Bineshii Small Business Centre just off of Highway 17W.
The new location, which opened in May 2019, has a variety of supplies for Indigenous crafts and regalia making. Being right off of Highway 17W has been helpful for the store’s visual exposure to draw in new customers.
“It’s been so busy,” says Yvette. “Business has doubled since we moved to the highway. We advertise by word of mouth only. It’s the customers that have brought us to this point. One family drove 12 hours one way from Northern Quebec to obtain supplies for regalia making.”
Yvette Bellefeuille is at the helm of the family run store. Husband Bryan is the jovial shopkeeper while son Bryan Jr. and daughter Amanda are always helping. Daughter-in-law Laura created the Supplies for the Soul logo.
They had been open for 10 years when Yvette was outgrowing her home-based location and welcomed an opportunity from Nipissing First Nation.
“We decided it needed a bigger space. It kept growing in our home and we couldn’t accommodate it anymore. Nipissing First Nation approached me because they were trying to offer space to the small businesses that they knew were home-based. I had no idea they were putting up the building until they approached me. [Nipissing First Nation has] been fantastic. They make suggestions and we discuss them back and forth.”
Supplies for the Soul offers leather, fur and fabric and a large assortment of beads in many sizes with threads, needles, and looms. They also carry items for gifts such as blankets, wallets, jewellery, scarves and books. Jingles, deer hooves and smudging materials are available as well.
Yvette says many of the ideas for supplying items were from the customers themselves.
“It is about what they want for their artwork. They are the ones that know what they want and need. It’s been hard for shoppers to find things because not a lot of craft stores have what I carry.”
In the beginning, the store was supposed to be a part-time venture open on weekends. The month Yvette was starting out was when a local North Bay supplier closed its doors.
“The North West Company that was downtown, which supplied a lot of material for First Nation crafting, announced they were closing. Knowing there was no other craft store around that filled that need, I worked with the North West Company buying up what stock I could afford to buy at that time to jump start the store with more product. And then it grew from there.”
Supplies for the Soul has been so successful that they are set to expand again with classes and a boutique.
“It’s an idea we’ve had over the years as the craft store kept growing and growing. I thought it would be nice to have a boutique to showcase and sell a lot of the crafts that our First Nation people make. The craft end of it keeps growing and I’m getting more and more requests to bring in more items and to have classes as well,” explains Yvette. “That is another feature we were going to have when we moved to this location was to offer classes but there wasn’t enough space. So now by moving all the giftware into the new shop under a new name, that will open up some space in the craft shop to have small groups of classes.”
People are interested to learn moccasin making and mittens.
“We’ll start with small groups initially but I’d like to hire people to come in and teach. There are very talented local artisans,” notes Yvette. “People have asked how to learn to bead…Beading is popular with Baby Yoda trending.”
She smiles.
“It’s for healing,” says Yvette. “A lot of people do the beadwork because they are on a healing path and they find it very relaxing, very calming. My son came up with the name Supplies for the Soul. He knew healing was part of it.”
The new boutique store will be opening at the end of March. It is called Mino Niibiish, Anishinaabemowin for pretty leaf.