The Kootenay Artisan Parcour

Artisans at Work – Économusée

Furnish your home, adorn your table, fill your belly and keep the sun off your face - all products created by artisans in and around Nelson, BC. This group of talented artisans has been selected by the international Économusée, providing an excellent tourist experience in both French and English.

Be inspired as you feel the artisan's passion for their craft, and meander at your own pace from one artisan to the other. Enjoy the journey, the path, or as we like to say, the parcour.

Lillie & Cohoe

Hats of remarkable design and excellent quality

Behind the showroom of the Lillie & Cohoe studio, a dedicated team of talented women collaborate on the design and production of next season’s hats using the finest fabrics and notions gathered from around the world. But don’t expect a frenetic atmosphere here - these professionals have many years of production behind them, and their calm demeanor and quiet determination reflect a long tradition of excellence.

The experience

Visitors can enjoy a tour of Lillie & Cohoe's substantial workspace or spend time in the well-appointed boutique. Learn about yourself and your personal style, through the fun of hats. The company’s international reputation for helping women and men express their style is well earned.

The products

The aesthetic of these hats is more than visual, it is in the fit and functionality, in the wearability built into the design through fabric choice and the flat pattern design. Each hat is worked on from beginning to end by one seamstress. Their skilled hands are required to use a mix of tailoring and dressmaking techniques. Each step is carefully planned and executed.

Lillie & Cohoe

D.E. Walters Pottery

Immerse yourself in the world of ceramic artist

eARTh Studios and the Gallery Suite art escape retreat are owned by Diane Walters. She has been a potter for over 43 years as well as a teacher. Diane combines her passion for pottery, gardening and amateur astronomy to design creative workshops and event that often combine her three great loves.

The workshop environments are fun and friendly and participants have been know to get together for impromptu gallery evenings where they share their work and a few snacks with each other.

eARTh Studio provides a creative sanctuary, an inspirational space where your inner artist and explorer can come out to play. Many clients like to take a break from their creative endeavours to hike the Rails To Trails at the gallery’s door step, up through the forest and across creeks and waterfalls where the water can release your cares and refresh your senses.

The Art of Craft: I Believe that there is nothing more important than the communal act and art of eating. The social reciprocity of sharing a meal together dates back through the human story on a global scale. - Diane Walters

The experience

Living in the beautiful city of Nelson, BC since 1991, Diane Walters invites you to visit her ceramic studio, she calls eARTh Studios. On site, you will discover a landscaped outdoor tour as well as a gallery and studio where Diane Walters welcomes you. She is keen to share her passion and her ceramic craft. She also offers various workshops and artistic stays in her B&B, the Gallery Suite.

The products

D.E. Walters pottery pieces are designed for everyday use, not just for special occasions. They range from mugs to plates to bowls and are easy to care for. Her collection also includes sculptural fountains, basins and ongoing experimentation with form, shape and colour.

Art Escape Retreat

Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op

Baked with the greatest respect for sustainable development and local agriculture

This bakeries journey began in 1986 in Alberta with the founding of the Manna Foods organic bakery in Edmonton by the four Desilets sisters, Deborah, Barbarah, and her baker husband Leonard, Ariah and Jackie and their families. Four years later, the business was sold. In 1991, the Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op opened in Nelson, British Columbia.

Today this bakery is known for its sourdough bread, which is available in 11 delicious varieties. The age-old techniques involved with making sourdough bread fit perfectly with the Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op' philosophy of providing healthy, natural food to as many people as possible. Its know-how goes far beyond its stoves. The cooperative cultivates the values of mutual aid, solidarity and equity among its staff and the surrounding community. It also strives to forge close ties with its customers and suppliers, whom it considers to be members of the family.

The experience

In a warm and friendly atmosphere, you will discover what makes the Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op unique. Its history, values, expertise, signature products, and stories about the first bakeries to open in Nelson are presented in a way that encourages discussion about this passionate and committed cooperative.

The products

The Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op offers more than 300 fresh, nutritious products with natural ingredients. Whether you're vegan, gluten, milk or egg intolerant, a raw foodie, a home-cured, grass-fed beef or organic chicken lover, The Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op has a tasty menu to suit your dietary needs.

Kootenay Bakery Cafe Co-op

Emotions in Wood

Wood-art to uplift your spirit

Philippe dedicates himself to bringing art into everyday life. From buttering your toast at breakfast out of an extraordinary butter dish to finding another stunning work of art to receive your coat and hat, when you get home in the evening. Works of art that will call your attention, asking you to look at it; begging you to touch it, caress it and make it yours to use every day of your life.

The Experience

Walk in the shop, walk in the creative process and join the excitement to imagine, to develop and to make beauty. You will sometimes find a bustling and noisy production shop begging you to roll up your sleeves, other times, a quiet reflective environment inviting you to join in the maturation of an idea, the refinement of a process. All of it is creation! Be an artisan for a day! Come practice some of the skills, make them your skills. Join us for a day and enjoy the pleasure of creating your own wood art with your hands.

The products

While Emotions in Wood’s initial and emblematic product is a uniquely crafted butter dish, all designs for the kitchen and table bring you the joys of the warm wood combinations, the awe of a unique design, the appreciation of a perfect execution and the excitement of its everyday practicality. The butter dishes, knife racks, coasters, cutting boards, butcher blocks, coat and hat racks, counter tops and other unique pieces of furniture, are an invitation to see, touch and smile.

Heirloom items are not only for adults. The alphabet cubes set is an ideal gift for children to learns skills using natural, durable and beautifully crafted toys. Emotions in Wood also applies the same attention to quality, design and beauty to making bee hives for the backyard beekeeper. Enter the world of bees with us and give your bees a uniquely designed and locally hand made Langstroth type beehive equipped with many features to keep you and your bees happy.