Looking for your next favorite artisan-crafted necklace, ceramic creation, or herbal remedy—or maybe just a good excuse to hang out with creative geniuses from across the Western Slope?
Meet us at the Night Market.
For the first time ever, the Rural Creative Collective is hosting a Night Market during West Slope Startup Week, October 6-10 in Durango. And trust us, it’s not your average pop-up. We’re bringing together 20+ rural artists, makers, and creative entrepreneurs for a one-night celebration of all things beautiful, useful, and built with heart.
What’s the Night Market?
It’s part gallery, part marketplace, part block party. From handcrafted goods and original artwork to wellness products and creative services, the Night Market is where you can shop local, meet the makers, and experience the pulse of Colorado’s rural creative economy.In addition to the rural creative showcase, the Night Market will also feature Startup Colorado’s Artist in Residence, Dundee & Lee, who will display their larger than life fiber sculpture, TOM MIX WEPT.
The Night Market is the genesis of the Rural Creative Collective. Launched in 2024 as part of the Startup Colorado Community, the Rural Creative Collective was created to meet the urgent need for sustainable business resources tailored to rural creative entrepreneurs. Built on the belief that art is essential to rural ecosystem building, the Night Market is one of the ways we’re making space for rural creatives to be seen, supported, and celebrated.
The Night Market is about more than what’s for sale. It’s about connection, creativity, and the radical idea that supporting rural creatives doubles as an act of self-care.
Join us at the Night Market
Come explore, show, and celebrate rural creativity with us!
Tuesday, October 7th 2025
5:30pm – 7:30pm
The Powerhouse in Durango, CO
Meet the Vendors
We were blown away by the number of incredible applications we received from across rural Colorado. It was a competitive process, and we’re so proud to highlight the businesses selected for this inaugural Night Market:
ASH LUZ Jewelry
Locally handmade fine jewelry by Shaheen with ASH Luz Jewelry that is sustainable, colorful, and crafted with love to illuminate your unique style! Shaheen uses traditional jewelry techniques to create pieces that illuminate your style. What started as a love for crafting meaningful, handmade jewelry has grown into a space where beauty, connection, and creativity meet.
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Bear Balm Inc
Bear Balm is an all natural, all purpose balm handcrafted in Durango to make skin and lips feel nourished. Created by carefully infused oils, herbs, and beeswax, each jar is made with intention and small-batch care. What began as a family remedy has grown into a beloved local product, sold at farmers markets and crafted to bring natural wellness into everyday life.
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Byers Ranch Apothecary
Small-batch apothecary rooted in the Colorado wild. Handcrafted on their homestead, every small batch begins with wildforaged or homegrown botanicals, using only raw plants and pure essential oils to deliver skincare that is as powerful as it is pure. Using locally foraged herbs, farm-grown botanicals, and carefully sourced ingredients, each product is designed to connect people to nature’s healing traditions in a modern, approachable way.
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Canine Cardigans
Canine Cardigans creates handcrafted dog sweaters for canine friends of all sizes. Using upcycled sweaters, each piece, from teacup to titanic, is made with care and quality in mind. By combining sustainability with functionality, Canine Cardigans brings warmth, style, and creativity.
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Cypress Roots Craft Herbalism
Cypress Roots Craft Herbalism is a traveling apothecary and telehealth clinic with sliding scale payment, specializing in functional wellness. Products are small batch and carefully crafted, supporting seasonal, acute & chronic needs of customers & clients, with a wide range of tinctures, oxymels, teas, herbal honey pastes, oils, salves, and more. Nicole, a graduate from the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism, works with nutrition, lifestyle (including sleep, physical exercise & movement), diet, supplements, flower essences, and customized personalized herbal formulation to empower your wellness.
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Delicious Details, Nutritious Art
Artisan chocolates handcrafted locally woman owned gluten free dairy free and naturally sweetened for pure deliciousness. Elevate your dessert experiences with raw, artfully crafted creations that balance taste, nutrition, and culinary artistry—showing that desserts can be as nourishing as they are delicious.
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Fabulously Funky
Fabulously Funky is all about wearable art with personality. From hand painted earrings to unique bracelets and bookmarks, every piece is designed to stand out and celebrate individuality. Bold, colorful, and fabulously unique—you won’t find two the same!
Gula Wellness
Herbal wellness skincare and apothecary handmade organic made in sustainable packaging. Gula is a wellness company with the mission to share the wisdom of plants and their power to bring us health, happiness and vitality. Herbal wellness skincare and apothecary handmade organic made in sustainable packaging
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HOT MIKE
Hot Mike creates abstract pop art paintings built on hand-crafted frames and custom-stretched canvases, each one layered with paint until it drips over the edges like icing on a cake. The depth of the frames gives his work a sculptural quality, making it POP into the room. His style is bold, textured, and full of energy, yet Mike approaches each piece with patience and care as the layers build into something both playful and deeply satisfying.
Howe’s Ceramics
Handcrafted ceramics with purpose. Planters, mugs & more. Functional art that brings beauty to daily life. Howe’s Ceramics’ focus is on functional art pieces such as planters and mugs, along with Raku-fired ceramics, a traditional Japanese style.
Jacqueline Hess Designs
Transforming discarded metal into sculpture and jewelry— functional masterpieces that defy convention. What most people see as trash, Jacqueline Hess Designs reimagines into jewelry, custom pieces, and large-scale installations that celebrate creativity, sustainability, and the beauty of the Southwest. Her work gives new life to forgotten materials while sparking conversation and adding artistry to both personal spaces and public places.
Lillian Boe
A local watercolor artist whose work ranges from realistic studies to whimsical subjects. She also paints with alcohol and ink, creating pieces full of texture and color. In additional to original artwork, she designs greeting cards and hand-painted light switches, offering creative touches that bring art into everyday life.
Lucky Rodeo
Based in Durango, Lucky Rodeo offers book marks, sew book sleeves, and crochet e-reader sleeves, and other bookish accessories. Inspired by a lifelong love of reading and making, Lucky Rodeo creates pieces that bring both function and charm to every reader.
Madam Matrix
Madame Matrix is a collection of Maddy Abdella’s artwork, ranging from art prints to embroidered hoodies. Maddy is a multimedia artist focusing on vibrant colors and going buck wild with their art. Half of profits go towards mutual aid funds and more! Stop by for some funky art and accessories!
Mighty Mike’s Foods
Mighty Mike’s Foods makes bold, clean-ingredient veggie snacks for outdoor lifestyles— starting with our Crunchy Kale Chips made in Durango, CO. They are gluten-free, plant-based, dehydrated (not fried), and big on flavor with simple ingredients. Their flagship line comes in four fan-favorite flavors: Super Cheezy, Hoppin’ Jalapeño, Slammin’ Sour Cream, and Poppin’ Pizza.
Mindful Artworks
Mindful Artworks creates unique, hand-dotted mandala designs, painted one dot at a time. From earrings, mugs, and wooden mirrors to hand-painted rocks, each piece is crafted with care and attention to details. Creates mandala-inspired mountain landscapes, combining pattern and nature in meditative artworks.
Plot Twist Farm Co.
Plot Twist Farm Co crafts small-batch, ultra-premium coffee and soda drinks, from nitro cold brews and espresso-based lattes to Italian-style and fruit-flavored specialty sodas. Founded by a husband-and-wife team with a shared love of coffee, their business combines expertise and passion to create beverages that are both high-quality and delightfully flavorful.
Shushas Shades
Yá’át’ééh shí éí Venessa Francis-Suess (Hello my name is Venessa Francis-Suess in Diné-Navajo). Venessa designs custom, one-of-a-kind sunglasses. Two years ago, she had a spark of inspiration at a music festival and turned it into a small business. Since then, Venessa has been on an incredible journey blending creativity, artistry, and entrepreneurship. With a love of sparkles and bold expression, she transforms ordinary sunglasses into little pieces of wearable art. Each pair of sunglasses are different and Venessa can proudly say that no two pairs are ever the same. Her mission? To help you shine a little brighter and to SPARKLE YOUR FACE!
Stone Repose Metalworks
With a strong sense of responsibility in stewarding the planet and maintaining a light footprint, Stone Repose Metalworks carefully sources stones from small scale miners and sellers that acquire stones from the western U.S and uses sterling and fine silver that is recycled material. Made to be worn every day and to remind you of your inextricable link to the natural world.
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Terra Forma Studios / Impermascapes
“Impermascapes” are unique ceramic creations that artfully capture the transient textures of riverbeds. Each piece is crafted through a poetic process: plaster castings preserve the river bottom after peak runoff, documenting the intricate patterns shaped by the veins of our ecosystems. Clay is then pressed into these molds and shaped into wares, bringing you pieces of the river—each one inviting reverence for water—inviting us to pause, to listen, and to honor the lifeblood that shapes all things.
The CupCattery
A queer-founded bakery, the CupCattery serves cupcakes, Swiss rolls, and cookies in both classic and creative flavors— many with a playful cat-inspired twist. Born from a love of both cats and baking, the CupCattery brings sweetness and whimsy to every treat.
