Holiday shoppers looking to buy local might just have a new favourite JAM. 

The newly-opened Jasper Artisan Market and Refillery on Patricia Street has assembled a collective of local makers under one roof, just in time for the Christmas season. 

“It is so awesome, there’s so much potential for collaboration,” said Jasperite Beth Leblanc, whose organizational efforts have helped spread the JAM between more than a dozen different vendors, plus the Jade Refillery, around the retail space at 402 Patricia Street.

“The coolest part is that all of these small businesses are able to tell their customers that now they have street frontage,” Leblanc said. “They can say ‘I have a shop.’”

Those vendors, for the time being, include soap makers, jewellers, photographers, candlemakers, knitters, beaders, herbalists, stained glass makers and other mixed-medium artists. 

And at the centre of the market, the straw stirring the JAM jar, will be Jasperite Joanne Black, who has come on board as the collective’s manager.

“She’s the front line, face of the market,” Leblanc said. 

Leblanc said key to the group’s ability to come together has been the support they’ve had from their landlord, who “believes in what we’re trying to do” and is allowing the Jasper Artisan Market and Refillery to set up shop on a three-month trial before they commit to a longer lease. 

Leblanc also had warm words for outgoing Jasper Mercantile owner and operator, Annie Baker, who has said she is welcoming the chance to make more time for herself. 

The Jasper Artisan Market still has room for a handful of makers to join the collective. In the meantime, shoppers can get their JAM on at 402 Patricia Street, where doors are open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. everyday through the holiday shopping season. Follow them on Instagram for vendor updates.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com