Aptly named, Tiny Finery manages to house a varied collection of local jewellery, ceramics and other treasures, as well as functioning jewellers’ benches all within the shop’s 500 square feet. "A lot of people think of finery as the lovely things like jewellery that we may put on to dress up," owner Stephanie Menard explains. "But what some people don't know about the term is that a finery used to also refer to a metal forge, so when I came across the name, it really felt like the perfect fit."
Stephanie, who is a jeweler herself, modeled the shop after those she had seen in her travels in Berlin where the jeweler’s workbench was housed at the back of their store, with their goods displayed up front. "For me it just made sense, combining my studio with the retail in one place," she notes.
Tiny Finery doesn't just sell Stephanie's line of jewelry, Fibre Manipulator, but also the work of dozens of other craftspeople, with a strong focus on artists from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. "I find most of the work in the store through craft fairs, connections with other makers and sometimes online," notes Stephanie, "but some have come from people in this neighbourhood who make beautiful things."
