Letter from the Studio & Minneapolis/St Paul ❤️

A love letter to my city...
This small business is located in Minneapolis. I live just across the river in St Paul. The Twin Cities have been my home for the last 25 years. It's where I chose to settle, have a family, and create the Polka Dot Club.

This place is a lot of things... it's frigidly cold but big on heart. It's a medium-sized city filled with cultural institutions which enrich my understanding of others' experiences. It's beautiful, with lakes, trails, and parks nestled right in our neighborhoods. We welcome strangers in, albeit with a sometimes chilly Midwestern reserve. We are flawed and imperfect and those struggles have landed us center-stage in national conversations about racial disparity, policing, and fraud. Now we find ourselves embroiled in a newly politicized clash and our stories of resistance, fear, federal violence, community organizing and grief are being spread around the world. At the center of all of this is a city full of people who want to make this world a better place for everyone. We show up for that. We believe in our laws, the constitution, the right to gather, freedom of speech, and human rights of all people... I am deeply in love with this city and so proud to call this my home.

Care, Compassion and Service:
I have written this newsletter in so many different ways- with defiance and anger- with red hot outrage - with sorrow, but above all else I am filled with hope and bolstered by the humanity on display all around me. Compassion is alive and well in the Twin Cities and cannot be swept up or beaten down. So many people have taken up unofficial jobs: We have rallied, shown up for neighbors and strangers while creating networks of service that are deep. We have been busy. We are tired, but not tired out.  This is a love letter to community care. 

Finding Joy in Making...
The studio continues to be a place of deep solace. Sewing, packing your orders one at a time, embroidering each Teddy Bear nose... this slow work is threaded with soul.

I have been quietly working these last weeks. I am feeling stretched thin and emotionally raw like so many others... In all of this, it's been hard to approach sharing all the new things I've been working on in the studio, though they are special. And sweet. And filled with goodness. For the most part, I will be sending out newsletters and launch dates via email for the foreseeable future rather than a staple of posts on social media.Sign up for our mailing list on the bottom of the homepage. 

VALENTINE'S PIECES:
Tuesday February 3rd at 12noon CST
&
PARTY DUCKLINGS:
pre-order opening in late Feb.

As always, these objects are made with love from the POLKA DOT CLUB.
Thanks for reading... ❤️ Jen