FERTILE, Minn. — When Willow Larson decided her hometown of Fertile, Minnesota, could use its own commemorative mug, she designed one — even though she doubted it would sell.
Little did the then 14-year-old artist know what that simple project would produce. People from surrounding communities noticed the glasses and requested similar ones for their towns. Word of mouth, social media and media coverage helped build an audience for the teenager’s quirky mugs.
Last summer, KARE 11 TV’s Boyd Huppert featured Willow on his Land of 10,000 Stories series. The story was featured on NBC Nightly News and a CNN morning show, helping to make it one of the station’s most-watched stories of 2022. In retrospect, Willow says, “I think I would have been much more nervous if I knew how many people would see it.”
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
Suddenly, people from Alaska to Wisconsin to Stockholm, Sweden, were going to order mugs from Willow’s Ivory and Sage “production factory” — actually a small corner of her parents’ Cloud Nine Photo Studios on Main Street in Fertile.
Today, Willow says it has sold over 10,000 cups and created 150 designs that are available in more than 120 different communities and stores. Mom Caty Larson also helps him maintain a long waiting list of future tour commissions.
Caty says Willow’s college is paid for, if she chooses to go. The ninth grader now has her own financial advisor to help her invest her windfall wisely. And though at 15 she hasn’t gotten her learner’s permit yet, she’s shopping for a new SUV — preferably a black Chevy Trailblazer with a sunroof — so she can make deliveries when it’s legal to road.
“I was looking at a Mercedes, but the insurance on it was terrible,” says Willow, who sometimes sounds like any teenager and sometimes sounds like a 35-year-old business owner. “So I ended up going in a more reliable direction.”
Since Willow not only designs the cups, but manufactures them on a small heat press machine, she had to increase production by purchasing two additional heat presses. And now parents, Caty and Terry Larson, along with her grandparents, routinely come in to help make, package and ship the mugs as the orders come in.
“It’s about five orders a day and Christmas was really busy,” says Willow.
With schoolwork, extracurriculars, and making her own glasses, Willow doesn’t have much free time. “I make sure I work enough every day to keep up with all the orders,” Willow says, adding that it’s the only option when you have your own small business.
To this day, Willow seems a little overwhelmed by the immense popularity of her mug project. “I was wondering about this … what makes people buy something from a 15-year-old in a small town? Why would people care about what I do?” she asks.
Her best guess is that people like the idea of supporting a small business, as well as the opportunity to celebrate art.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
On the other hand, one could argue that it’s Willow – a mix of up-and-coming entrepreneur and charmingly unaffected teenager – who has caught people’s attention. So is Willow’s seemingly effortless drawing style: her community mugs are covered in stylized designs of city landmarks, crisp sketches of lakes, ZIP codes, city mascots, and nicknames that the artist gives her free hand in creative fonts.
So what does the future hold for this promising young talent? Like its namesake, one suspects it will stand strong – no matter which way the wind blows.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do in college,” she says. “I don’t even know if I should go to college or if I should keep doing things like this. I’d like to license my art, so I’ll see what happens.”
Learn more about Willow’s art at www.ivoryandsage.net.
