Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Polzin. They and their team shared their story with us below:
The Bloom Bums started when Ben started making wire-wrapped pendants out of crystals in December 2019. Tay, Ben’s partner, is in charge of the sale & merchandising aspect of our business.
Ben’s love of making jewelry is the root of the business, however, his tedious sourcing has led him to make some amazing connections with importers and wholesalers who have direct relationships with the mines. We also sell other metaphysical goodies; like incense, cleansing bundles, as well as our very own cleansing room sprays made for us in partnership with Magic Moots: House of Sparkles.
We were thrilled with our first market, and were very excited to grow with more markets and products in January of 2020! However, we were humbled and pivoted to socially distanced plant sales (made with babies of our house plants). Once the world started getting back to normal, we started sourcing crystals (ethically) with the sources Ben had found from making pendants.
Cut, to Spring 2022, we started selling every weekend at the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market Annex.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has been bumpy, to say the very least. We started during the pandemic, so there’s that.
It’s always a struggle to decide what to sell & how we’ll do it, we are barely able to pay ourselves most times because we prioritize new products and building inventory so we can remain relevant. We used to sell plants but had to give that up because the inventory dies if you don’t take care of it well enough and that market became flooded quickly during the pandemic.
There is plenty of issues with sourcing ethically in the rock business. So we have had to stay away from certain items, countries of conflict, and corporate companies in order to be able to say we do everything it takes to ensure our crystals have the best energy. There are stones we don’t sell (even though people highly request them), like Malachite, because it comes from conflict areas.
As well as high-priced items, like Moldavite, because we can’t yet make them affordable for everyone, because we focus on accessibility and affordability for all. Then there is navigating owning a business as a couple, which can lead to bickering and difference of opinions.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Bloom Bums?
The Bloom Bums was started in 2019 when Ben crafted a bunch of pendants and then we sold them at a pop-up makers fair in December.
At our first fair, we pledged to plant a flower for every pendant sold, which is part of the reason that we are called “the Bloom Bums”. The owners are Ben Polzin & Taylor Herbaugh; Ben makes all the handmade products we sell as well as sourcing all of the crystals. Ben works with small businesses to source all of our products that we don’t produce. Tay handles most of the retail operations.
We specialize in ethical and safely sourced stones with a specialty in “rough stones”, which are stones that come as they come out of the ground. We are the home of the “Crystal Dangler” which is a crystal wrapped in wire hanging from a stand.
We have a wide variety of ethically and safely sourced crystals, meaning all of the crystals come from places that are safe for the miners and not mined from conflict areas. We don’t buy crystals to sell from countries that have any child or slave labor. We source our crystal from places that have direct relationships with the miners who extract the rocks from the ground.
We don’t import ourselves, and are able to price our items at low prices because we are so close to the sources where they come from. We also sell sage, incense, palo Santo & are dabbling in merch like stickers & t-shirts.
Any big plans?
We love being a part of the Minneapolis Farmers Market annex, and will always be there from Mother’s Day to Halloween. We also are at Keg & Case in St Paul in the winter.
We are manifesting a store location (calling all sugar daddies!) and plan on opening a brick and mortar location in the Midway neighborhood in St Paul! We also want our stores to be a metaphysical hub for tarot card readers, sound healers, and artists to teach/sell their locally made crafts.
Pricing:
- Jewelry $15 & under
- Rough Stones $2 & up
- Select crystals $12 & up
Contact Info:
- Website: thebloombums.com
- Instagram: @TheBloomBums
Image Credits
Tay & Ben @violetcristinaphoto (instagram.com/@violetcristinaphoto) and @TheBloomBums
