About out company

SOW (Stacker of Wheat)

SOW is a neighborhood boutique that sells artisans' goods that are handmade in Chicago and hand-selected for you. SOW highlights Chicago's creative artisans while investing back into the local economy. Hand-made artisans reflect the cultural core of Chicago—our one-of-a-kind creativity and stories—but it is often difficult for these artisans to seek exposure in Chicago's competitive market while investing time into their craft.

In Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago," he praised the "stacker[s] of wheat" who helped process and distribute grain to feed a nation. Chicago's hand-made artisans are the creative backbone of the city, and, like wheat, their art provides the artistic sustenance that fuel's Chicago's identity.

The Arts nourish a society the way wheat feeds a community.

A former teacher turns a Lincoln Park storefront into a love letter to local artisans

Lindsey Stinnett had long considered opening a handmade-focused shop, but it wasn’t until she moved here from Knoxville, Tennessee, that it felt viable. “Chicagoans just really appreciate people’s crafts,” she says. A former high school teacher and lifelong maker of quilts and screen prints, Stinnett opened SOW in November to showcase an eye-catching selection of hand-thrown pottery, leather-bound journals, textiles, and more from some 28 local artisans. The store’s name is an acronym for “Stacker of Wheat,” a line from the Carl Sandburg poem “Chicago” and Stinnett’s nod to the city’s working-class roots. On Saturdays, she puts her classroom instincts into practice, hosting free workshops (watercolor cards, painted pottery) that reintroduce the quiet joy of working with one’s hands. It’s make-and-take at its coziest. 707 W. Armitage Ave., Lincoln Park

Learn Chicago Magazine