50th Birthday of Ingebretsen’s
This year the Ingebretsen’s Gift Shop is celebrating its 50th birthday! In 1974, the Ingebretsen and Dahl families decided to start selling Scandinavian gifts alongside their Meat Market and Deli, and today the store is a nationally recognized hub for all things Nordic! In honor of this milestone, we have collaborated with local businesses to create custom anniversary products, including a stoneware ceramic mug from Deneen Pottery! This new mug is in a lovely blue, with their classic medallion, in the potbelly style, featuring our throwback cross stitch logo, which was inspired by the image on our very first shopping bags and designed for our anniversary.
You can find more of our new 2024 merchandise here!
Deneen Pottery
This Minnesota business also started in the 1970s! Mary and Peter Deneen began making pottery out of their two car garage in 1972 in Saint Paul. Now their son runs the business with over 90 employees in a fully solar powered facility!
Deneen Pottery has experienced many evolutions since their beginning, with various brick and mortar shops including Cloth & Clay in Butler Square, their second retail location that opened in the 1980s. The opening of this store came after the success that Peter and Mary had selling their pottery at the Minnesota Renaissance Faire. Cloth & Clay focused on home goods including historical replica clay pipes. The research for these models was done by friend of Ingebretsen’s David Christofferson! David’s wife Cathie was part of the Ingebretsen’s staff for many years and was the primary cookware buyer for the store.
David and Peter continued to work together and in 1985, David proposed a new way to “engrave” in clay that would become Deneen’s signature style.
“This innovative idea that David proposed to Peter was to reverse artwork in plaster molds and then pack clay into the mold, thus resulting in flat pieces of clay that would then be applied to mugs. David and Peter worked on their invention and named it Glaze Engraving™. The first order using this new process was for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in 1985 – and over the following years, hundreds and thousands of pieces were made annually for this and other fairs.”
A member of our staff, Barbara, also has connections to Deneen and suggested this collaboration! She went to their Saint Paul headquarters to photograph some of their process. Many Deneen employees have been there for decades, and since each mug is handmade, every single one has its own unique look and feel, all at the highest quality.
Today Deneen is run by Niles Deneen, still out of Saint Paul. They create custom mugs that are available worldwide! Ingebretsen’s is happy to support this family owned business and have our own unique Deneen creation.
You can purchase this new Ingebretsen’s mug here!