EDITOR’S NOTE: Today, The Forum kicks off "Kid Bosses," a new, occasional series to highlight kids and teens who have started their own businesses. If you’d like to nominate someone as a potential “Kid Boss,” please send the young person’s full name, their parents’ name and city, contact information and a short description of their business to tswift@forumcomm.com . 

FERTILE, Minn.,— ln many ways, Willow Larson is a typical 14-year-old. She juggles homework with playing drums in jazz band, singing in the school choir and running track. She loves fancy coffee drinks, her pets and the outdoors — especially fishing. She is a bit self-conscious (“I’m really awkward, but that’s fine,”) and isn’t afraid to share her feelings on math. (“I don’t like it.”) 

But in other ways, Willow is extraordinary.

It first started showing up years ago, when Willow was taking her preschool-readiness screening. In one assignment, Willow was asked to draw the figure of a person.

At an age where most children might manage a crude stick figure — perhaps missing arms or even a head — Willow’s figure had eyes, eyebrows, a nose, lips, hair and a fancy fairy-princess dress.

At the time, her parents, Caty and Terry Larson, knew they weren't just being proud parents. Their daughter obviously had the eye and the heart of a burgeoning artist.

Now, at just 14, Willow has parlayed her creative skills into Ivory & Sage, a cottage business in which she designs, makes and sells keepsake mugs for towns around the region. She was also commissioned to illustrate a children's book for Eddie & Barkus, a Fargo-based dog-grooming, boarding and daycare, and has sold her artwork at stores and boutiques around Minnesota.

“I never wanted to babysit,” Willow says, when explaining why she launched her own business. “I figured why not make money off what I like doing? And then it just sort of snowballed.”

Since 2020, when her mug-making venture started, Willow has created mugs for well over 30 towns throughout Minnesota, as well as several more in North Dakota and Wisconsin. Her mom, Caty, says she has sold “thousands” of the keepsakes to communities like Erskine, Ulen, Hitterdal, Hawley and Mentor.

Each mug is personalized with images, landmarks, words and school colors associated with that town. The Mentor mug, for instance, features fishing poles, "Trojans" (the name of the school mascot), the year Mentor was founded, roller skates, an ice cream cone (representing the town’s Dairy Queen), a silhouette of nearby Maple Lake and a sign from the town’s cafe.

Using an Apple Pen, iPad and Adobe Procreate graphic-design app, Willow creates a whimsical, graffiti-inspired look — reminiscent of sketches that an artistic student might doodle on their school notebooks. These breezy sketches mesh easily with her more formal renderings of recognizable landmarks like courthouses or churches.

Willow also does her own lettering — either patterning letters after "as seen on Pinterest" fonts or replicating the signage of vintage diner signs.

And, like any artist worth their salt, she already possesses a discriminating eye when it comes to her own work.

While standing in her parents’ photo studio on Fertile’s main drag recently, she gently resists a suggestion that she stand by a portrait they shot several years earlier in which a tween-ish Willow posed with examples of her art. The art in the portrait, she explains, doesn't live up to her current standards. When her mom projects images of Willow’s past work on a wall monitor in the studio's office, Willow quietly edits in the background. “Don’t show that one,” she says softly, with a self-conscious smile. “I don’t really like that one.”

Willow's business started in earnest after the COVID-induced quarantine forced her and her siblings to study at home.

By then, Willow had spent most of her 12 years drawing whenever she had the opportunity. Whenever the kindergarten student passed out coloring sheets to the students to fill a little extra time, 5-year-old Willow would flip over her mass-produced image and draw her own picture to color.

She had come by her artistic drive naturally, as both sides of her family are rooted in art and music. Caty's college major had been in art. Terry loved to draw comics as a kid and played drums in a local band for years.

She also grew up among entrepreneurs. Caty's grandparents and then parents ran Fertile's grocery store, most recently known as Al & Laura's Foods, until they retired last year. Caty opened a hair studio in Fertile's old bank building, which eventually became the photo studio from which the couple have become known for their use of Photoshop and creative portraits.

So Willow's decision to open her own art business seemed like an obvious first step. It also helped that whenever Caty posted her daughter's artwork on her Facebook page, people would praise it and say they wanted to buy one of her pieces.

The idea on what kind of art to sell, however, took longer to figure out. Willow initially wanted to sell her watercolor florals, but they took too long and the watercolor supplies were too expensive.

Then she thought of one particular quilt her grandmother, Laura Pierson, had made, which contained pictures of different types of flowers and their names.

"I used to sit and drink tea on the deck and look at all of the things, and read them over and over again to see if I could find something I didn't see before," she recalls.

The aesthetic value of melding words and art seemed even more appealing when Caty came home one day and told Willow she'd seen quilts and towels emblazoned with Minnesota images and phrases. Caty suggested she try painting something similar for their house.

That idea eventually morphed into a brainstorm about painting images on china, like commemorative plates. Then Willow herself had a stroke of inspiration. "What if I made them out of coffee mugs?" she said to her parents. "People drink out of coffee mugs."

She posted her first efforts on her Facebook page to see if anyone would want to buy one. The response was immediate and positive. Since then, Willow hasn't had to do much to market the mugs, which typically retail for anywhere from $22 to $27 apiece. Instead, town officials and store owners have usually approached her to commission work.

At just 12, Willow — and her parents — didn't want her real name splashed all over the internet. Instead, she created the name for her business from a mash-up of her middle name ("Ivory Ann") and the sage in her grandmother's herb garden.

Willow typically starts her project by incorporating images and words which have been sent to her by the person commissioning the piece. The rough draft itself doesn't take long using the Procreate app, but she then needs to submit proofs to the client and make as many changes as they need.

She's learned some business lessons along the way, like the intricacies of collecting sales tax. And, although the Larsons initially had her mugs printed elsewhere, they discovered it would be quicker — and more affordable in the long run — if they printed the mugs themselves.

She's invested a portion of her earnings into a $2,000 heat press machine, which allows them to print her designs on plain ceramic mugs themselves.

Once the mug orders are filled, Willow pays her mom and grandmother to deliver the mugs — as she doesn't have a driver's license yet.

Willow would eventually like to expand her business to make tumblers or to do her own designs beyond town-themed ones.

And all the while, she wants to keep on learning. She is currently working to earn a Master Artist degree through the Professional Photographers of America and hopes to have that designation by the time she finishes high school.

She's also attended conventions and LiveStreams to learn more about art. One particularly memorable LiveStream series was taught by one of her art idols, Disney animator Aaron Blaise.

When she graduates from high school, Larson says she'd either like to be an artist or animator like Blaise or to maybe teach music. "Yes, there's some days when I've thought about being a band teacher and some days I don't," she says, with a shrug.

But for now, Larson has found the perfect part-time job — without having to punch a time clock. "There are some days where you’d rather be outside doing normal things," she says, "but for the most part, once I get into it, I really enjoy it."

Check out Willow's Facebook at www.facebook.com/Ivory-Sage-108435804200658 and her Instagram @willow_ivory_ann.