There are a lot of people around here making extraordinary things.
And not nearly enough good places to find them, so we're building one: a community-based marketplace in Des Moines, Washington, featuring Pacific Northwest artists, bakers, growers, creatives, writers, and craftspeople. By gathering this local talent together, we offer our community the ability to shop, learn, connect, and discover all in one place.
A bridge worth building.
We believe community is the key to sustainable creativity. Independent makers deserve a welcoming place to reach the people around them, and those people deserve somewhere to stumble onto work they'd never have found otherwise.
Saltwater is that in-between: part marketplace, part classroom, part gallery, part living room. A gathering place where you can discover the unexpected, learn something new, and spend a little time in good company.
Curated on purpose.
Every maker and product here is chosen with intention. Displays are arranged by our team and professionally merchandised, so the shop reads as one considered collection, not a room full of booths.
We'll have a few things of our own on the shelves. But the point is the people we're showcasing, not us.
To keep it fair, makers are selected through a blind jury process once we open, so every application gets the same look, whether we've known someone for years or are meeting their work for the first time.
Sheila & Steve.
We live just up the road. Washington has been home for more than 24 years, first on the Kitsap side in Bremerton, then in Des Moines, where we moved in 2020. We raised our two kids, Alexis and Andrew, who now live nearby in Kent and Seattle.
Downtown Des Moines is our town. We shop here, walk here, know people here, and care deeply about what happens here. Saltwater Collective is, in a lot of ways, our love letter to it.
Sheila
I come from a medical laboratory background, so I have always been drawn to the place where science, curiosity, and the natural world overlap. I am happiest when I am learning how something works, growing something, making something, or figuring out how to make it better.
That instinct eventually became Zenith Farmstand, our micro-farm and house-made line. We grow hydroponic lettuce, microgreens, fruits and vegetables, keep bees, forage locally, and make small-batch food and body products from the things we grow, gather, and produce ourselves.
But Zenith became something I did not fully expect.
People came for lettuce or honey and stayed to talk. They brought friends. They asked questions. They told us what they wished they could find locally. Over time, the farmstand became as much about connection as it was about what was on the shelves.
I love that part.
I love meeting people, learning what they make, hearing the story behind something, and helping good ideas find an audience. I also have a hard time walking past an empty space, an interesting ingredient, or a problem without immediately wondering what could be done with it.
Saltwater Collective grew out of all of those things.
It is a chance to take what I loved most about the farmstand and build something bigger around it: a beautiful place filled with things made by real people, a place to discover something new, learn something, sit for a while, and feel connected to the community around you.
I will still be growing, making, foraging, keeping bees, experimenting, and almost certainly starting more projects than are strictly necessary. You will just be able to find me doing a lot of it at Saltwater now.
Steve
I spent 22 years in the U.S. Navy, which probably explains why I am usually the person thinking about systems, logistics, timing, and how all the pieces are actually going to work.
For the last few years, though, a lot of people around here have simply known me as “Mr. Farmstand.”
Until now, I have mostly worked behind the scenes at Zenith, handling the technology, logistics, setup, troubleshooting, and the thousand small things that keep a business moving. Sheila is usually the one dreaming up what comes next. I am often the one figuring out how we are going to pull it off.
Saltwater means stepping a little farther out from behind the scenes.
You will see me around the store, helping with the day-to-day operation, talking with customers, working with makers, and doing my part to build something Sheila and I both believe Des Moines needs.
We miss the kind of small-town places where you know the people behind the counter, discover something you did not know you were looking for, and end up staying longer than you planned because someone started a conversation.
That is the kind of place we want Saltwater Collective to be.
We're building the kind of place we'd want to visit.
Opening Fall 2026 in Des Moines, Washington. Stop by, take a class, meet a maker, or just wander in and stay awhile.
Plan your visit