Niche businesses find broad audiences at State Fair

A Minnesota State Fair spokesperson says there are now 900 merchandise vendors this year, including 50 brand new ones.

So fighting the temptation to check out the food or rides, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS went in search of the unique, the unusual and the different.

In these dog days of summer at the Minnesota State Fair, Darryl Michaelson is all about cats and their comfort.

“The cat furniture market does not offer what a cat needs,” he declares. “Cat furniture is supposed to be a jungle gym. So a jungle gym means you can do whatever you want on it, and they can expel their extra energy.”

For 31 years, Michaelson has been selling carpet-covered feline furniture at the fair. This year he has a booth at the pet pavilion.

He says he’s sold 25,000 pieces of “Purrniture” over the years.  

“Our cats can’t get enough of it, to the point I need to bring it back so he can recarpet some of it,” said Jael Mohnkern from Burnsville. “What he’s doing is incredibly thoughtful in terms of what a cat needs.”

Michaelson repurposes plywood spools used to wrap wire that would normally be tossed out and covers them with carpet scraps.

What started as a hobby has become a unique business.

“I think the ability to repurpose anything into something useful as opposed to using it in landfills is brilliant,” Mohnkern says. “It’s what we should be doing anyway, it’s just smart.”

We asked Michaelson if he thought of his business as a little bit … weird.

“I would,” he answered, smiling. “But I use the word ‘niche.’”

Inside the Grandstand, we found the Holly House Boutique — a collection of metal and wood artwork cut up into fascinating shapes.

“They’re all truly one of a kind. Like, whatever you pick, they’re all handmade, everything handmade,” Kim Schueller, who runs the boutique, explains. “By the end of the fair, we’ll sell easily 100 of these, for sure.”

Schueller says she coordinates 25 independent artists’ work here.

Some of the pieces are fashioned by a Burnsville artist: metal buckets transformed into spooky artworks for Halloween.

“This is stuff that’s very unique,” Schueller smiles. “You cannot find a Frankenstein, you cannot find a bride of Frankenstein. You cannot find a skeleton or a cat carved out of a vintage bucket.”

Not far away, we found another Kim.  

Kim Norlien is an artist from Clearwater, whose passion for painting nature comes to the fair with him.  

“I’ve been doing this for 47 years,” he says. “I love nature, I love wildlife. I started out in my earlier years. I tried out for the duck stamp in 1999. I did the pheasant in 2000. I won the duck stamp.”

Norlien says he won in 2000, with his work appearing on the permits duck hunters nationwide are required to carry.

Since then, he says he’s sold thousands of paintings and millions of illustrated puzzles around the world. He’ll even autograph one for you at the fair.

Norlien says he hopes to sell about 350 paintings there this year.

It’s evident he enjoys showcasing his work at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

“There’s not a lot of artists around here anymore,” he notes. “It’s a lot of fun. There are so many people to meet. It’s like a big family reunion.”