A family love of stones, carried forward
Jennifer grew up combing the beaches around Northport. In 2000, after Jennifer and Scot discovered the remnants of her grandfather's rock shop, they took their first polishing class and began learning the craft. Years later, the closing of another local rock shop created the chance to open a store in Northport.
Long before Northport Trading Post, Jennifer's grandfather polished rocks in the 1960s and early 1970s. The family rock shop eventually became storage, but the equipment and a large collection of Petoskey stones remained.
In 2000, after discovering what was left of that shop, Jennifer and Scot took their first polishing class. They learned how to use the equipment and began to see what cutting and polishing could reveal.
For Jennifer, it joined a new chapter to something familiar: a Northport childhood spent walking the beach and looking closely at what Lake Michigan left behind.
Learning the equipment changed the way Jennifer and Scot looked at the stones they had been collecting. A weathered surface could hide a fossil pattern. A rough piece of Leland Blue could become an inlay. A stone found on an ordinary walk could hold the memory of a person, a beach, and a day.
They began making jewelry and bringing their work to craft shows and farmers markets. The more they learned, the more the work became about helping other people understand and keep a connection to their own finds.
That idea still runs through the pieces they make today, including custom work that can begin with a customer's own stone.
Northport had gone several years without a rock shop when Jennifer and Scot opened the Trading Post in the former mechanic's garage on Nagonaba Street. From the beginning, it was meant to be a working place. The lapidary machines were there for visitors to see, not hidden behind a showroom wall.
Today, some people arrive with a shoreline find and a question. Others come for a class, a book, a polishing kit, a finished piece, or help turning a meaningful stone into something they can wear. The shop brings those paths together with owner-made jewelry, customer-stone polishing, tools, local goods, and a growing collection of Michigan stones.
The learning continues outside the door, too. The Trading Post's online rock community trades finds and practical knowledge, while summer treasure hunts send families out to explore public beaches across Leelanau County.
Windborn at ArtPrize 2025
Jennifer Wack exhibited Windborn at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids in 2025. Her work begins where water meets the shore, using time-worn driftwood, curves, and shadow to evoke wind, waves, wilderness, and motion.
Windborn was shown at Sugar Bar on Monroe Center during the September 18–October 4 event. It carries the same habit of close looking found throughout the Trading Post into a much larger sculptural form.
Read the full Windborn story
Jennifer and Scot's next idea is not to leave that beginning behind. It is to give more room to the parts people already respond to: hands-on classes, clearer geological displays, practical teaching, and the journey from a stone on the shoreline to something understood or made.
The exact shape is still being explored. Whatever comes next, the heart of it is already here: look closely, ask questions, and share the pleasure of discovering beauty right below our feet.