In 2024, Samantha Koor was living in New York City when Meltdown came to fruition. Koor was committed to following a creative career and working to make ends meet to support that path.
While visiting her home in St. Louis that summer, Koor saw a posting for an upcoming summer market at Ssippi and decided to take a leap. She was hoping to set things in motion for her brand, creating and selling a collection of uniquely hand-sculpted sterling silver pieces to a new audience. Koor messaged Ssippi and asked if she could join to sell her jewelry, and once they said yes, she started preparing.
“I had sold custom pieces to friends and people through word-of-mouth, but I hadn’t really sold to the public yet. I think Meltdown had 50 Instagram followers at the time,” said Koor.
A few weeks later, Koor joined the market and completed her first official pop-up.
Now, more than two years later, Koor will return to Ssippi’s patio at 2926 Cherokee St. for the second year, hosting a large – yet tiny – event of her own, Mini Mart, following last year’s summer success. Mini Mart is a market and pop-up art installation featuring local creations, food and a signature cocktail, all on a miniature scale. The event is slated for 5-10 p.m. Oct. 10.
“I’m very sentimental, so the idea of Mini Mart came naturally. There’s something so special about the feeling of nostalgia, the feeling of when life was less serious” said Koor. “I think we all just want to feel like a kid again.”
Koor grew up visiting New York City often with her dad, who is originally from Queens. When Koor decided to move to New York City as an adult herself, she went searching for ways to connect to the city. Koor signed up for her first metalsmithing class after being fascinated by watching videos on lost-wax casting, a method where wax “melts down” to reveal a hollow space to fill with metal and is then used to form each unique piece.
“I thought it was magic. I took the class and immediately felt entranced in the sculpting process. I decided to see where it went, so I kept going with it and took another class,” said Koor. “From there, I began making custom pieces and started selling to friends and friends of friends.”
Koor was more fascinated with the process rather than the product, which naturally translated into pieces guided by intuitive experimentation, possibility and trust in the process.
“Meltdown is for people that think outside the box and aren’t afraid to take risks. It’s for people who are authentic and embrace imperfections,” said Koor.
Koor’s handmade pieces reflect the same organic and fluid approach she adopted when she first began, yet on a larger – and now smaller – scale than before.
With the return of Mini Mart, local artists and creatives are invited to enter into a mini world and create something novel inspired by an assigned theme, a way to diversify the offerings of the market. The event will feature more than 12 vendors, from Meltdown’s sterling silver pieces to mini furniture, tattoos, bouquets, portraits, ceramics and $5 mini pizzas from Nicky Slices – cheese, pepperoni and chicken parmesan – and drink specials from Ssippi, including lychee martini Jell-O shots.
The full artist and vendor list is as follows:
Meltdown
Datura Tattoo
Nicky Slices
Residential Ghost
The Lady in the Bloom
Aplomb
Sophie Dannin
Anticipatricia
Janie Stamm
Shop RNG
Frosted by Taylor
Mc Pavlick
Alain McAlister
The themes are unusually unique and vastly different, challenging creativity and inspiration for the artist to base their miniature collection on, such as Frosted by Taylor’s mini cakes with the theme “botanical gardens” – a theme inspired by venturing through our local botanical gardens in Shaw. The cakes will be tiny, spoon-size, miniature two-tiered bites, wedding-cake style, and will be decorated with edible flowers.
Other themes are “table manners,” featuring dinner-party-esque mini food items, and “house tour,” featuring one-inch tattoos of items found in a house.
As for Koor, her theme is “letter from a mermaid,” featuring a collection of aquatic-esque pieces presented in a unique display.
“Each artist is making a display of some sort. So, the items that they created, they are also creating a miniature world for it to exist in,” said Koor. “Mini Mart will be something you can immerse yourself in, not just shop.”
Ultimately, Koor hopes to bring new things and different experiences from New York City to St. Louis, creating space for the community to explore creativity when less is actually more.