POCATELLO — For Bobby and Jolene Wellard, Hometown Tie Dye started with a clearance-rack impulse buy and a pile of old, stained clothes.
Jolene picked up a tie-dye kit while shopping one day, brought it home and the couple started experimenting on whatever fabric they had lying around. They were hooked immediately, and it wasn't long before strangers around town started noticing.
"People kept saying stuff like, 'That looks really cool. Where'd you get that?'" Bobby said. "We told them we'd made it, and they said, 'Well, how much would you charge us to make one?'"
Neither of them had a price in mind. Bobby started researching what similar work sold for, and from there, the hobby began to take shape into something more.
That was 24 years ago. What began as small winter craft fairs at local churches has grown into a full-fledged business with a mobile storefront that rolls up ready to sell.
"When we first started out, we had a little table we would set up and put onesies and things like that on, and then one little clothing rack," Bobby said. Over the years that table grew into one 10-by-10 booth, then two, then three. Now the Wellards pull up in a trailer stocked and ready to go.
Jolene credits stubbornness for keeping the business alive through the early years, when tie-dye was still just a side project alongside their full-time jobs. That changed when their first child was born and Bobby stayed home rather than pay for child care. The couple leaned further into the business, and it's continued to grow ever since.
Along the way, all three of their sons grew up as what Jolene calls "festival babies," playing in yellow-lidded storage tubs behind the booth while their parents worked.
"Everybody knew our kids as the tub babies, because that was their little playpen," Jolene said.
Those years on the road also built friendships the Wellards call their festival family, including close ties to fellow crafters in Boise and Logan.
"So many amazing people," Bobby said. "The people who show up at crafting events are kind of like family."
This year, the Wellards mostly stayed close to home, setting up at the Humane Society's fairgrounds event, a downtown market and the local farmers market nearly every weekend. Their season typically wraps up at the Harvest Festival, the first weekend in October, when shorter days and colder mornings make outdoor markets harder to manage.
"We found it to be amazing here," Jolene said of the community response, adding that support for small, local businesses has only grown stronger since the Wellards started doing the local market about a decade ago.
New this year: ladies' skirts, yoga crop tops and a limited run of tie-dyed denim overalls, which Jolene said were hard to source in white cotton. The couple's tapestries remain a personal favorite for the creative freedom they allow, while clothing stays the practical bestseller.
Jolene also sells handmade jewelry and plant accessories at some of her indoor shows, including an upcoming Crafts and Drafts event hosted by Bunco Glass at Portneuf Brewing.
The Wellards have also built connections beyond East Idaho. They regularly dye blank products for Love on Hate, a shop in San Francisco, and once won an artist residency with the company after donating tablecloths for one of its events.
Looking ahead, the Wellards hope to expand their online store, land a spot at more music festivals and get their products into local shops to help carry them through the winter months. They're also eyeing a shift from grass venues to asphalt parking lots, now that their new trailer needs a different kind of setup.
"It's a different opportunity for growth," Bobby said.
Whatever comes next, their motto hasn't changed.
"That's our favorite thing — looking out at a place we've been and seeing all the people in their awesome colors," Jolene said. "Even if people don't love tie-dye, they still walk by and smile."