BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

The owners of Winnow Gallery & Goods in Newport Beach need just three things to keep a business thriving: the Internet, the telephone and the UPS truck.

The tiny, one-room boutique off West Coast Highway, which opened in October, stocks homemade products from artisans around the world. Each of the collections around the store — including candles, pillows, pottery, olive oil and blankets — features a small sign indicating the name and residence of its maker. Shopkeepers Linda Taylor, Amy Tanaka and Brad Smith scout out their products through research and contact the crafters personally. So when the packages land at their doorstep on Tustin Avenue, they tend to have handwritten addresses.

“We really look for artisan work — things that have a story, things that have a reason for being in the shop,” said Taylor, who worked with her partners for nearly 20 years at an architectural firm before retiring and founding Winnow.

The goods that line the boutique’s shelves may be an eclectic mix, but the owners have a few criteria for acceptance. Next to the front door, a small sign displays a mission statement listing the qualities necessary for a product to make it to Winnow, including beauty, durability, artistic merit and materials that are sustainable, recycled or recyclable. Those guidelines aside, Winnow’s selection looks as random as a typical garage sale — except that all the products are new and in perfect condition. Garden trowels produced by a craftsman in Oregon reside a few feet away from cups by a Brooklyn potter; a rack displays wool blankets sheared from an untended flock in Maine.

Taylor, Tanaka and Smith encounter many of the pieces while traveling or leafing through obscure magazines, and they often have to dig online for a number before calling in an order.

It was a passion the three of them shared when working together in architecture. Smith said he and his colleagues would often shop in out-of-the-way stores while on vacation and bring their findings back to show each other.

Tanaka said the store got scant business at first, but an open house Dec. 8 resulted in a slew of sales after word of mouth had spread. She and the co-owners plan to change Winnow’s decor to mirror each season; the long table by the store’s window now features an autumn display with tree branches and fruit from Tanaka’s and Taylor’s back yards.

“It’s going to keep evolving,” Taylor said. “I see this thing taking on a life of its own. It already has.”

WINNOW GALLERY & GOODS

LOCATION: 124 Tustin Ave., Newport Beach

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday

SPECIALTY: Homemade and environmentally sustainable goods

CONTACT: (949) 645-3225

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.