Double Gemmed
Gems From Dixon
If you haven’t visited the Dixon Gallery and Gardens gift shop in a few years, you might not recognize the place. It’s aglow with beguiling jewelry ranging from inexpensive baubles to items intricately handcrafted in precious metals.
When store manager and jewelry buyer Nancy Robertson took her post there almost four years ago, the shop focused on things such as Monet mugs and magnets and art prints that were not big sellers with local folks.
“My vision was that (we) could do a lot better if we focused on craft items such as pottery, woven textiles, beaded purses and jewelry that would support craftsmen and artists in their own right,” she said. Items still relate to the Dixon through their artistry and nature-related themes or by reflecting current exhibits.
As she saw what sold, Robertson — little by little — expanded jewelry lines until she had tripled the merchandise. Jewelry is now their best-selling category. Shop sales have more than doubled.
“A lot of people look to us for jewelry they haven’t seen anywhere else that has a high-end look without being super high end,” she said.
She purchased fine jewelry pieces that sell for $300 or $400, but also added fashion-forward items from $6 to $30. Even those are usually handcrafted with considerable skill.
“It’s a lot of fun to spend $10 on a jewelry that everyone in the office admires,” she said.
And shopping at the Dixon is relatively guilt free because all profits support the Memphis landmark, a private jewelry museum that depends on sponsors and membership. Dixon members get a 10 percent discount.
Robertson has an M.A. in crafts from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she studied metalsmithing, enameling, pottery, silk screening and weaving. She also worked for many years in fine jewelry at Marshall Fields in Chicago.
“The knowledge of how these jewelry items are made has really helped me be more discerning in making quality choices,” she said. She and other sales people at the store enjoy educating customers about the pieces of jewelry.
Some seem to demand it. Cynthia Bloom’s alluring dragonfly necklace, $186, for example, is a hand-painted glass button embellished with 14-karat gold, kiln fired, and adorned with rare, antique, 24-karat gold-lined, antique Czech glass beads and Swarovski crystals.
More whimsical are earrings and necklaces by Ayala Bar pieced together from printed fabrics, beads, stones and crystals.
Some items are purely for fun: Stretch bracelets of transparent disks in smoke and bronze are only $12 each but will wonderfully complement fall’s trendiest color — gray.
Eleanor Scott, a Memphian and former art director of the Memphis Jewish Community Center, said she and her daughter shop often at the Dixon to find unusual gifts for friends.
“We’ve found fabulous stuff for Christmas gifts. We’ve bought a lot of amber jewelry, all kinds of earring and brooches.” She said she could take things directly from the store to the recipient because items are attractively packaged in bags or boxes.
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