Songbird

You step into Fisher’s Gifts, and the sudden afternoon downpour that you ducked inside to escape is immediately forgotten amidst the colorful decorations and whimsical items that line the shelves of the store. Half art studio and half artist’s market, Shannon Fisher opened the store after working as an artist in New York for years, just before her daughter was born. She tells you all of this from where she stands halfway up a sliding ladder, arranging balls of yarn on one of the study-looking built-in shelves that line the back wall.

 

In the center of the back room of the store is a large paint-splattered table, with woven baskets and painted ceramic bowls strewn across it and filled with every kind of art supply you can imagine--googly eyes, skeins of embroidery floss, sequins and buttons and beads and little foil star stickers. Mrs. Fisher tells you that she hosts a community art night once a week for anyone who wants to stop by and make anything they wish.

 

On the shelves of the store are arts and crafts made by independent artists from all over the world--necklaces made from seaglass, bracelets made from floral silverware, windchimes made from . Mrs. Fisher herself is wearing a blue and green cardigan knitted by a friend, which you learn when you find a mannequin near the shop’s front windows dressed in a similarly-designed one in different colors. You find yourself spending the better part an hour browsing the shelves and chatting, buying tiny accessories and trinkets to give to your friends back home. You leave just as the rain is stopping and a rainbow is spreading over the lake in the distance, and you promise Mrs. Fisher that you’ll be back soon.