A little mix of everything: Through 50 years and 4 locations, Vermont Artisan Designs has something for everyone | Local News

BRATTLEBORO — Are you looking for local Vermont-made goods? Vermont Artisan Designs has that. How about kitchen products, tuxedos, and jewelry? Yes. Over the years, the shop has grown and absorbed other businesses, mixing and matching the products they sell to fit the current space on Main Street.

Vermont Artisan Designs is celebrating its 50 years of being a downtown staple. It was originally started on Elliot Street in 1973 by John and Lucy Gratwick Serkin, as LJ Serkin Gallery. They sold the business to Meg Howland, who moved it from Elliot Street to Main Street (where Beadniks is now) and changed the name to Vermont Artisan Designs. In 1988, Suzy Worden and her business partner/husband Greg Worden purchased the business.

“When we bought it, there was a yarn shop in the back. There was crafts and art in the front. We doubled the size of the yarn shop because we thought well, we’ll do that as well,” said Greg. “After a couple of years, we realized that the yarn sales were the same thing that they had been before we doubled the size of the yarn shop. Susie had always wanted to do the kitchen store. So we phased out the yarn shop, started a kitchen store in the back.”

With the start of Kitchen Sync in the works, the couple noticed that J.E. Mann, a department store on Main Street for nearly 95 years, was starting to downsize its foot space. They quickly bought the lease and moved the kitchen shop across the street from Vermont Artisan Designs.

While now operating two businesses across the street from each other, the Wordens saw another opportunity when Dexter’s Clothing Store decided to move out of town and sell its tuxedo business to them. A few years later, Mann’s fully closed allowing the Wordens to move to their current location on Main Street.

When they moved to the current space, they opened a bath and body spa product shop on the second floor, but later moved that business out of the space and opened an art gallery in that space, and the tuxedo shop to the lower level.

“It’s a variety of mix and match businesses, here and there and everywhere,” said Greg Worden. “We focused on fine art upstairs. American craft here on this level. Kitchen over next door and tuxedos and suits downstairs.”

The Wordens work with around 300 different artists and craftspeople when it comes to Vermont Artisan Designs, and Suzy works with more international clients for kitchen products.

“We’re about 90 percent Vermont made or other parts of New England and about 10 percent from other parts of the country, but its all American made, which is unusual anymore,” said Worden about the Vermont Artisan Designs side of the business. “Tuxedos are more international because of the nature of it, but that helps in times when the gallery is a little slower.”

Greg added that with the number of cooking shows, and the number of people who are interested in staying home and cooking and learning about food and food preparation, the kitchen side of the business is going well.

When asked about any worries about the big box stores, Greg noted that his shop gives personal service and gift wraps the items.

“If people want something special, a lot of times we can get something special that they may not find everywhere else,” said Greg. “You don’t really find an amalgamation of this type of thing together. We’ve been fortunate in having good quality materials, good quality merchandise, and good quality people who we were working with.”

Greg said he just enjoys people, knowing how people make things and learning how that relates to what people want and trying to figure out how to match those two together.

“Being around beautiful things is not the worst thing to be around,” said Worden. “It’s just a really nice treat to be able to get to know people, and we have customers who come back once or twice a year from all over the place and others who come locally, and you just get to know a lot of people who become good friends.”