‘The Shop Next Door’ features local artists

When Emily Brown of Cedar Rapids went looking for the kitschy earrings she had seen on a previous visit to Brewed Awakenings coffee house at 1271 First Ave. SE she couldn't find them anymore.

An employee directed Brown to The Shop Next Door at 111 13th St. SE, where she quickly honed in on a pair of earrings resembling miniature Kodak film canisters.

Literally right next door to the coffeehouse, the shop owned by Brewed Awakenings co-owner Heather Younker was inspired by her desire to offer more merchandise than she could fit in the cozy coffeehouse. She set up the shop in an “artists collective” format, selling the work of local craft makers and artists for a 35 percent commission.

The uniqueness of virtually every item in the store is what sets it apart from most other retailers, said Amanda Schwalm, a Brewed Awakenings employee who stopped by to spend part of her paycheck on a purchase recently.

“I love the uniqueness and the fact that everything's local,” Schwalm said.

Current and former Brewed Awakenings employees form the core of the store's contributors. They include Ramona Muse, who helped Younker renovate the store space and sells her unique sewn fashions there, and Hannah Hawkins, a former Brewed Awakenings employee who sells her knitted apparel through the store.

Quirky greeting cards by Vaclav Hacek ask the rhetorical question “WWKRD?” or “What Would Kenny Rogers Do” and remind recipients to “Have a happy Groundhog Day!”

Other offerings include paintings, pottery, glassware, embroidered and silk-screened apparel and quilt work. A few collections, including a vintage record stack and a collection of vintage clothes, are not original work.

“We sold jewelry and Vaclav's cards, but we really didn't have a lot of space, plus we needed office space,” said Younker.

Younker of Iowa City bought Brewed Awakenings about six years with her parents, Richard and Nancy Marsceau of Troy Mills. They had their eye on the building next door for quite a while, and seized the opportunity to lease it when the last tenant, a tattoo parlor, vacated.

Younker and her parents tried to use recycled materials in the building renovation, which involved tearing down some walls and adding some displays. The materials include lumber milled by her father from trees that fell on the family's land in a storm.

Besides retail space, Younker created an upper floor room that can be reserved for meetings catered by Brewed Awakenings, and a spacious office.

The renovation process took two months longer than expected. The shop finally opened Nov. 21. It hosts a featured artist night every Tuesday.

Still in the works are what Younker hopes to make a regular series of Saturday classes to begin in January. The Shop Next Door is open 11 a.m. to

5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays.