EASTHAMPTON — A modern-day cabinet of curiosity has opened at 56 Cottage St. and it’s called Wonderland.
The vintage and home decor shop’s name is an homage to mid-20th-century European rooms that were filled with exotic and often expensive collections of items from around the globe.
“There is a Victorian term called wonder cabinets,” shop owner Beth McElhiney said on a recent evening. “Ship captains would go to exotic places and they would bring home these curiosities — things people never had seen before — to England and France.”
These rooms were also called cabinets of curiosity, McElhiney said. “People would create whole rooms for these collections of beautiful objects from all over the world.”
At Wonderland, there is vintage clothing from the 1950s to 1980s, vintage and contemporary jewelry, china, glassware, collectibles, and linens and crafts from local and regional artists and silversmiths. The store also sells hand-painted tables and canvases by Easthampton artist Carol Ostberg, enlarged photographs by Michael Poole of Blue Collar Artisans, enamelware by BMc Vintage Design, and contemporary jewelry by Richard Hamilton, Lucinda Sheldon and Evensong.
McElhiney opened Wonderland in May, and it’s open Tuesday and Wednesday, from 12 to 6 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, from 12 to 8 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
McElhiney’s enamel cookware and handcrafted jewelry are also for available at her shop. She studied at Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She also started BMc Vintage Design, her studio where she transforms Victorian silver serving pieces into ornate, colorful, environmentally safe pieces.
“The silver plate is sandblasted off, cleaned and powder coated with color and fired,” McElhiney said. “It’s permanent and fused on there. You can put boiled water in the tea cups and hot foods on the serving trays.”
It was in a dream that McElhiney said she got the idea to up-cycle vintage silver, aluminum and brass pieces into contemporary tabletop pieces enameled in colors for modern interiors. None of the materials used to color the pieces are toxic, she said.
McElhiney, a master silversmith and vintage collector, also designs and sells her own clothing. Based on photographs of graffiti McElhiney has taken from around the world, she creates the patterns on women’s leggings for brightly colored, urban-themed pants made from polyester and spandex.
Many of the items in McElhiney’s collection come from estates on Martha’s Vineyard, the island she called home for 20 years. Some collections were 200 years old, she said, where she has found quilts, ivory pieces and antique masks.
McElhiney sold antiques and her handmade jewelry in a couple of shops on Martha’s Vineyard and continues to on her online Etsy page. Besides selling her jewelry at her shops, McElhiney also sold her wares at art and vintage shows in on Martha’s Vineyard and on the mainland.
McElhiney moved to Easthampton eight years ago and decided to open a retail store on Cottage Street after a debilitating fall last summer. She spiral fractured her femur and spent several months in a wheelchair, preventing her from going to craft shows to sell her work.
“There was no way I could go to shows anymore,” McElhiney said.
Her partner, Jeff Sinkwich, encouraged her to open up a retail space in Easthampton in the former Mary Ann’s Dance and More storefront.
“I wouldn’t have gotten through any of this without him,” she said. “He’s the hero in my life.”
The newly renovated storefront and interior has already created a buzz, McElhiney said. Architect Emily Estes and architectural color consultant Amy Woolf teamed up to “raise the bar” on Cottage Street.
“It’s the gem on the whole street,” McElhiney said.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@ gazettenet.com.