Mindful Nest sells Hardaway’s bottled scents and bath and body products, along with wares from about 100 artists. Their work lines the store’s walls from top to bottom. Among the collection of art available for sale includes vinyl clocks and jewelry, votive candles, earrings, necklaces made out of Scrabble pieces, recycled greeting cards, ceramics and wrought-iron sculptures.
Mindful Nest specializes in selling the work of contemporary artists, “adornments for home body and soul.”
The store buys directly from artists and other small North American companies.
Vernon and her business partner, Diane Jackson, also attend trade shows on a regular basis.
The shows feature new and veteran airists and are a great place to see new artwork, Vernon said, such as the recent American Craft Retail Expo she attended in Las Vegas, where more than 600 artists were featured, according to the expo’s website.
Mindful Nest buys wholesale, and based on the artist’s price, point and personality, Vernon will invite the artist to sell at the store.
In founding her store, Vernon said she is simply trying to introduce the public to an alternative way of shopping by buying from local artists and small businesses, as opposed to the “mass-produced, disposable stuff.”
“These are things that you would buy and pass along to your children,” Vernon said. “They are more meaningful. It might just be a gift item, but it comes from a better space — the source is more pure.”
Vernon is a former manager of Sherman Oaks-based Handmade Galleries, which specializes in renting space to crafters and artists.
While making cigar box purses there, Hardaway met Vernon, and from there, discovered that they shared common business dreams. Both women wanted to get away from the larger stores that sold mass-produced wares alongside so-called handmade products.
“I was, in my soul, having a very difficult time with that,” Vernon said. “It’s mass produced. You can to go to Wal-Mart, you can go to Target, you can go wherever you need to go, but not here.”
The two women had lunch to discuss their ideas, and before long, the lease to the space that is now Mindful Nest was signed.
“We had lunch in April, and we signed the lease April 14,” Vernon said.
They moved in June 1, along with 1928 Jewelry Co. Outlet and Magnolia Commons, all within several yards of one another.
