Hello everyone,
I am so excited to introduce you to my favorite store in the town that my mom lives in -
D Davis Antiques and Health Food. Their storefront lives in a charming old brick building.
When you walk in you are greeted with a gorgeous grandiose lamp.
It is so big and so beautiful that you just want to hug it.
During my visit I got to chat with Diane, and she agreed to let me interview her.
Myria - What is the
name of your store?
Diane - D. Davis and
Company
M - What is your
name?
D - My name is Diane
Davis
M - How long has
your store been open?
D - This store here
has been here for about 12 years but I've been in this business since
the 60's
M - Oh wow. And how
long have you been doing lampshades and restoring lamps?
D – 1971
M - What got you
interested in doing it?
D - I like nearly
everything that comes from that era, and anything that has to do with
textiles. And when I first came across my very first pattern, a
totally decayed and ruined antique lampshade, I just thought it was
the neatest art form that I'd ever seen in my whole life, and it took
me about a year but I finally figured out how they were made, and it
was just one stitch at a time.
M - So how did you
actually figure out how to do it? Did you look at any books?
D - There weren't
any back then. There were no books and there was one other person I
knew that covered lampshades but no one was going to give up their
secrets. It was just a matter of stacking them up in the bathtub of
the antique store, and looking at this pile of rotting lampshades,
and going “how in the world did they do that?” And then it
finally occurred to me that it was strictly a matter of sitting down
and sewing it one stitch at a time.
M - So, the fabrics
that you select, I love the fabrics that you select. Have you always
used these kinds of fabrics?
D - The fabrics that
I use are the same type of fabrics that were used on the originals.
Not everybody is real well versed in that, but since the first ones
that I bought were back in the 60s and 70s, there still were examples
of the originals, and then you can find old old catalogs like Larkin
catalogs, and sears catalogs and all, with shades in them, and you
can still see the descriptions of the fabrics that were used, and it
was the same thing that was used in high grade evening wear at the
time. Exactly the same fabrics went into the evening wear, all of
them from Europe. Really nice silks, embroidered silks, metallic
encrusted silks, and Chinese embroidered silks. Cut velvet was a big
big fabric back then.
M - Right. I heard
you mention earlier that the cost of the lampshades - labor is not
much of a factor, its the fabrics that are involved are just so high
quality, and they cost you so much money, and you have to factor that
into the final cost of the lampshade.
D - Right.
M - Yeah. Which
is...I mean they are just amazing. I've never seen...
D - The trims are
real expensive
M - Yeah.
D - Because they are
real woven brass from Europe, from the same mills that made the
original old metallic trims in the 20s
M - Wow, so you are
ordering from Europe too? Wow. And then the pulls...because you can
purchase pulls separately, and you can use them on your own ceiling
fans, or your own lamps at home, and they are very reasonably priced
at $12 each. Do you make those as well?
D - I do.
M - Yeah, those are
nice. They're really beautiful. Do you sell anything online or take
special orders?
D - We do a lot of
custom orders but I don't have a website
M - Ok, so what is
your phone #?
D - 501-337-1225 or
501-337-3543
M - So if anybody
wanted to call you to place an order, you would take the order, and
just ship the shade?
D - Yes
M - Ok, great! And
what made you start to make the pulls?
D - I had a customer
a long time ago that thought it would be really neat to have pulls,
and a lot, not all of them, but some of the old ones had pulls, so I
thought “ok I guess I need to figure out how to do that.” So
that was the next project, and I found that I could use the leftover
remnants of the fringe that I had, and sell the pulls separately for
ceiling fans. So we used to have a HUGE tassel business.
M - Wow
D - That has died
out with... actually I guess in the late 90s, a lot of that kind of
thing got really popular, so they started importing a lot from India
and China, and flushed out that market
M - Like everything
else
D - Right.
M - Yeah, because
the pulls you can easily use them as a curtain tie-back or for your
lamps. They look really really pretty. And the antique clothing
that you have. Do you restore any of that stuff, as well, since you
can sew?
D - I don't.
There's not really a market for it. I was one of the first vintage
clothing dealers on the west coast back in the early 70s and so I had
a lot of that type of thing. And that was actually what gave me the
backlog of textile knowledge, and fabric knowledge for the lamps,
which was really good. But since I moved here to the south there it
no market for that type of thing.
M - For vintage
clothing and antique clothing?
D - There is, but
much more modern, not antique, but much more modern. And it needs to
be in the $2 to $3 dollar range, you know, because we have a lot of
consignment stores here in town, and they sell a lot of used
clothing, not really vintage clothing.
M - And just so my
readers can have a reference, this town Malvern, Arkansas has just
over 10,000 residents so this is a pretty small town, and you know I
can verify that the clothing prices are pretty cheap so… Which is
one thing that I like in shopping just for regular everyday clothes.
But vintage clothing, I would think that there would still be a need
for good quality vintage clothing. That there would still be a
market for that.
D - People don't
understand that. It's too kind of hippy eclectic you know...they
don't do that kind of clothing...outside the box things.
M - In Albuquerque
there is a huge culture for Rockabilly, you know 1950s type
look..pencil skirts or flared skirts and pinup heels and jelly rolls.
There is a huge culture for that...or subculture, so yeah they are
always interested in those kinds of clothes. And there is another
subculture of people that are really interested in Jackie O, pillbox
hat, 1960s and that is what they look for.
D - We'll get that
here in 20 more years after all the original stuff has gone off the
market, and then people will think that of course nobody ever bought
it, they are the first person that wants it. They don't realize that
they really should have started on that 20 years earlier.
M - Yeah! It's
funny…
D - In NM it's
interesting because you've got Santa Fe, Taos, and you know lots of
little different pockets of people that are kind of known around the
country as artisans.
M - Yes, that's so
true. So your lamps, I noticed in your room, your craft space that
you have there...your workspace, you have a lot of finials and
conduits and wires, so you just sort of take them all apart and
re-assemble them?
D - A lot of times
there will be broken parts and they have to be replaced, that means
you have to keep everything!
D - Sometimes I will find something that has the world's most incredible bottom plate and the rest of it is either destroyed and ruined or gone, or somebody took it apart years ago and attached it to something that was hideously ugly.
D - You know, so I'm not opposed to buying parts and pieces that are really neat parts and pieces, and putting them back together the way that they ought to look.
M – Cool. Very
cool. I think it is wonderful what you do, and I'm just so happy to
meet you, and to just come in and enjoy your store every time I
visit! So, it is definitely my favorite store in town.
D - Thank you!
M - And it was a
pleasure to interview you!
D - Can you come in
and visit more often!?!
M - I actually am –
I'm going to start coming to visit every about 3 months. So, aside
from your lamps and your antique furniture and décor items, what I
love about this store is your amazing collection of Jewelry. I just
absolutely love it and I see some of the brands that you have are
Grandmother's Buttons and Jan Michaels, Patrice...and how did you get
involved with these artisans?
D - How did I come
across them?
M - Yeah, how were
you introduced to these artisans? Because their stuff is just
amazing.
D - The first piece
of Patrice that I found I found the year after my mother died and I
was out in Humboldt county California and found 2 pieces in a gift
shop, and had to own them. And then I found out that they came with
a health hazard because people that are total strangers on the street
will come up and grab you by the shoulders and spin you around and
just gawk and gasp and go “What is that?!”
M - They are
amazing. They are spectacular!
D - It was
definitely a home run. It is definitely just a little too pricey for
this area. But now Jan Michaels has been very good because her price
point is just excellent. She is a California designer, and
handcrafted, and very nice.
M - Yeah, the last
time I bought a big druzy ring which I absolutely love, and people do
comment on it a lot. And then, Grandmother's buttons, I'm really
into buttons myself, and I do make button jewelry using my mom's
button collection that she gave me.
D - Most of these
pieces are Grandmother's Buttons.
M - Where is she
from?
D - Louisiana. And,
these pieces over here, and these earrings, are built around old
buttons, but I did those.
M - Oh they're
Beautiful! Good job! Love them. So I'm also assuming that, since
I'm going to post pictures on my website, that if anybody wants to
call up the store...if they see something, that you would take the
order and ship it off. Right?
D - We can do that.
And then we have vintage jewelry. We have very antique, vintage,
middle aged...that's what I call it, it's “middle aged”. Older
but not really Old Old, you know which is good. We make several
things here and then we have quite a bit of silver, old turquoise,
that type of thing. Not as much really killer old Turquoise as you
would find in NM of course
M - Yeah...of
course, lol.
D - But I have more
than anybody around here does.
What a treat it was to talk with her! Here is some more eye candy of the items in her shop.
In addition to having the Antique store, they also have a health food shop under the same roof, in the back.
I am pleased to say that they have a great variety of essential oils for adding to food or for making your own massage oils, lotions, and soaps. As well as a large vitamin and supplement section, which is not pictured.
Thank you for reading! I hope you stop in to visit Diane and Terry if you're ever in Malvern.
Love,
Myria
