Smutzy...what a hoot!

Jeanie Smutz was another dealer in Heirloom Cupboard. Jeanie's spot was upstairs by my new section. Her space was half of the upstairs and packed with the most eclectic group of things you'd ever want to see. As a dealer you kind of specialized to a degree, steering towards buying the kind of things that you liked. What you liked was what you usually researched the most so you felt comfortable selling that. Also if that is what you personally collected ... as you upgraded your collection... the things you didn't want anymore, you could sell them in your space. After a while customers were drawn to a particular space because it was where they had a feel for the dealer and their tastes were similar. That is how you got a following.
Jeanie's spot was probably the most popular in Heirloom in some ways. Her collection of antiques were wild and she had fun in displaying them. She loved anything old. She could have an African carved teak wood tribal mask hanging on the wall, and she would have it wearing a wonderful woman's Victorian hat with a huge peacock feather. She was just bizarre. You can see why every one had to go to her area to see what was new.
Jeanie was a perfect example of an antique dealer out-of- control, buy buy buy and then... where do you put the stuff?! She was in 3 shops and had a surplus of plenty of inventory, but still ...she would buy buy buy! If we were all talking and someone said they went to an auction, some one would always ask, "Was Smutzy there? Then next, "What did she buy!?" So consequently she always won the contest when everyone would get together and complain about how much stuff they had and where to put it all. Jeanie would trump us all ! She would start out with, "Don't tell Tom ( her husband... she started every conversation that way when she was talking about antiques. Poor Tom! )...but I rented another storage locker!" Of course the next obvious question was, "How many does this make Jeanie?" She would proudly say "Well...with this one, now I'm up to seven!!"
That was status! The only one that could half way come close to that was Shirley Moon, but that is yet a whole other blog !
Getting to know "Smutzy," as everyone affectionately called her, was an experience. She had an "eye" for the weird and could decorate with it and make people want her odd groupings. Now that is marketing! I have seen a couple buy a whole wall display and say they were going to take it home and put it exactly the same way on their wall. I would be thinking... Oh my...NO! People...Jeanie wasn't serious when she put that set of 50's pearls around the stuffed deer head's neck, and hung vintage beaded purses from it's antlers, and put the carved wolf head cane in it's teeth! But hey, if they think it's art, who am I to argue?
When I needed a name for my new "antique business" Smutzy was the one who named it. She walked through my spot and said, " Shirley, your spot looks like my spot, just a hodge podge of stuff!
I took that as a compliment! I became Hodge Podge Antiques.