La Bussola offers handmade gifts and local art
Despite being in the neighborhood for five years, La Bussola is still considered a hidden Reno treasure.La Bussola is a store that sells handmade gifts and offers art workshops. Owner Meredith Tanzer said that her store is nothing like anything else in the Reno area.
“We recently changed locations,” Tanzer said. “With that, we have a lot of responsibility to the community and keeping the art in Reno alive and vibrant. The store is starting to pick up, and I think people are really liking it.”
Tanzer said a surprisingly small amount of University of Nevada, Reno students come into the shop. Japanese students are frequent shoppers. She said she feels like they are more accepting of artistic risks. Tanzer said she would like to see more UNR students feature and sell their pieces or come by and check out the store.
“La Bussola is edgy,” Tanzer said. “We are very accepting of people and people’s art here. College students owe it to the community to support local art and local businesses instead of going to the mall.”
Senny Wong, a 21-year-old chemistry major at UNR, sold her paper and beaded flowers at the shop.
“I was in there with my friends one day,” Wong said. “I just started talking about art with Meredith and I decided to sell my flowers there. I got a pretty good deal there. They sold the flowers for about $20 and I received half.”
If students don’t have any work to show off, Tanzer is looking for volunteers to help out around the shop.
“I have volunteers painting sections of the floor in the back at the studio,” Tanzer said. “I can’t really pay anyone but if you want to trade me something for what I have with a gift you have and I don’t, we can do that. If you could paint me an amazing wall mural and I have a canvas you want, we can trade.”
Despite the intricate details of the handicrafts sold in La Bussola, the majority of the products are sold at a college-friendly budget. Tanzer said a lot of her wares are perfect for sweethearts. From heart-shaped measuring cups and spoons to handmade bath salts and beads.
“I love La Bussola,” said Melissa Greenfield, a 20-year-old elementary education major. “I bought the cutest necklace there. It had this charm on it that said ‘lucky’ on it. It looked like the word was cut out from a page in the dictionary.”
Students can have their art displayed or sold at La Bussola by taking digital pictures of it and sending them to Tanzer at artshows@2by2creations.com. Tanzer will then set up an appointment to review the work. If Tanzer thinks the art will fit the scheme of the store, she will offer a consignment agreement and sell the art.
252 W. First St. # 4D
Reno, NV 89501
(775) 348-8858
www.2by2creations.com/labussola
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 12:13 am and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, InsideReno.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
