Make a Living with Antiques

I found myself in the middle of a fevered dream. Alone on the third floor of a house on Monterey Square, I knocked about a room filled with antiques. Chinese vases, broken beds. Faded photographs in golden frames with faces I faintly recognized. I climbed steps to the fourth floor and looked out a broken window at the nearby Mercer-Williams House. I shuddered. It was cold and in my haste to back up I stumbled, putting my foot into a hole in the floor, and narrowly avoided a crash into a warped, full-length mirror. “Time to wake up, Mikey”.

But this was no dream. I really was inside this store. This abandoned mansion filled with unbelievable antiques. I’ve never seen anything like Alex Raskin Antiques at 441 Bull Street.

Alex Raskin has been in the Noble Hardee mansion for 25 years, and has spent most of that time filling it with finds made at auctions around the world. We went inside knowing full well that we couldn’t afford to buy anything, but just wanting to see the house. Paint is peeling off the walls and windows are broken, but the dilapidation adds enormously to the charm. The guy working allowed us to wander around at our leisure, and the sheer vastness of the place won us over immediately.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but don’t hesitate to visit if you’re in the area. The antiques are amazing, expensive, and the eerie feeling inside this historic, deteriorated house is unmatchable.

441 Bull Street
(912) 232-8205 ‎
Location on our Savannah Map

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Our guide during our recent day trip to Bluffton, South Carolina was Nancy, who owns and operates a store of miscellaneous eccentricities named … Eggs N Tricities. A large shop packed to the gills with weird, fun stuff, Juergen’s shutter finger was itching like crazy. Nancy also allowed us into her home, which was very similar in feel to her shop, and we got some great shots there, too.

If you’re in Bluffton, make sure and stop by her shop! Regardless of your tastes or interests, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something you’ll like.

Eggs N Tricities
71 Calhoun St.
Bluffton, SC
843 757 3446
Location on our map

A look inside her house:

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The Portrait in Clay Book

We’ve been lucky to meet some incredibly talented people during our time in Savannah, and recently had the opportunity to get to know Susie Chisolm, a sculptor who works out of City Market.

If you’ve spent time walking around the city, you’re probably already familiar with her most famous work: the Johnny Mercer statue at Ellis Square, where the famous songwriter immortally leans against a fire hydrant. She’s been commissioned for other public works as well, including a life-size sculpture of Charles Fraser, who was the developer most responsible for present-day Hilton Head.

For some reason, when I think “sculptor”, I think of an intense, morose and grimly industrious person. But that’s certainly not the case with Susie, who’s as warm and friendly as can be. We had a great time getting to know her, and learning her story. For someone so accomplished in her chosen art, Susie got a late start, only deciding to pursue sculpture in 1996 after participating in a local workshop. Almost instantly, she knew that sculpting was for her, that molding clay into shapes “made sense” to her in a way that other mediums didn’t, and she wasted no time in diving headlong into the practice. She even flew out to Cortona, Italy for a summer to learn from the masters.

What I know about sculpture could fit into a four-word sentence, so Susie’s detailed explanation of the process was instructive. While we were in her studio, she was working on the bust of a recently deceased man who had served in the army; a private commission from his family. She described how she forms the clay into a likeness of her subject, of whom she had multiple photographs pinned up. Though still in the beginning stages, the lump of brownish clay was already recognizably the man in the photos.

Suzie’s won a number of awards, and her work can be seen in Colorado, Texas and of course around Savannah. But even more than her accomplishments, what struck me was how sweet and down-to-earth she is. When we asked what her dream project might be, her eyes brightened and she said immediately that she’d love to do a statue of Forrest Gump for Chippewa Square. Now that’s a great idea… it’s kind of amazing the city hasn’t already done it! If you get a chance, swing by Susie’s studio, check out her work and say “hi”. In a city full of artists, she truly stands out.

Official Site
Location of Susie Chisholm’s Studio on our Savannah Map

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