It’s always interesting when moving from place to place, whether it be internationally or nationally, the people that you run into whilst strolling around town exploring new areas. This past Saturday I had a few hours to spare and was interested to take a look into the Biltmore Village area of Asheville, NC. I had a 50th Birthday Party to attend for a dear friend from my youth and was a bit confused as to what to bring to the dinner party that she and her husband were throwing that evening.
Buckshot Collection by Susan West available at Blue
While strolling through the Biltmore Village shops, restaurants, bakeries, and galleries. I came across a gallery called blue. I thought to myself, “Now this place looks like my kind of place.” I’m perusing through the store and gallery and I find the woman behind the counter to look quite familiar, but cannot match the face to a name and having just arrived to Asheville a few weeks ago now, I brushed this instance off as if I was just associating people I had known in the past with a new face. I continued to look around the shop and came to an area in which I had a few questions, specifically, “What does one buy for a 50 year old woman, who’s as young as she was the day that you knew her when you were twelve?” At that point, I thought to myself. Any normal human being would ask sales staff.
above: 24k gold leaf ball tumblers available at blue
Approaching the counter, it became clearer and clearer to me that I knew this woman in my past. I began asking questions and asked her if she could give me some recommendations on my perplexing adventure of finding a gift for my friend’s birthday event. I took a chance and said, “I feel like we know one another,” she answered, “I think we do too, but I can’t fit the puzzle together.” I then exclaimed, “Are you Susan West?” Susan looked at me and said, “I am.” I explained who I was and we immediately got to talking about where we had left off sometime around 1984 when she went off to college having lived two doors down from my parent’s house since I was 5 years old. Interestingly enough, Susan went to NC State and then Pratt in New York where she studied the art of jewelry and becoming a gold smith. Later, we also realized that we knew the same girl whose party I was in fact going to that evening and Susan gave me a great recommendation on what to buy our other friend named Susan!
above: the 1.66 princess diamond gap stack by Susan West
An Ashevilleophile for many, many years now. Susan West makes amazing jewelry and has an eye for great glass and other interesting items that could just become useful for home use or for use as a gift! When in Asheville, NC, be sure to Check out blue. Susan has two locations:
historic biltmore village
1 swan street
asheville, nc 28803
p. 828.277.2583
flat iron building
10 battery park ave.
asheville, nc 28801
p. 828.575.2600
