MADE ON ISLAND
The Many Talents of Suzie Pacheco
By Abby Remer
Suzie Pacheco offers an impressive breadth of enticing items at Creekville Art and Antiques. Like Amy Kirkpatrick, with whom she shares the store space, Suzie sells jewelry, but hers are all vintage and antique, drawing you back to an earlier era.
The pull toward these beautiful items began very early. “What I’ve always done since I was a teenager is buy and sell antiques. I’d go to antique shops and thrift stores, pick up little things, and then bring them to Boston to sell wholesale. I don’t know how I got the guts to do it, but I did.”
Suzie, who had visited Martha’s Vineyard as a child, was drawn back in the late 1960s. She opened her first shop, Vintage Jewelry, in Edgartown in 1983. Over the years, she has also had shops in Menemsha and Vineyard Haven.
You’ll find more than her alluring items of adornment at Creekville Art and Antiques. There are also Martha’s Vineyard-related collectibles, including vintage books, as well as wonderful old maps and paintings of the Island.
On display, too, you’ll discover handsome vintage sterling flatware and etched scrimshaw–some old and some new, custom-made pocketknives. “They make the perfect gift for a man in your life,” says Suzie. “It’s hard to buy gifts for men.”
In front of the window is a large selection of antique collectible glassware, including medicine bottles and fabulous vases. Sunlight pouring in highlights their alluring colors. Suzie shares, “I love them because they are true antiques, they’re fun, and they’re not expensive. It’s a very democratic antique.”
You’ll also find iconic American art pottery, including Roseville and McCoy, along with colorful Victorian Majolica and Italian art pottery. The vibrant Uranium glass, produced primarily between the 1920s and 1940s, is fascinating because it glows under a black light.
Suzie also sells her own figurative paintings. “After many years of life drawing, combined with a fascination with the magical appearance of things underwater, I was able to combine the two into paintings I call the ‘Swimmer Series.’ I also continued to be influenced by the beauty of Martha’s Vineyard, and so I can’t help but paint the landscape.”
“It’s all turned out well,” Suzie says about her and Amy’s joint venture. “We’re heading into our second year. The first year was fabulous. I’m really happy to be here, in addition to my painting and gardening.”
Creekville Art and Antiques and A.E. Kirkpatrick Jewelry Design is located at 9 Main St. in Vineyard Haven, suziepachecoart.com, aekjewelrydesign.com