Selo/Shevel Gallery

Why is it I get this pretentious Beverly Hills snooty attitude from the women behind the counter every time I’ve stepped in the door here?
This place is run by the original Grinch.
Save your self the despair and go somewhere else in town.

I’m inclined to give Selo Shevel the four star treatment just because they carry my favorite jewelry line (Hotcakes Design) but even if they didn’t they’d still get it because the whole experience that is pretty awesome.
The spot is a jewelry/​art gallery/​home décor shop hybrid, aka one of my favorite types of shops. I could spend a very long time in there just browsing around, looking at all the ceramics, beautiful necklaces, wind chimes, and other art pieces. The shop is fairly long and stretches out in front of you in a series of separate «rooms,» so there’s always something exciting ahead of you as you move through the space.
The staff is mega nice. Yesterday I picked up a few new pieces of my favorite line and I chatted with the woman who rang me up about my purchases, love of birds, etc. She saw my bag and showed me some ceramics that they had that looked similar to it. The cutest mug ever! If I hadn’t just dropped a pretty penny on a new necklace and ring I would have picked that up too. Great stuff!
The prices are pretty reasonable in that the price for all the pieces I bought are the same as every other shop I’ve seen them in, which means they don’t really hike up the price outside of what other retailers charge. It’s not exactly cheap but they’re not ripping you off either. It’s the perfect place to get a unique gift, a lovely piece for your new home, or just a new spot of jewelry to treat yourself. :)

Since posting my review, owner Elaine Selo contacted me to profusely apologize for the experiences I had had in the store and to assure me that this was not the type of experience she wanted customers to have. I definitely appreciated the very kind gesture, which to me demonstrates a level of care and concern that you don’t find often in some kinds of shops. It sounds like what I experienced in the store during my two visits will, I hope, be a thing of the past. Kudos to Elaine for listening to and respecting the voice of the customer as well as thanking me for my honest feedback.

Cool art in all forms: jewelry, furniture, pottery, glassware, giant mobiles, gorgeous wooden jewelry boxes, clever ties…
…at comparatively reasonable prices. I mean, they’re handmade art prices, for sure, but I can go in, look, and touch, and occasionally buy a lovely gift for someone without feeling like I’m breaking the bank or don’t belong. A GREAT place for different, cool presents for your artsy parents (as well as a good place to take them when they visit). SK has had excellent luck choosing gifts for his.
Also they have free gift wrapping, and do an absolutely beautiful job, if you’re prepared to be patient. Remember that scene in Love Actually when Rowan Atkinson is wrapping the necklace for Alan Rickman? Well, that’s exactly what this is like – right down to opening all the narrow white drawers to pull out ribbons, bows, and tissue. Then they snip the ends of the ribbon and tuck the whole thing in a Selo/​Shevel bag («This is SO much more than a bag!»). It’s really quite lovely, if you have several minutes to wait, and can watch without giggling.

I love being able to walk downtown and step into all the little store fronts and be so overwhelmed, but in a good way. I don’t wanna miss anything, so I sort of zone as I walk along. This followed my purchase from Ten Thousand Villages, so it had a lot to stand up to. It didn’t disappoint either. A lot of artistic glass pieces and jewelry as well as unique artisan pieces. I like the glass long-​stemmed cherries. Very chic. Modern mirrors and some neat pieces.
Didn’t walk out with a purchase, but would go back!

This art gallery has many rooms full of beautiful things. You could browse it for hours if you had the time. A lot of it skews toward pottery and glass stuff, some of it more on the crafty side than the art side, but still really gorgeous stuff.
Parking in this part of Ann Arbor can be a chore, but it’s not a bad walk from the parking lot near E. Liberty and 5^th, which almost always has a few open spots.

Selo-​Shevel has a decidedly retail feel to it – more like a gift shop than a gallery. But everything for sale is handmade, as opposed to mass-​produced.
They do for artists year-​round what the art fair does for one week.

Beautiful handmade pottery, textiles, wind chimes, wooden boxes and other objects, unusual clocks, African masks, jewelry, scarves, and other fine craftswork are displayed attractively in this well-​stocked gallery. If you long for the art fair — without the crowds — on an ordinary day of the year, try shopping here.