Taste of Stevenswood

Excellent store with an eclectic range of nice gifts for self and others
loved the ceramic mushrooms Nice place to stop and browse
Great food and service and the entire experience was perfect. A great place to visit.

Ten or fifteen years ago this corner spot housed a crafts gallery I really liked. There were rooms and rooms of ceramics and other works. I can’t remember all they had because it’s been a long time since I was last there, but over the course of years I have bought things there for myself and for friends. One of my favorite pieces was a woven ceramic bread basket by Eucalyptus Stoneware. That gallery is long gone and I wanted to see what had replaced it. At least two stores now fill that space and I went into the one on the west side, Taste of Stevenswood. It’s affiliated w/​Stevenswood, a relatively new inn or resort south of Mendocino.
They displayed some interesting and attractive pieces of jewelry. There were some earrings similar to the ones I was wearing and several large pendants comprised of multiple stones set in silver. I assumed the latter pieces were Indonesian because they were similar in composition and quality to pieces I had seen from there. The saleswoman explained that the jeweler was Native American and was apprenticed to a master jeweler and for this reason her jewelry was very affordably priced and she wasn’t allowed to sign it. One piece had a large piece of moss agate combined w/​three smaller stones in shades of green. I commented to the saleswoman that I had a pair of moss agate earrings. Before I knew it, she had taken out of the case and had fastened it around my neck. I’ve never had anyone do that before. It didn’t show well on the black shirt I was wearing. Alan looked at one of her other pieces and said if I wanted that one he would buy it for me for our anniversary, which was that day. I was much more drawn to that one, which featured an unusual crystalline turquoise colored stone called Larimar found only in the Dominican Republic.
It was combined w/​a blue topaz and a pearl. I tried it on and he bought it. Tonight I started thinking about which outfits it might go w/​and that started me thinking about packing for our upcoming cruise. This piece will be a lovely memento of our Mendocino trip, made sweeter by the fact that Alan chose it for me rather than waiting for me to choose it for myself.