Abacus Gallery

This place has gone downhill. from Artsy to Snotty.
When I first discovered Abacus in 2002, it was filled with interesting, creative art creations. The Space now has little to no art, and is rather filled with common jewelry and tacky shiny (artist made) mass produced junk.
Some of the jewelry is still nice, but it’s not exceptional, and it’s pricey.
The employees working there are of the typical Maine cold and conceited female breed.

Lot’s of cool stuff and gifts. We loved exploring this place. Be warned… its’ pricey.
The staff was friendly, checkout was a bit frustrating because there was no order and staff gave more attention to older ladies who were shopping for overpriced jewelry.
Go here if you want to get something cool.

I was walking around the Old Port checking out a few places while finishing up my Christmas shopping. I wish I would have started here! There were all sorts of different items for everyone on my list in many different price ranges.
I love that everything is locally handcrafted. The glass case full of clocks was stunning to see. The shop is small and was really busy, so I couldn’t look at everything bec I couldn’t get to everything. However, I still saw enough to walk out of the store with a bag full of gifts.
The calendars are cool and I like that they had some pre-​wrapped for Christmas, and frames available in the different sizes right there. Totally convenient.
The workers seemed tired towards the end of the day with people still rolling through the door, but they were still very polite. One of the guys checking out in front of me requested that she get a tape measure and measure a framed poster hanging on the wall and she was unphased by this, even with an ever growing line forming.
I will definitely be be back after the holidays to hopefully be able to spend more time taking in everything in the store!

It’s not an art gallery but high end artistic things; jewelry; sculptures; ties; door stops; bottle openers etc. better survivor that you might actually keep. The only art is one person, assuming that might be the owner. Smart move in my opinion. Worth the peek in while shopping.

My kind of place-​I probably could have easily spent an hour looking at everything.
Really unique and quality stuff, not just touristy junk or arts and crafts. Also, not just the same «unique» stuff I’ve seen in other stores trying to do a similar thing, that just have all the stuff from the Uncommon Goods catalogue/​website.
If I lived near Portland, I would request that all my birthday gifts come from this store. I’ve checked out the website, but sadly it doesn’t seem like they have everything on there that they had in the store, so visit!

Cool stuff. Really cool stuff. Go here (especially if you like artsy, handmade [but high-​end] jewelry and very unique art).

I could go in to the poor house in this store. Custom made, hand crafted glass, wood, metal, and cloth items that are cute, pretty, delicate to hardy. So many amazing and creative little and big things.
My husband had to drag me out of this store.

This store was nice It was full of unique artisan jewelry (necklaces, rings, etc.) and home goods (wall art, coasters, picture frames). We spent a while in this store just b/​c I had to look at everything, it was all so interesting. If you’re in the area, stop by and check it out.

Portland has a lot of gift shops and art galleries but this one is one my favorites. Where a lot of the shops specialize in things like pottery or paintings this place has a great variety of pieces, from sculpture and paintings to jewelry and other unique items. The people here were very friendly and helpful, my only issue with this place is the prices. Everything is priced pretty high, the high quality items from local artists make the prices almost worth it but some things are just a little too high for what they are (like hundreds of dollars for jewelry made of what looks like tin or some type of non-​precious metal). If you’re in the area you should definitely stop by and check this place out…