Most Ybor-ites know the "casitas" — the compact bungalows typical of cigar-workers' homes that face Centennial Park on the 1900 block of N. 19th St. Like dozens of other similar houses in the area, they were moved to make way for the widening of I-4; now they're owned and rented out by the Ybor City Musuem Society.
The luck of the casitas must be intact, because two recent moves to and from the block have also worked out well. Sharon Rose closed The Mermaid's Slipper at 1903 N. 19th St. and reopened in Centro Ybor as Wear Me Out!, an oasis of smartly chosen crafts. Last month Dan and Nataly Balk moved into Rose's former quarters to realize a longtime dream.
The Balks are veterans of the art festival circuit, where they've shown their finely wrought silver jewelry everywhere from Hyde Park to Dunedin. But with two children ages 1 and 3 1/2, they decided it was time to open a business that stays put. Hence: Singing Stone/Casa de ART, a gallery which features not only their own work but that of artists they've met over the years at festivals.
The result is a smartly curated mix of high-end accessories (sculptural rings by Roberto Vengoechea, Dan Balk's intriguing "Zen window" pendants) and affordable art (spindly-legged insects by Jeffrey Kennedy, macrophotography by Lorri Honeycutt). There are leather-and-stingray wallets with a pebbly sheen, beaded belts with curvaceous wooden buckles, wedding and commitment rings, and everything's priced to sell. The gallery has only been open a few weeks, but Nataly says business has already been "phenomenal."
And finally, it's good to have a place to call their own. Before, she says, if a festival customer asked to see more of the Balks' work, "we used to have to meet them in Starbucks."
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.
