Jeweler makes her own

A woman who has worked in the restaurant industry, is a painter and spent months on a backpacking trip in New Zealand and Southeast Asia, never thought her next move would be opening a jewelry store in downtown Dunkirk.

But Lindsey Bishop is embracing the new adventure, while also giving hope to the community and fellow merchants.

Bishop, 25, recently set up shop in the former W.E. Gaunt Jewelry Store at 213 S. Main St.

Former owners Bill and Marilynn Blankenbaker closed the store on Dec. 20 of 2014, after operating it for more than 30 years.

“I was looking for studio space in Dunkirk,” said Bishop, who has been a painter for 10 years and began making jewelry about three years ago.

“I just met Marilynn and the rest is kind of history. We all got along really well. They’re just such nice people. I think they really like having somebody in here that appreciates the things that they have,” she said, referring to the tools and cabinets that Bill built.

“There’s just some really cool stuff back there and Luke appreciates it especially ‘cause he’s a wood worker,” she said of her boyfriend Luke Davis, 35, who is also an architect.

“I make ethically-sourced fine jewelry,” Bishop said of Lackadazee Quality Handcrafted Fine Jewelry.

“I get my gemstones out of vintage pieces or I’ll get them from ethically-responsible, socially-responsible mines and all my silver and gold is recycled,” she added.

She learned the craft while she and Davis were living in a cabin in the woods near Hagerstown. It was winter and the cabin had no water or electricity, so Bishop became bored and having previously researched metal working,

she started messing with wire. She later took a jewelry class in Richmond and taught herself different techniques and now makes her handcrafted pieces in the back of the shop and sells them in display cases in the front.

Bishop wants her jewelry to be made well so that it can be worn everyday.

“I basically strive to make heirloom quality jewelry, which to me is another way of being sustainable. So my whole business is built around sustainability,” she said of the necklaces, rings and bracelets that she creates. Her overall goal is to make engagement rings with ethically-sourced diamonds and stones.

In addition to getting acquainted with the Blankenbakers, Bishop said that other business owners have stopped in and introduced themselves.

“People really want to make some moves around here. It’s exciting,” she added and is hoping someone opens a coffee shop or another restaurant.

Bishop first began selling her jewelry on Etsy at lackadazee.etsy.com. and continues to, and she and Davis have the site SEEBIRDS.ETSY.COM where they sell their naturalist artwork and birdhouses that he makes out of cedar.

Davis also has his birdhouses for sale in the store, as well as a table and chairs he and a friend made.

Together they tear down old barns for the wood to use for projects and also do remodeling projects.

He has a wood shop at the home of Bishop’s parents, Mike and Patte Bishop, where the couple also live, south of Dunkirk. The home was built by Lindsey’s grandfather and her parents bought it back a few years ago and moved there from Spooky Hollow Road in southeast Jay County where Lindsey grew up.

A 2010 graduate of Jay County High School, Bishop later earned a degree in hospitality administration from Ivy Tech in Muncie.

She worked in the restaurant industry in small diners as well as fine dining restaurants for several years.

She has also painted for 10 years, formerly operating Ladybug’s Art Shop out of her home in Muncie where she sold paintings and had shows and also sold paintings to a hospital in Kentucky while the couple were living there.

“My parents really encouraged me to be artistic and they bought me art supplies and Liz Lawson was my art teacher in high school and she was very important to my desire to be creative,” Bishop said.

Davis worked for a big corporation in Cincinnati but had no creative control and later designed restaurants for a smaller company when the couple lived in Louisville.

“But I think he just needs to, you know, make things,” Bishop said.

After living in Louisville, the couple sold all their belongings and went backpacking for six months in New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

In New Zealand they hiked 800 miles of the Te Araroa trail for 60 days on the south island and backpacked city to city in Southeast Asia, where they explored museums and immersed themselves in the culture.

“When we came back we just kind of planned on getting back into making things and saving up and buying a house and this just kind of snowballed into this, so here we are,” Bishop said of their return from their trip in August.

In addition to the couple’s crafts, they sell items from other artisans that Bishop discovered through social media and word of mouth, including quilted bags, totes and coin purses, table runners, baskets, dog dresses, nursing covers, binky clips, all natural body butters and sugar scrubs, jewelry, embroidered handkerchiefs and pillows, crocheted items and cutting boards.