THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180216
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 79 lines
SMELLS OF scented candles capture your senses when you walk into Blackwater Gallery & Framing. And then, your eyes begin to scan the room: birdhouses, carvings, artistic note cards, cookie-making kits, stuffed reindeer and snowmen, unique artwork.
That's the way Ginny Lee Gudger designed the little shop at the corner of the new Windsor Shopping Center.
From wind chimes to candles to eye-pleasing artwork, she wanted to capture the senses of customers as soon as they walked in the door. She wanted them to find something appealing and different.
``I started by going to the wholesale gift shows in Atlanta,'' she said. She looked for things she hadn't seen in local gift shops.
``I've really tried to have a wide variety of things,'' she said. ``And I have a lot of catalogs. If somebody can't find what they want, we can always order it.''
Gudger, a Chuckatuck native, now lives in Windsor with her husband, Greg, an engineer at Allied Chemicals, and their two small children. She specializes in framing prints and original artwork. She added the gift line to complement the framing business and to appeal to her customers.
The young mother and entrepreneur does all the framing work herself in a back room. It's something she's always been interested in, she said, and she even thought about starting a framing business at home.
Then, Rhonda Demsko mentioned to her that she and her husband, a local dentist, Dr. Harold Demsko, were building a small shopping center just inside the Windsor town line.
``Greg and I thought this was just the right time,'' Gudger said. ``We wanted to do the framing, but we also wanted to do gifts and collectibles.''
Greg Gudger helps with the framing operation when he can, his wife said.
``I used to call him my hired hand,`` Ginny Gudger said, laughing. ``But I never got around to paying him. So now, he's just my hand.''
Blackwater Gallery and Framing held a grand opening June 30, along with Duck's Windsor Florist. The rest of the shopping center, except Dr. Demsko's office, opened July 1. He is to move into his office soon.
So far, Gudger said, business has been ``surprisingly good. I've been pleasantly surprised. To be a new business, I think we're doing very well. I think this whole shopping center has surprised a lot of people.''
Gudger said she's had customers from Wakefield, Suffolk, Holland, every small town along Route 460 up to Wakefield, and, of course, locals from Windsor.
Gudger also welcomes into her shop work from local artists. She currently has two - Lois Saunders Atkinson and Kenny King - displaying work there. Baskets by Donna Outland of Carrsville decorate one full shelf, and rustic carvings by a Virginia Beach artist are displayed throughout the shop.
Gudger's business neighbors in the shopping center are just as pleased with the steady flow of traffic that pulls into the front parking lot and with the customers who make their way into the neat row of shops.
``I think it took a while for people to realize we were here,'' said Toni Mills, owner of Mills Christian Books/Health Foods. ``Once we were discovered, business has been good.''
Mills, who formerly worked in the criminal records division of the Newport News Police Department, offers a unique combination in her shop - Christian reading material, wedding invitations and natural foods and supplements, like vitamins, minerals and herbs. She's currently enrolled in a yearlong class to become a registered herbologist.
``I'm beginning to expand my line of actual health foods,'' Mills said. ``I think a lot of people have been pleased to discover that there's a health food store in this area. A lot of people have been going to Virginia Beach and the Peninsula.''
Visitors to the center also can visit Dollarville, featuring an array of household and personal items, all for $1; Duck's Windsor Florist, an established local business that moved to the shopping center from another location, Windsor Dry Cleaners and Mr. Video.
And Windsor School of Dance, which Rhonda Demsko owns and operates, is at the back of the shopping center, behind the row of shops.
The Windsor Shopping Center is just over the line that separates Windsor from Suffolk, going west on U.S. Route 460. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Ginny Lee Gudger opened Blackwater Gallery & Framing at Windsor
Shopping Center in June. by CNB