Observer & Eccentric – 4.6.06
Quirky store settles into Rochester
catching fireflies filled with unusual items
April Sytsma laughs through her work day.
She can’t help it. She’s surrounded by some of the quirkiest, most whimsical and downright comical wares ever amassed under one downtown Rochester roof. "This is something that will be here for the season. It’s a quirky frog prince dip bowl," says Sytsma, 31, giggling as she pulls off a ceramic amphibian leg to reveal a cheese spreader.
Sytsma steps from the kitchen wares section of her store, Catching Fireflies, to the pet department and picks up what looks like a rubber ball with a long tongue attached.
"Here’s a recent thing we got in. These humongous tongue dog toys," she said, pointing out that her own dog, an English bulldog, Samson, loves playing tug-of-war with them. "It’s so cute because he’ll bite onto it and he’ll look like he has a long tongue. It’s hilarious. It’s silly. But we like to make people laugh."
Sytsma and her husband, Steve, have been making customers smile with their eclectic mix of toys, gifts, art, housewares and accessories in their downtown Berkley store, also called Catching Fireflies, for the past five years. They recently closed a second store in Grand Rapids and opened their Rochester location — in the 1,500-square-foot former train depot on University, east of Main Street — last month.
The Grand Rapids natives, now Beverly Hills residents, had been looking at Rochester for the past few years as a possible second store location. Sytsma has shown many of her own collage shadow boxes, frames and scrapbook albums at Art & Apples festivals and the Berkley store attracts regular customers from the Rochester area.
"This train depot came up for rent. It’s perfect," Sytsma said. "Our Berkley store is in an old pharmacy. It had that sort of style. It’s not new construction. We sort of like that about it because it adds to our charm because a lot of our stuff has that nostalgic flavor.
"The timing was right, the place was right and the rent was right. It all sort of came together. We’ve only been open three weeks and it’s already proving to be a great success."
FROM FESTIVAL TO STORE
The business evolved from the handmade paper collages that Sytsma began creating 10 years ago while studying special education at Eastern Michigan University. She incorporated paper, charms and found objects into frames and albums and sold the finished works at art fairs. With the help of her husband, sister-in-law and an assistant, she attended more than 30 art festivals a year.
"We decided maybe we should try selling to stores. It proved successful and since it was, we hired people to help make the stuff. Because we didn’t want people at our house every day, we rented the Berkley location."
The front half of the store carried Sytsma’s art, as well as works by other artists.
It was both "a scary leap of faith," with the rent double the couple’s monthly home mortgage payment, but also "a nice way to get a taste of what retail would be like." Now they employ 18 people between the two stores as well as a.i. paper design, the art studio that’s located a mile from the Berkley location.
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Although Sytsma finished her degree in special education, she never taught.
Her husband, who also attended Eastern Michigan, taught elementary school in Taylor, before becoming the "business end" of the store.
"People come in here and they’re going to get a smile on their face. We’re young at heart. The store shows that," she said with a laugh.
Her personal style shows it, too. On this particular day she’s wearing pigtails secured by flower accessories, drop rhinestone earrings trace of glitter shadow on her eyelids.
"Quirky and fun. That’s what we’re all about."
Visit www.catchingfireflies.com to sign up for the store newsletter, enter monthly raffles and see the latest inventory. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. Call (248) 650-3318.
Originally published April 6, 2006
