With a lease opportunity before her, Morag Grassie went with her gut in starting an artisan gallery named for a whimsical Scottish tune.
As it turns out, going with the gut is right up the alley for retailers and research scientists alike.
Entering its second month in business at Ridgefield”™s Branchville crossroads on Route 7, Ally Bally Bee”™s shelves are crowded with all manner of handcrafted articles and knickknacks, from Redding-based American Flora”™s yoga and dance garb fashioned from recycled plastic bottle; material to jewelry from a designer in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Grassie hails from Glasgow, Scotland, and was originally a research scientist with Organon, which was later absorbed into Merck & Co.
She ended up stateside six years ago after she and her husband cut a deal: Whomever got the first big promotion, the other would put their own career on the backburner to focus on the household and their kids. As it turns out, RBS needed someone to head its real estate services in the United States, and so the Grassie clan suddenly found themselves in Westport first and then Redding.
Grassie applied unsuccessfully for a senior scientific position with a nearby pharmaceutical company. She suspects she did not get the job due to the gap on her resume spent raising her children in Connecticut, despite otherwise impeccable credentials.
“I was so appalled,” Grassie said. “That was the break ”¦ I said, ”˜All right, let”™s do something different.”™
“My gut feeling reaction as a scientist may be a little less spontaneous,” Grassie said. “I do gather all the facts and work out the numbers, but generally have made my decision very early on in the thought process based on gut feeling.”
It is only a guesstimate, but Grassie thinks there”™s a universe in “the high hundreds” of local artisans that would potentially have items to sell through her shop, with more than 40 having dropped in to inquire on placing their wares on Ally Bally Bee”™s shelves.
While other artisan shops exist in Fairfield County and Connecticut ”“ the Artisan”™s Marketplace in Plainville has won statewide accolades three straight years from Trumbull-based Connecticut Magazine ”“ craftsmen also have access to artisan e-commerce sites to peddle their wares. Etsy allows Zip code searches to identify products ”“ some 81,000 products spanning Connecticut were being sold on Etsy as of early August, ranging from a simple sailor-knot bracelet from Mystic Knotwork to “the wall tentacle,” a mounted plaque from ArtAkimbo in Redding, whose motto is “Puttin”™ the ”˜eek”™ in unique”.
For her part, Grassie sells her own “Mo Bag” handbags in the store, estimating she has made about 250 to date. Those purses were what led her to originally shell out the sterling for the Ridgefield lease from Ancona”™s Market, as she learned about the artisan scene selling Mo Bags through trunk shows and crafts fairs.
As for Ally Bally Bee?
“It”™s all about a little girl who sits on her mother”™s knee waiting for a wee bawbee to buy candy,” Grassie said. “The funny story is my husband was ”¦ chatting in Redding Pharmacy and there was a lady in front of him in the line and she turned around and said, ”˜My great uncle wrote that song.”™
“I was like, ”˜What? You didn”™t get her name, you didn”™t get her telephone number?”™ I”™m waiting for the day that she walks in here, because it won”™t be long. I”™m sure she”™ll be here soon.”
