Dec 2, 2014

Eclectic Mansfield Gift Shop Offers Glimpse Into Other WorldsBy Susan DunneCTNow.com

Mansfield, CT – Mansfield Art Center, on a sparsely populated stretch of Route 32 in Mansfield, looks ordinary from the outside, a green and yellow building set back from the road behind a colorful sign, across the street from an elementary school.

But going inside is like stepping into a different world. Actually, many different worlds.

China is present, as well as Indonesia, South Africa, Poland, Brazil, Tonga, Bali, Peru and many other countries, in the form of handicrafts created by those country’s working-class natives. Thousands of eclectic knickknacks, ornaments, toys, garments, pieces of jewelry and tchotchkes fill the shop: Baltic amber necklaces, jingly necklaces from Afghanistan, kites from Indonesia, iridescent bowls made in Vietnam from coconut shells, copper earrings from Greece, little stuffed elephants from Cambodia, Dia de los Muertos panorama boxes from Mexico, a frog-shaped lamp from Thailand, a rattle made in Egypt to ward away evil, molas from the San Blas Islands of Panama, dozens of alpaca scarves from Ecuador in a vivid variety of colors.

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