Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019 - 69

zon region for the first time, her namesake
school had become "a logistical nightmare," she says. "And I was not enjoying
it." Little by little, "I took my attention
away from it and put it on what I was really interested in, which was the cultural
aspect of the Amazon Indians."
Traveling back and forth to Venezuela,
Browning bought baskets and wood carvings, seed jewelry and masks, along with
authentic blow guns, bows and arrows,
and other collectibles, which she carted
around in her "big hippie van" and sold
at gift shows around the South. When a
shopkeeper friend retired in 2001, she reluctantly took over his space and opened
Museum Warehouse on Main Street. Business was slow at first, but sales took off
when she added wares from Mexico, Bali
and Thailand.
In 2007, Browning opened a second
shop in Gatlinburg called Hands Around
the World. Then the recession hit. So in
2010, she closed the store there and transferred the name to her Jonesborough site.
More than 30 nations are currently
represented at Hands Around the World.
There are hand-woven scarves from Ecuador, turquoise jewelry from Peru and
nativity scenes from around the world.
Because of the current travel ban in Venezuela, Browning no longer goes there.
A few years ago, she began featuring
the work of local artists who knit and crochet, shape silver spoons into jewelry and
make art out of river rocks.
"One of my favorite artists is a tall, thin
mountain man," she says. "He is so Ap-

palachian and his accent is so thick, that
I continually have to ask him to repeat
things because I can't understand what
he's saying."
One wall features local pottery, including her own. She also sells her limitededition landscape prints and still creates
portraits when she has time.
In the spring of 2017, Browning began
taking groups of about a dozen people to
various countries, starting with Peru, Australia/New Zealand and southern Italy.
She is now planning trips to Nepal/Tibet,
Ecuador/Galapagos, Maui/Hawaii/American Samoa, Peru, Namibia and Cuba. The
adventurers, mostly women over 50, stay
in five-star hotels but have dinner with local families and help gather art finds for
the shop.
"We go where we want. We do what we
want. And we see a lot," Browning says.

She has also been known to do more
for the indigenous people she meets than
simply purchase their art. In Ecuador,
she gives money to families struggling to
support indigent, elderly parents. Near
the Brazilian border, she donated boxes
of clothing, fishing hooks and over-thecounter medicines. Once, she bought an
outboard motor for a Venezuelan Indian
tribe to power the villagers' thatchedroof boat to the nearest outpost during
medical emergencies.
"It's important to me [to help] because
I've been there, done that," Browning
says. "I've been the artist on the sidewalk.
I've been the person trying to make a living off my art. I wanted to give people a
way to make a living off what they make
with their hands."
See handsaroundtheworld.net for
more info.

PRETTIES: A handblown glass ornament
(far left), and a Thai
Buddha mask and two
colorful handmade piggy
banks from Bali.
BELOW: Browning's
shop, Hands Around the
World (lower left), was
a dry goods store in the
1800s.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

http://www.handsaroundtheworld.net

Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019

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