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As best friends will, Melina Wikoff and Derith Armbruster hung out a lot growing up.
Each other’s houses, shopping, participating in the local community theatre – you name it, they were doing it.
Super tight even after they moved to different towns as middle-schoolers – one at age 12 to Duncanville, one at 15 to Arlington – the Corsicana friends stayed connected.
“We were very intentional. Our parents would get us together before we could drive,” Armbruster said, “and once we could drive, we would get together. And then we went off to college together and then moved back here together.”
That’s commitment.
Their friendship has gone even further. The Arlington women are business partners, owning and operating The Mosaic Market, an art boutique downtown that will celebrate its first year on July 3 (one day ahead of its actual birthday).
“What you see now is something that we’ve dreamed of,” said Wikoff. “When we’d shop in different places, we would say, ‘Oh, I could totally make that. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a shop like this? Someday let’s do this.’ ”
Someday is now, as they curate original art, décor, jewelry and more from more than 100 North Texas artists.
It may be their first store, but the near-lifelong friends had plenty of experience in sales, and their people skills were always sharp.
“When we were 10, we were part of this club in Corsicana – we did multi-family garage sales,” Wikoff said. “Huge garage sales, where people would come from all over the city. I would say that was our first business together.”
What’s in their Arlington store? Glad you asked.
“When people ask me what we sell, I just say, ‘Yes,’ ” Wikoff said and laughed. “It’s not that we sell a bunch of mosaics; it’s that together, the collective, the artists create the mosaic. That is the market.”
Everything inside the doors – which are open every day, by the way – is selected by the friends and sold at commission. It’s the business model they wanted after they rented a booth at Historic Camp Bowie Mercantile.
It educated them in what artists, buyers and sellers seek.
At the Mosaic Market, they put their idea to work: artists are not charged for space. The entrepreneurs display, market and collect a commission on everything they sell.
“We wanted to create a space where artists could show their art and not be at risk,” Armbruster said. “We wanted to do something a little different and maybe have more control of things. It helps us because we need beautiful products – we don’t want products that you see repeated in every store. So it’s a win-win for everybody.”
One walk through the store provides plenty of supporting evidence for that statement. Colors radiate brilliantly from art pieces, wall hangings and ceramics. Prints and frames of all sizes and styles beckon lingering views. Curios and knick-knacks invite you to turn them over in your fingers. Meanwhile, for your nose’s pleasure, soaps and scents make the first steps in the door feel like entering a fragrant new world.
Credit Wikoff for finding the space at 204 N. West St. The building was an auto repair shop in the 1950s and an office building most recently. When they bought it, they discovered asbestos that required a teardown of the interior.
“All the way down to the cinders,” said Wikoff.
In a sense, it was fitting. The wide-open building gave them a canvas to display the incoming treasures freely. Their ideas could pour out to their hearts’ content. Just like they wished as kids and young adults.
Is it everything they once dreamed it would be?
“It’s more than I thought it would be,” Wikoff said.
Armbruster nods in agreement.
“It’s amazing, the talent of the artists,” she said. “From the day we opened, I don’t think we had any idea of what it would be today with what we see and what comes in.”
They do it all together, as best friends will.
