Sea Breeze Gallery

Formerly She Sells Seashells and More, featuring Local Artists and Gourmet Foods

By Maggie Caldwell

Where do you go for handcrafted jewelry, gourmet foods, ocean-inspired art and home décor, and more? Look no further than Sea Breeze Gallery, Alyce Shepardson’s popular gift shop and gallery located in the Capitola Mercantile. Alyce founded Sea Breeze Gallery after a successful career in the construction industry. She’s gone on to create a success of her gift shop business; in just one year, Sea Breeze Gallery grew from 180 to 660 square feet and earned Santa Cruz Sentinel’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Gift Shop for 2013.

Alyce established Sea Breeze Gallery as a venue for local artists and food artisans to display and sell their creations. She is an accomplished jewelry artist and photographer who had long felt “there’s not enough places for artists.” So the walls and shelves are adorned with original oil paintings by Marc Kunze and Shane’ Baker; local photography by owner, Alyce Shepardson, Richard Beckmann, Xlj Photography and others.

She also sells sea glass jewelry by Shane Gomes, whimsical copper mermaids, recycled copper earrings and cuffs by Laurie Tholen, goats’ milk soap & lotion from Fish Princess farms and so much more.

One of her best sellers are the barbed wire hearts. “They’re made by Chris Allen using reclaimed materials. We have several of his Tree of Life sculptures, and he also makes recycled bottle art. One of his recently created pieces measures 5’x8’; it’s just amazing.” The shop also features sculpted low-relief paper mermaid hangings by Neno Villamor, handmade furniture fashioned from sustainable redwood by wood carving artist Michael Podorson and – new to Sea Breeze Gallery – are wine barrel furniture pieces by reWINEd designs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Some of those creations include a fire pit, cooler coffee table, Adirondack chairs, and even red & white wine oak chips for your barbeque.

The gourmet food items found in Sea Breeze Gallery are not found in most area grocers or specialty stores. There’s Earth ‘n Vine Tangerine Fig Balsamic, Mango Tequila Jalapeno BBQ & Dipping Sauce, Belle Farms Olive Oil in Watsonville, and Twins Kitchen jams and mustards. Flavors like Blenheim Apricot Sage Jam and Strawberry Jalapeno Jam are fantastic over cheese or cheesecake and are fun to cook with. For those of you with a sweet tooth, we have gourmet toffee from Goose’s Goodies, by Marci Polo (4th generation Santa Cruz’n).

Alyce also manages the art displayed on the walls within the Mercantile. Currently Efren Adalem and his wife, Denise Murphy have their amazing local waterway and ocean photography available to purchase. Their work has been on display in the Monterey Bay Aquarium and they have each won several awards. They are very well known in our area for their photography and being pro-active to help protect our fresh water wetland areas’ wildlife.

Vases of live flowers always greet visitors to Sea Breeze Gallery. Stop by to check out the beautiful array of art and gourmet food items. And be sure to say hello to Avalon, the mermaid at the helm of the store who is one of Alyce’s cherished pieces of art.

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Sea Breeze Gallery is located at 115 San Jose Avenue in the Capitola Mercantile Building in Capitola Village. Phone number is 831-359-7511. Summer Hours are Sunday – Friday 10 AM – 6 PM, Saturday 10 AM – 7 PM