SOMETHING DIFFERENT in the City Different Photos by Carolyn Wright
J
ewelry, clothing, kitchenware, handmade crafts — the Turquoise Butterfly holds a different allure for each customer. In fact, it’s that difference that has become a defining characteristic of the store. “When customers come in, one word we repeatedly hear to describe us is the word different; we’re a different store in the City Different,” says owner Barbara Rice. It’s not just its wares that sets apart the Turquoise Butterfly; it has a different story as well. Rice started in Cloudcroft, New Mexico with a store called the Copper Butterfly. In December of 2010,
the mall next door caught fire in the middle of the night, spreading to Rice’s building, burning it down. “After that, I had to decide whether or not I wanted to start over,” Rice recalls. “I’ve always loved Santa Fe so I came here and started looking. You know the feeling when you find something just right? I peered in the window of what is now our building and I knew this was it. I looked up the owner and told him my story. It ended up he had ‘For Sale’ signs sitting in his trunk but could never bring himself to display them. As this had been his first store, he had fond memories of the place, but it had
sat vacant for eight years. He wanted to sell it to the right person, and I don’t know if it was karma, but I was that person. A month later we were moving in. We opened in December of 2012, two years after the fire.” Out of the ashes of the Copper Butterfly came the Turquoise Butterfly, still offering the same local arts and crafts as before, but still decidedly different. 149 E. Alameda St www.turquoise-butterfly.com 505-982-9277 barbara@turquoise-butterfly.com ABOVE PHOTO Barbara Rice, owner