Wands, magic and more found in store

By Bryan Gentry

Published: June 24, 2008

The Faery Godmother is one of those stores where you can get a magic wand, a leather renaissance helmet, a Peruvian flute and a Bridezilla voodoo doll.

Kim Niedbalski and her husband John opened the store June 3 in the Riverviews Artspace building downtown. They want it to be a fun and magical place.

Kim Niedbalski used to own a video store in Rustburg, but it wasn’t a passion for her and she grew tired of it. But trolls, fairies, magic and music are right down her alley.

“This time I wanted to make sure (the store) is something I loved,” she said.

The inspiration for the store, she said, was a fairy shop she saw in England.

Lynchburg’s Jefferson Street, still stone-paved in some areas, and the cold stone walls in her ground-level shop remind Niedbalski of the old boutique shopping district in England where she found the fairy shop.

Since collecting the items they sell was a hobby, the couple already knew suppliers and were able to get inventory together.

On a windowsill outside the store, Niedbalski keeps a metal fairy wand soaked in a bubble mixture. Some passersby stop and blow bubbles and smile as they come in.

Niedbalski said making people smile is one point of the store.

“We just wanted (the store) to be whimsical and enchanting,” she said.

She and her husband also wanted a place to display and sell some of their artwork and that of others.

Her husband makes fairy doors and houses. She makes sculptures, such as a clay wand with an elfish face on one end and a crystal at the other.

Her mom used to make tiny fairy dresses when Niedbalski was young, and she’s picked up the habit again to sell a few through The Faery Godmother.

The centerpiece of one table in the store is a tall, colorful fairy house built by a former Disney artist who lives in Florida. Other items include fairy wings, wooden swords and battle-axes and knight
helmets.

“We wanted cover a wide (audience), from children to adults,” Niedbalski said.

Angela Hamilton, executive director for the downtown development group Lynch’s Landing, said The Faery Godmother is a good fit downtown.

“What makes downtown so unique are the wonderful shops and boutiques that create a unique experience for their patrons,” Hamilton said. “I think that Kim definitely does that through her unique merchandise and what she has to offer.”

The Faery Godmother opens her doors from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Janee Burke looks at a fairy statue at The Faery Godmother store in downtown Lynchburg on Friday.  Burke, a frequent shopper at the store, was searching for a present for her mother’s birthday.