Lovably Oddball East Village Jewelry Shop Verameat, Sketched

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Welcome to Shops Illustrated, a Racked feature in which artist Jennifer Hoyden sketches New York City stores. For each entry, she'll draw a street view, an interior look, and some items currently hanging on the racks.

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They're creepy and they're kooky, and okay, sometimes ooky, but the very Addams-family collection of charms and rings and earrings and more at Verameat are never, ever dull. Gold-dipped brass and ecologically sound recycled silver keep things super shiny, and with a severed hand theme as the dominant decor, the little East Village jewelry shop is, well, it's neat, sweet...and petite.

A grenade, a dinosaur eating fried chicken, an Uzi, a brain (that's brain, as in your noodle) may all be atypical symbols for self-adornment, but Verameat is not the place to expect the typical. Somehow symbols of phobias and fetishes, rendered in delicate miniature, are just so cute. And, amid the mix of playful and ferocious symbols, designer Vera Balyura works in the occasional sweet bow, or heart, or even...a poodle. Never dull.
· All Shops Illustrated posts [Racked NY]
· Verameat [Official Site]