TREASURE HUNTING AT MAJOR TOMM’S IN WINSTON-SALEM

Located in Downtown Winston Salem’s Art District is a store like no other. Major Tomm’s Oddities & Vintage has been a staple on Trade Street for the last 7 years since its opening. The outside is painted black with a hypnotic white swirl on the door to lure you in. In the windows sit just a glimpse of the whimsy and weird that awaits inside.

Once you enter, it’s difficult not to be taken in by everything around you. Taxidermy and vintage art line the walls. Shelves full of wet specimens, pinned bugs, and other original or nostalgic pieces. Even looking up at the ceilings- you’ll find more pieces, cloud lamps, fairy lights. You could look around several times and still not notice every perfectly placed detail.

I was able to speak with the owner, Holly. She grew up in Winston-Salem.

“Have you always been into the odd? The unique?” I asked.

“Yes, as long as I can remember. I think it’s because of always feeling off myself. Growing up in the south. Southern Baptist kid. Preacher’s kid. Homeschooled. Only child. So I always felt like a misfit and… therefore, I like to be surrounded by other misfits.”

*Holly posing with Orville the Lion, the store greeter.*

She told me she always wanted to open something but wasn’t sure what exactly that would entail. The idea for this store came when the building came up for lease 7 years ago.

“At the time, there wasn’t anything on this street… so it was very scary.”

This was surprising to me because I feel like Trade Street is one of the most popular and happening streets.

“It is. Definitely. This has always been the arts district but I think that the town was ready for something that was a little more punchy and intense and arts derived and free.”

“So you probably started with your own collection?”

“Yes! I mean, I definitely had enough stuff to open a store, for sure. I did not have to do a lot of shopping when I first opened” (laughing)”

“How do you source all of these great finds?”

“A lot of the stuff in here, I am the one that makes it. All the shadowboxes. The keychains. The buttons. A lot of the taxidermy. The bugs. The teeth. The bone jewelry. Earrings. I upcycle a lot of the clothing that’s back there. I’m all about sustainability and all about bringing life to things that didn’t make it. You know? They get another chance to live. The majority of this in here is all hand-sourced by me or handmade by me.”

“Were these all self-taught skills that you learned?”

“Yes, it was all self-taught. I grew up on a farm so I was never very squeamish around you know, decay or death or anything like that. [I] had no problem picking up bones… I’ve always been a treasure hunter in the wild or in antique shops. Thrift stores. Estate Sales. Yard sales. Whatever! I love it all. I wanted to do something, since this town didn’t have anything like that, that would be a little bit more… fun and not like dark aesthetic. Which I love! Like the gothic, dark aesthetic but I wanted to go a little bit more like welcoming and ease into it a little bit. That’s why we have the pink furry wall and the glitter floor and rainbow clouds and a disco ball and yeah, it’s to make it a little more light-hearted cause I know it’s not for everybody.”

Opening in 2019, Holly barely got started before Covid tried to halt her plans.

“I got started right when Covid hit… I just had to go online and start selling online, doing curbside pickup. That kinda got me through and also I have a phenomenal landlord who was so kind through covid and very forgiving. That was key, I feel like. Very thankful.”

“How’d you come up with the name?”

“The David Bowie song, Space Oddity. It just kinda… Just happened, I guess. I didn’t know how I felt about going in the direction of something that felt… masculine but I’m glad I did now. I like the vibe of it.”

“Is it hard when you’re finding stuff to choose between having it at home or bringing it to the store?”

“Oh yeah. Even whenever it is in here, I think sometimes the price will reflect that. If I’m not ready to let something go, it’s gonna be priced higher and, you know, a lot of people that know me know that and if they’re long-term customers they’ll try to wait me out and see if they can make it to when I’m like okay I’ll make a deal. …A lot of items in here will spend time in my house before they make it to the shelf.”

“Sounds like they’re made with a lot of love.”

“Yes.” she replied.

Collected with love. Made with love.

“Do you name everything?”

“Yes. Everything gets a name.”

“That probably makes it harder- “

“It does! I mean, especially all of the taxidermy pieces or like the bugs. It’s just… it’s so much work to put these like shadow boxes together. To make tiny furniture for bugs to sit in. To make mohawks for squirrels and, you know, cover them in piercings AFTER taxidermying them… You kinda get attached!”

*Some of Holly’s taxidermy work. A punk squirrel with a mohawk smoking a cig and a couple of frogs playing cards on a mushroom table.*

“You’re doing all the taxidermy too?”

“Yeah, I do. I put all their outfits on and… I haven’t done every piece in here by any means. A lot of this is vintage but yeah, the smaller stuff”

“Did you teach yourself how to taxidermy? “Yes” she quickly answered. “Just searching online? “

“Yeah. I’m still learning. It does not always go well.”

At this point I’m pointing at various items in the shop and asking if she did this piece or this one and she keeps saying yes. I am completely blown away at the amount of work and craftsmanship that has been put in.

“I didn’t know you were doing all this. That is so impressive!”

“People say that all the time and I should advertise more that I’m the one that does this because I feel like… it would mean more to people when they were purchasing it and they would know they were purchasing from the artist instead of, you know, like a random. But yeah, it’s me! I love it but it’s a lot of work. Everyone’s like ‘be your own boss and open your own business!’ ‘You’ll never work a day in your life!’ And I’m like… I work 80 hours a week (laughing) I work in my sleep. Like, I dream about being here when I’m not here, it’s hilarious. But I still love it.”

“I LIKE TO CREATE AN EXPERIENCE IN HERE. THE THING I LOVE...THE TREASURE HUNTING. I WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO KIND OF GO THROUGH THAT TOO AND THEY FIND SOMETHING SPECIAL.”

“Do you have a favorite piece in the store?”

“Yes. In our wet specimen case on the top shelf, there is a deformed piglet. His name is Kinda. He was born with cyclops syndrome so both of his eyes are in one socket and he was born with his penis on his nose… We love him and he’s one of my prized possessions. I will never sell him. I love him.”

*Holly retrieving Kinda from the wet specimen case.*

*Holly posing with Kinda, her prized possession.*

“I’ve had him… I found him… I’m not gonna lie, it was actually terrifying. One of the places that I work with, that I donate to, they’ll just give me tubs of embalmed creatures that like they messed up on or had some imperfections that sometimes I’ll go in and fix or whatever. So it was just like a bucket of dark liquid and I couldn’t see what was in there. I just had tongs and I was like What Is This?!”

“How do you feel about haunted pieces?”

“I have had haunted pieces. One of which I actually had to remove from the store because it started getting a little too mischievous. She did not like her picture taken, specifically, and she would make people’s phones crash”

Holly described a doll that had the mechanisms in her eyes to open and close which were broken but they would still open sometimes and totally freaked them out so they decided to get rid of her.

“How did you get rid of her?”

“Actually, somebody wanted it. People come in all the time asking for haunted items. So it was easy to find her a home. I didn’t sell her, I was like here you go! I don’t know what the rules are on selling something that’s haunted (laughing)”

“Any plans to move or is this home?”

“If anything, I’ve thought about another location at some point in time but that’s… I mean, I’m just now, after 7 years, getting my footing and feeling pretty comfortable here. But I do think I’ll be taking some steps back from doing the clothing part and adding in more oddities. Cause now that I have the Alley to work with, I feel like I could just do clothing out there, you know. Cause I would rather fill this place with more oddities than clothing. It just kinda happened cause people wanted it and I’m like… well, I want to do more oddities in here… I feel like I could fill all that up with more. I’ve got plenty”

‘The Alley’ she refers to is The Alley of the Arts, a new project that Holly and a few of her neighboring creatives have been working on together. “[It’s] a maker’s market that will be happening every Saturday and it is literally out my back door.”

“It’s a self-sustained market, people book themselves. The artists [once they’re approved] can literally go see, look at what dates they want, and book themselves. We stay out of it… I can show it to you real quick!”

Holly leads me through the shop and out the back door revealing a hidden oasis between the buildings. “It’s like a nice big area out here. We’ll put a food or drink vendor up there. Here’s where the live music is and then all the vendors are out here… It’s gonna be really cool!”

“Yeah, we’re gonna do events. We’re gonna do classes. All sorts of things. We’re booked all the way out. [It’s] gonna be really cool!”

“What kind of classes are you thinking?”

“We’re gonna do all kinds of different art classes. We’ll have someone out there doing like clay or I might be out there teaching bug-pinning or terrariums or just sewing circles. Clothing swaps. I’m excited!”

Before leaving, Holly wanted it to be known:

“All of our specimens are ethically sourced and we donate proceeds monthly to different organization, different rescues. That’s very very important to me and what I do here.”