It’s Thursday, which means I’m back with $25 in my pocket and another Tucson shop to explore.
This week’s $25 Challenge took me to Fourth Avenue, where Tiny Town Gallery & Surplus is packed — and I mean packed — with Tucson and Arizona-inspired treasures. Think roadrunner tank tops, glow-in-the-dark scorpion earrings, desert art, quirky zines, stickers, hats and plenty more, much of it made right here in Tucson.
Tiny Town is a longtime staple of Fourth Avenue, and owner Amanda Beekhuizen and her husband Jeik Williams opened the current location 10 years ago as a place to sell pieces they create for their business, Tanline Printing.
“We're both printmakers and artists,” Beekhuizen said. “We started out running Tanline Printing, and so we were making a lot of things. So it made sense to put together a retail store so we could sell those things every day.”
At Tiny Town, they specialize in making printed goods, Beekhuizen said.
“So T-shirts, hats, stickers. My favorite things to make are zines,” she said. “My background is in letterpress and bookbinding, so I make cards and zines, and also blank notebooks. And then Jeik's background is in screen printing.”
What they love most about Tiny Town, she said, is that they are able to offer such a large variety of merchandise at reasonable prices.
“We try to make things affordable, and we try to work with different artists, so we have a big variety of things,” she said.
Beekhuizen said she also loves the customers and the Fourth Avenue community.
“Very kind people come into Tiny Town, and we have a lot of regulars who are just on Fourth Avenue regularly, and then we also have people who come to visit,” she said. “And people tell us that when they have family in town, they always come to Tiny Town to get little Arizona and desert inspired goodies, and that feels really good- that people want to keep coming back. And really it has been truly a delight to get to know our community better.”
Tank top sold at Tiny Town.
If you’re looking for the perfect affordable gift or some way to show your Tucson pride, Tiny Town has to be the first stop in your search. From tote bags to bandanas, artwork and T-shirts, they truly have something for everyone. Here are some of my favorite finds for under $25:
Many of their printed T-shirts and tank tops feature Tucson-inspired designs, desert motifs or Arizona wildlife. Some are designed and printed by Beekhuizen and Williams, while others were created by different local artists. The best part? If you’re shopping on a budget, their tanks and tees are only $20, while their long-sleeved shirts cost $25.
My personal favorite was a green “Tucson Arizona” tank top with an adorable roadrunner on it.
Hats sold at Tiny Town.
If you’re not a fan of T-shirts, they also have plenty of hat options to choose from, including Tiny Town baseball caps and embroidered beanies with adorable frogs and daisies on them along with lines like “I’m Fine” and “No Way.”
Hats sold at Tiny Town.
I loved their neon yellow succulent and cactus baseball hat the most. Embroidered hats are priced at $25, while printed or non-embroidered hats are $15.
Print by Zegarra Design.
Inside Tiny Town, there’s probably as many art prints as there are T-shirts, and you could probably spend hours looking through the hundreds of pieces they have organized on their multiple large shelves, or displayed on clotheslines along the wall.
Prints by Jeik Williams, also know as Jeik Ficker.
Many retail for less than $25, and their greeting cards in particular each cost $5.50 or less. Some of the prints I looked through included a bright pink, purple and blue Heron by Zegarra Design for $20, and a large Arizona state print, designed by Jeik himself, which cost $25.
Glow-in-the-dark scorpion earrings at Tiny Town.
Have you ever wished you could have glow-in-the-dark earrings? Well alongside many, many stickers and enamel pins, you’ll find the cutest scorpion earrings that glow in the dark. They’re perfect for anyone who likes our resident creepy crawlies. Or, for the true desert lover, there’s also fluorescent saguaro earrings in virtually every color of the rainbow. Each pair costs $12.
Tattoo coloring book sold at Tiny Town.
Some of their most unique offerings, though, are a collection of curated zines from local artists like Ames Meeks, Rudy Kay Art and Beekhuizen herself, most for under $25. Among the zines there was also a coloring book called “The Calming Colors” with illustrations of tattoo work by Golden State Tattoo, which was priced at $7.
