Inside the Santa Ynez Valley Magazine Winter 2002 Edition

Successful in Solvang
by Connie Cody

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Danish-born sisters-in-law Marianne Larsen and Birgitte Pedersen share their culture with others, and make a business out of it.

Marianne Ullum Larsen and Birgitte Larsen Pedersen, sisters-in-law, best friends and owners of their own shops in Solvang lived within 60 miles of each other when they were children in Denmark, but it took coming to the Santa Ynez Valley for the two of them to meet.

How did the two natives of Denmark wind up in the Valley, so far from their homeland?

Birgitte Larsen came to Solvang in 1961 at the age of 13 when her parents, Gerda and Arne Larsen, happened upon the village by chance on their way back to Denmark after five years in Canada.

The Larsen family had immigrated from Denmark to Canada in 1957, and settled in Victoria, British Columbia; the move was not taken lightly by Birgitte's mother Gerda, who had a promise from her husband, Arne, that they would leave the new world after five years if she still missed their homeland.

After their papers came through they decided to take a trip across America before returning to Denmark,î Birgitte says, they discovered Solvang and mom decided the new world would be ok after all. The family settled into life in the Valley and never looked back.

About the time Birgitte graduated from Santa Ynez Valley High, 23 year old Marianne Ullum, working as a postal clerk in Denmark, was dreaming of America. Although she had toured parts of Europe and spent a five month stint volunteering in a kibbutz in Israel, she longed to see more of the world.

She applied for a green card to work in the United States, and was hired, sight-unseen as maid for a couple in Encino California. Kissing her family goodby, she bravely set off alone for another country. Marianne knew that California would be different, but she was unprepared for the San Fernando Valley.

The couple I worked for didn't have a good marriage. The wife slept all day and was up all night. Their house was messy, with paintings all over the floor. For a Dane it was really different. Marianne didn't drive, a near impossibility for life in California, but she made a valiant effort to use the transit system. I took a bus on Sunday to go to a Danish church it took several hours to get there.

Marianne's family in Denmark suggested she call their neighbor's relatives who lived further north in a small Danish community called Solvang. A week later Marianne had a job at Thumbelina on Copenhagen Drive and could walk to Danish church services. Two months more and Marianne became a local celebrity when she was appointed Danish Days Maid.

It was a year later, in 1969 that she and Birgitte became sisters-in-law when Marianne married Birgitte's brother Jack. The entire Larsen family traveled to Denmark for the wedding, held in Marianne's hometown in Jutland. Weddings generally last for 12 hours over there,î Marianne says,We married at three in the afternoon, then the 100 or so guests had coffee, dinner, drinks and dancing ó the celebrations continued until three in the morning.

Birgitte met Steen Pedersen in 1970 at the baptism of Marianne and Jack's first child, Sven. Steen's parents, Lili and Ernst Pedersen, were owners of Iron Arts gift shop, which they founded on Alisal Road in 1950 and later moved to Copenhagen Drive.

Birgitte and Steen married in 1971 and left the Valley for Berkeley, and Steen continued his education at seminary school. They then moved to Santa Barbara to live, but in 1975 they bought a home in Solvang and have been back there ever since. Birgitte went to work in her mother's downtown shop, Gerda's Yardage, and Steen commuted to his job in Santa Barbara.

Birgitte discovered that shopkeeping was her calling so she began buying into my mom's shop. By 1980 mother and daughter were partners in Gerda's Yardage. The shop expanded further when Steen's parents old business, Iron Arts, came up for sale; Birgitte and Steen bought and merged the two businesses, creating the Gerda's Iron Art shop of today.

Gerda's Yardage had once supplied mostly locals, but People's interest in sewing faded,î says Birgitte. our biggest market today is tourists they are interested in laces, and a domestic, Danish-European look. Between caring for her children, Kirsten and Matt, Birgitte has kept the 1,000 square foot shop running with the help of her sister, Jette, mother, Gerda, and three additional employees.

During the years Birgitte was building her own business, Marianne Ullum Larsen helped her husband Jack in their own family restaurant, The M'llekroen, while raising their two sons, Sven and Paul. Then one day she found herself thinking about a shop of her own. She even had the shop's name, Gaveaesken (the giftbox), after a favorite shop from her childhood. Marianne thought her shop should be like the one she remembered from Denmark, carrying unique, decorator Scandinavian-style household gifts.

Shopkeeping in Solvang is not the easiest of worlds, as any local shop owner will testify. Much is dependent upon the whims of travel, tourism and the visitors appetite for Danish theme products. A critical skill for a new shopkeeper is to acquire an instinct for selecting popular stock. Here's where trade and gift shows come in.

I went to my first trade show in Denmark in 1990 and started Gaveaesken in 1991.î says Marianne who bought items she personally liked, which proved relatively successful. Still, there were those left-over items on the sale rack. I found just buying what I liked didn't always sell. Marianne and Birgitte joined forces to attend trade and gift shows together. Besides having fun on trade show trips, they've become a successful buying team.

Birgitte, who has years and years of trade show experience under her belt, admits it can be a challenge to make the right purchases. The two travel to Denmark and U.S. Scandinavian-style trade shows several times a year, trying at least one sometimes two new lines each time. Curiously, there's no problem at all if the two simultaneously discover an item they think might be good for their own shop.

Sometimes we do want the same things,î Marianne says, but we just ask each other do you want this, or may I have it? î Danish diplomacy at its best.

Luckily, each sister-in-law has different stock in their respective shops. Birgitte favors laces and linens, antique copper, iron work, traditional porcelains and Danish collector plates, while Marianne's taste leans more toward contemporary European and Scandinavian decorating and gift pieces. A subject the two wholeheartedly agree upon is their enjoyment of shopkeeping in Solvang.

I love being my own boss. says Birgitte. I never want to work for someone else Marianne smiles, although I might babysit other people's shops when I get old.