At Lexaco, you’ll find your piece of Cape Cod

For Lisa Guariglia, nature’s beauty runs deep. It’s the little things, the elements of the natural world that often go overlooked that particularly strike her. The seed head of a dried-up coneflower. Lichens found on rail fences. Wild grapevines curled around a rusty old guardrail in Chatham. Baby mussel shells washed ashore on Nauset Beach. “The textures are so beautiful – that’s really what’s fascinating,” she says.

It’s Lisa’s fascination with the intricacies of nature that ultimately led to a “bucket-list dream” of an opportunity to work with her husband, Ed. “It only took us 40 years,” Ed says with a laugh. Delving into their long-held interests in jewelry making, Lisa and Ed joined forces with their artist daughter, Alexa, to establish Lexaco. 

“It’s where nature and art intersect,” Lisa says of their new Harwich Port boutique, noting that the letters L, E and A in the name represent the three partners and the “X” indicates the creative crossroads connecting them. At Lexaco, visitors will discover a collection of delicately handcrafted creations that highlight the natural world of the Cape. Lisa, whose background is in graphic arts, offers her handmade jewelry that jump-started the boutique business. Her artistic designs, from charms and bracelets to earrings and necklaces, feature her foraged finds from nature, including those aforementioned, cast in silver, gold or brass. “Once people get the feel for our jewelry, it’s a language all its own,” says Lisa, noting the evocative nature of her pieces’ rich textures.

Ed, who spent decades in the fuel oil industry, is a lifelong photographer, and his captivating images of breaching whales are available as prints at Lexaco. Additionally, Ed handcrafts Damascus steel knives, and he is currently developing a line of men’s jewelry, including necklaces and bracelets featuring tuna clips (locking devices used when trolling for tuna) on thick leather cords. From Alexa, a fine artist represented by Moskowitz Bayse, a gallery in Los Angeles, visitors will find her large-scale watercolor paintings on display. In the future, prints of her work will be available, as well as a line of textiles, including scarves and table accessories, that she will be creating in collaboration with Lisa. Lexaco also features pottery by Chatham clay artist Theresa Harriman, thin-turned bowls by Harwich woodworker Robert McNulty, and furniture pieces by Orleans woodworker Richard Jacobson, and Lexaco is the exclusive retailer of Monahan Jewelers’ ball bracelets.

“We celebrate nature as it is, not as what we want to make it,” Lisa says of the common thread among the artisans featured at Lexaco. Listening to Lisa and Ed marvel about nature’s wonders and discuss the future of their burgeoning business, their passion is palpable. Lexaco is undoubtedly the fulfillment of their creative callings. Ed puts it simply: “It’s our creative oasis.”