Global Fusion is about to go storeless.

The masks peering from the walls, the carved wooden figures, the colorful fabrics and handcrafted furniture and jewelry — everything is handcrafted and everything has a story to go with it.

And for more than three years, owner Diana Dills and her associate, Scott Cunha, have been telling patrons the stories behind the store’s fair trade goods, but the stories and the goods will be gone from the store on the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Dixie Highway by the end of June.

Owner Diana Dills announced Friday, June 5, that she is liquidating the store’s inventory and plans to reshape her business.

“My mission is introducing people to fair trade and being able to help the community I’m serving in Africa,” she said. “When the store becomes a burden instead of helping me to accomplish that mission, then it’s time to move on.”

The fair trade mission, as explained in a poster on the wall of the store, is to treat people with dignity and respect, to give them a fair price for their crafted goods, provide safe working conditions and financial assistance.
 

Dills works with Awurade Na Aye Handicrafts in Kumasi Village, Ghana, in West Africa, and her goal is to increase the reach for their goods, doing some wholesale marketing and seeking new partnerships with museums and other organizations. She said the store had become a limiting factor in the pursuit of her mission to promote their work.

The store’s sales approach was steeped in the mission to serve the artisans who made the goods.

“There are people who are associated with all this stuff here,” she said. “I really wanted people to understand what they were seeing, why people create them and what they mean.”

The point of making a sale was not only to help her business but to help the people of Kumasi Village support their families and community, she said.

“That’s where my whole heart was,” Dills said.

Cunha said he wasn’t sure what his next step would be. He’s pausing to consider options, which might include teaching or another retail position.

“It’s the only way customer services should be done, especially for small businesses,” he said of the store’s approach. “It has to be very personal.”

Dills said she plans to remain in Homewood and will continue to be an active part of the community. In fact, even when the store closes, local patrons might still see Dills and her fair trade goods in the area. Any merchandise she has left after the liquidation sale she plans to sell at area festivals and online.

“I don’t think it will be the end of Global Fusion,” she said. “It’s just the end at this particular location and the way I was doing business in the past.”

Although it will help her pursue her mission, she said the decision to close the store was difficult. 

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time and energy in this community, and it’s home. I don’t regret a second of the energy and time I spent here.”
 

The store was more than just a staging place for handcrafted goods. For local patrons, it was also a social place, and they came for the music, art and literature, too. Dills hosted drumming circles, book clubs, art and craft trunk shows and special celebrations and events, including Girls Nights Out.

Dills has served as the president of the Downtown Homewood Business Association.

The news that she was closing the store and stepping down from her position at DHBA came as an unwelcome surprise to patrons and other downtown business owners. A number of people stopped by Saturday morning to express their dismay.

One was a new downtown business owner, Iesha Bass-Simmons, who with her husband, Terrance, opened an art party service downtown in March called Paintertaining. 
“I was almost in tears,” she said. “I’m heartbroken. She’s a wonderful lady. It’s such a great store.”

Dills said details are pending, but she plans to hold a celebration of the store’s run Friday, June 19.