It took Jazmin Horne about a month to completely retrofit an old mini school bus as a mobile unit of her downtown Bangor jewelry store.
Step onto the tiny bus and you’ll find a miniature version of Horne’s Dream Charm Bar, replete with shelves of charms and necklace chains, and greenery that adorns the interior walls.
“I wanted to get going before the summer ended,” Horne said of the quick turnaround.
The bus is making its first public appearance at the Bangor State Fair, which began last week and runs through Saturday, and visitors are loving the new shopping experience, she said.
Horne opened her Central Street store last summer, offering pick-your-own charms, permanent jewelry and an array of special events ranging from pop-ups with other local businesses to watch parties for popular shows like “Bridgerton” and “Love Island.”
“I wanted the store to be a third space,” Horne said. Having a bus allows her to bring that experience to more people and events, and to see more of Maine herself, she said.
Before moving to Bangor in 2022, Horne was a seasonal worker and spent time in towns across the state. She’s more settled now, she said, but she still wanted to be able to travel beyond her home base. She decided the best way to do that was to buy a bus.
Horne found the vehicle after signing up for websites dedicated to buying and selling used buses. “Once you do that, they start messaging you all the time,” she joked.
She was back home in New York for her grandfather’s funeral when she learned of a bus for sale just 15 minutes away. It was a full-circle, emotional moment for Horne’s family because her grandfather used to be a bus driver, she said.
Two days later, she drove the bus up to Maine.
Since then, Horne has put in new flooring, added cloud-design wallpaper and covered the walls, opting for easily wipeable materials so the bus is child-friendly for kids’ parties. She said she’s looking to book the bus for everything from birthday and bachelorette parties to weddings.
“People really enjoy the craftsmanship of it,” she said of the reactions the bus has garnered so far.
In the coming weeks, the Charm Bar bus will visit the Maine Book and Print Fest in Waterville Aug. 15-16, Bangor’s Bass Park After Dark Aug. 22, the Blue Hill Fair Sept. 3-7 and the Eastport Pirate Festival Sept. 11-13.