One for the Books

Denise Scaglione and Philip Swafford

Denise Rose Scaglione and Philip Marshall Swafford met in 2002 as students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and married in 2006.

Ten years after they met, Scaglione and Swafford noticed that they had an abundance of used books they didn’t want anymore, but they also didn’t want those books to just end up in a landfill.

So, combining Scaglione’s English degree, Swafford’s fine arts degree, their shared experiences working at the same bookstore — although at different times — and Scaglione’s time managing a local jewelry store, the couple launched their small business,

Marshall and Rose, in 2012. Bookcover notebooks, storybook magnets and book jewelry like earrings and necklaces (especially the business’s recently created storybook lockets) can be seen at Marshall and Rose’s regular spot in the Chattanooga Market lineup. The lockets remind Scaglione of her grandmother, who used to wear a locket with her granddaughters’ photos inside.

The couple’s jewelry collection became popular after they started vending at the Chattanooga Market in 2013. Scaglione and Swafford realized they could make their jewelry in batches more quickly than some of the other time-consuming products they were making in the beginning, such as jewelry holders and vintage tennis rackets, so they turned their main attention to jewelry.

“We’re not just selling jewelry,” Swafford says. “We really are helping people reconnect to reading and stories…”

“And the books that they grew up with. It really helps them remember that moment when they read that book, and it connects people to things that they connected to in their childhood,” Scaglione adds to the end of her husband’s sentence.

October through December, Scaglione and Swafford spend “all day, every day” working on their products — sometimes through the night into the early morning hours — and sell at as many markets as they can to support themselves through the January to mid-March off-season. However, this year’s off-season turned back on when Marshall and Rose dove into their first shot at wholesale.

Orders are coming in from all over the country, says Scaglione, with one international order from Australia.

Over the years, customers and fellow vendors have turned into friends for the book-loving couple, and they say many people stop by just to chat or ask for book recommendations.

“We just want to make sure everybody feels welcome at our little booth,” she says.

Find them at marshallandrose.com.