You never know what you will find when entering Timeless Items of Interest & Illusion. -JOHNATHAN MINEHAN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

How do you describe a store filled with snakes in jars, lamps built from trumpets and owners who love the abnormal?

I can think of one word… timeless.

Located in downtown Fort Myers, “Timeless Items of Interest & Illusion” transforms a store into a steampunk sanctuary for curious collectors.

Store owners Steve and Lisa Timcak started this business to add a bold new idea to the lineup of stores the Fort Myers community has come to know.

“I had a gallery in Matlacha that I opened 18 years ago. A few years into it, I started doing steampunk art, and it was wildly popular, but I couldn’t expand into the rest of the gallery. It was, it was too much of a deviation from the theme,” Steve Timcak. “We were down here one day 12 years ago and there was hardly anything here yet. I found out a week later that the store owner, the lady, wanted to retire and get out of business. So, I came here the next day, spoke with her, came back with a check and bought her out.”

Customer browsing the shelves at Timeless Items of Interest & Illusion. -DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Since opening the store, the Timcaks have combined their love of steampunk with pieces by local artists.

“All the art on the walls is by local artists,” Timcak said. “I had the advantage of the Matlacha store, which had over 70 artists, so I got to cherry-pick between them and then wholesale items that I just spent time hunting online for, looking for the right sort of things that just fit the whole field.”

Purchased items range from $20 to $500, with unique lamps among the most expensive.

When getting the store together, the Timcaks wanted to make sure they had a great staff to guide customers when searching through the store. Joy Tester was the person they were looking for.

“My wife and I went down to Fisherman’s Village and Joy was working at one of the stores,” Timcak said. “We talked to her and came back years later; she was there, and we made a pitch.”

Tester was known for her customer service, and after talking with the Timcaks, she took the leap to leave her job and pursue a career at the store.

“It was so surreal, because I was working with a customer at that gallery, and, I mean, I saw them come in, and they’re walking around,” Tester said. “Then after the customer left, they approached me, and I think Steve said something like, “Are you happy working here?’”

After visiting the store, Tester fell in love with its design and the uniqueness it brought to downtown Fort Myers. Tester has loved the seven years she has worked at the store and still can’t believe the obscurity of some of the items collected.

“It’s just the total uniqueness. I mean, it’s just such a menagerie of awesome things,” Tester said I’ve been so fortunate to work for him (Steve) for seven years and have seen the most amazing things that he has created go out of here.”

Owner Steve Timcak shows off the wide variety of inventory at his store. -DAVID WISHTISCHIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Steve Timcak uses the store as a creative outlet. He can sit at his workbench for hours and design, from the intricate details of the model planes that hang from the ceiling to the unique specimens lining the shelves.

“I currently have a passion for wet specimens, and I discovered that they can be stored in a treated form of glycerin, which isn’t flammable. It doesn’t evaporate, so it’s safe,” Timcak said. “So now I can combine, like in the front window, there is a lamp under a dome, and it’s got a lizard in it.”

Customers have had mixed reactions to some of the store’s interesting items. For Tester and the Timcaks, it’s always amusing to witness a customer’s first time in the store.

“The reactions that I get from women my age and some younger, they’ll come in, and they’ll just kind of stand here,” Tester said. “They’re just trying to absorb everything, and then they see that rattlesnake. They have this huge snake phobia, so some people will just literally turn around and walk out and not just women, but men.”

The shop has become a local attraction that the community has to see to believe. Some customers will bring in friends just to witness the expression on their face when they set foot into the store.

“I think the other thing that is so amazing is it’s non-stop,” Tester said. “We get people in here that have been here before that will say, ‘I told you, I told you.’ They bring friends, family and their guests, and so it just continues to spread.”

Despite the store already being full, if Timcak had room for new additions, a few ideas came to mind.

Owner Steve Timcak’s workbench, where he builds unique items available for purchase in the store. -JOHNATHAN MINEHAN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

“There are bigger projects that I would like to install; I’ve got six more of those airplanes. I would put those all around and have them all dog fighting,” Timcak added.

With the store’s popularity, customers are constantly visiting the local treasure. Timcak shares some advice for newcomers or returning guests who want to check out their inventory.

“Move slowly. Take your time. Look up, look down. Look all around. Every old nook and cranny. There’s all this stuff down here, it’s different all the time.”

In The KNOW:

WHAT: Timeless Items of Interest & Illusions
WHERE: 2218 First St., Fort Myers
WHEN: Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
INFO: 239-332-8463

Snakes and other specimen catch the eye of wandering visitors to the store. -JOHNATHAN MINEHAN / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Timeless Items of Interest & Illusion is a treasure cove of unique finds from art pieces to antiques. -JOHNATHAN MINEHAN / FLORIDA WEEKLY