New Haven pop-up shop gives area vendors a holiday bonus

An exterior shot of the holiday pop-up shop at 165 Orange St. An exterior shot of the holiday pop-up shop at 165 Orange St. Photo: Brian Zahn /Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Brian Zahn /Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close New Haven pop-up shop gives area vendors a holiday bonus 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN — For entrepreneurs, the road to a storefront is not always straightforward.

This year, the city’s economic development office launched a pilot program to give business startups a small boost with a pop-up shop on 165 Orange St., on Thursdays and Fridays until Dec. 22.

“We wanted to create an opportunity for area small business owners to sell unique, artisan, one-of-a-kind products they couldn’t find anywhere else,” said small business department staffer Gerry Garcia. “These are all people who don’t have storefronts. These are smaller than our small businesses.”

Garcia said the city sought to create an opportunity at a time and location where there would be heavy foot traffic. He said the vendors — about 10 — were located through “a variety of means,” such as recruitment at vendor fairs.

One of those vendors was Alfreda Warner, who creates women’s accessories — mostly statement necklaces and pearls — for her company V’s Accessories.

“The business developed from my sister-in-law, Veronica; she was always borrowing my accessories and we wanted to start a business when we retired,” Warner said.

They never got the chance, as Veronica died in 2012.

“It’s my way of memorializing her,” Warner said. “I’d like to take V’s Accessories to a store. I hope to open a store.”

Melba Crowley, of Designs by Melba, also makes hand-made jewelry, calling it a hobby of more than 10 years that started after she was sitting in on a class by “absolute accident.” She said her statement necklaces, made of colorful, semiprecious stones, are made with working women in mind.

Like Crowley, Constance Joshua is also self-taught, learning how to sew blankets, ponchos and other items from the internet.

A cosmetologist by trade, she said she’d like to expand her business to one day sell the items she makes herself.

Catherine Cazes-Wiley, who designs hats and scarves, some from repurposed sweaters, runs her Tinaliah co-op to help give women experiencing homelessness an ability to turn hobbies and passion into business. With seamstress Regina Bohn, they are hoping to give women recovering from trauma an ability to create and produce.

“We’re trying to teach people trades that are dying,” Bohn said.

Not all of the vendors present were in the clothing or accessory business, though. Ned Farrell of the husband-and-wife The Bee Happy Co., a beekeeper, was selling products rendered from beehives — eye creams and face oils made from beeswax, spritzes, candles, honey and pollen.

“We have hives in a few different towns, but no store,” Farrell said.

Elizabeth Wallace-Hunt, the woman behind Artrilla’s Creations, is an author looking to sell affirmations.

“I do certificates for parents to give to their children and greeting cards,” she said. “The things we shy away from.”

Wallace-Hunt said she is looking to get the attention of children of different age groups and draw attention to the dangers of bullying, self-publishing one book of poetry so far.

“We’re giving them a chance to network and get recognized so they can get more business,” said economic development office staffer Ana Nieves-Winn.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com