Sisters open Black Crow Collective in downtown Newmarket: 'There's nothing like it'

NEWMARKET — Sisters Deanna Raymond and Amanda Loureiro have opened Black Crow Collective in downtown Newmarket, a store that pays homage to their late mother.

Located at 165 Main Street , the store offers a curated selection of vintage clothing and antique furniture and serves as a hub for creative workshops. The 686-square-foot space, across from Johnny Boston’s International restaurant, previously housed Follicles Hair Studio.

“We grew up with very creative parents,” said Loureiro, who also used to operate a vintage clothing store, Dusty Buttons, for eight years in New York City. “Our dad reproduces antiques… Our mother was a painter and taught us to paint, but she was also into herbs, gardening and wildlife.”

Loureiro said they opened the new shop to honor their mother, who died last summer.

“We want to do something community-based, and we want to have weird, funky little vendors selling their creative wares,” said Loureiro. “We’re going to try to do creative sessions… we’re still working on it right now, but we want to have maybe a grief journaling workshop, creative writing workshop, mending circles… there’s so many things we want to do.”

Raymond said they named the store Black Crow Collective because their mom was known as the "crow whisperer."

“There’s a murder of crows that lives behind my parents' house, and (our mother used to) feed them,” she said. “If she wasn’t out there by 2 o’clock they would show up and have a canary.”

“She had crow feathers in her hat, and she’d go out ... and feed them,” added Loureiro.

Loureiro said when their mother was dying, "her crows just came exploding out of the woods."

"I feel like they took her with them,” she said.

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What does the Black Crow Collective offer?

From vintage clothing pieces dating back to the '70s to antique home goods, Black Crow Collective is the place to find treasures. Whether you are looking to furnish your home or score an heirloom-esque piece of jewelry, the sisters say you can find it in their store.

The sisters say they currently have nine vendors selling their wares in the store. They intend to rotate vendors throughout the year to offer shoppers something new each time they visit. In addition, they have locally made items such as hand-poured soy-wax candles, burning sages, essential oils and more.

“One thing I’m very excited about is that we’re going to have a few different renewables,” said Loureiro. “So, people can come in to refill their dish soap and hand soap… you just don’t have to worry about plastic.”

In the back portion of the store, Raymond and Loureiro plan to offer creative workshops, including grief journaling and clothes mending. The space can accommodate six to eight participants per session.

“For the grief journaling, my idea is to buy those journals with the blank outsides and have people draw whatever they want on the front… and then just do prompts on how to start working that stuff out because that’s how I got through it,” said Raymond. “Journaling is a big powerful thing, and some people don’t know where to start, but once you do, it’s very cathartic.”

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'Nothing like it' in downtown Newmarket

Raymond lives in Newmarket and her sister lives in the East Village in New York City.

Loureiro said she plans to travel to the Granite State a couple of times a month to check in on the store.

Both sisters said Newmarket was the perfect location for their shop as there is "nothing like it" in downtown.

“You can see the town right from the window, it’s walkable, which we definitely wanted,” Loureiro said. “It's always been a creative little hub, and it’s near Portsmouth and Dover… You can kinda get lost in the hubbub of the bigger towns, so I think it’s nice to start forming something in a town that’s up and coming.”

“I like it to be a place people can come and poke around and find something fun but also take advantage of the sessions at the back and maybe learn a new skill and just meet people,” said Raymond. “We really want to be a part of the community as much as possible.”

The Black Crow Collective will be open Thursdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sisters open Black Crow Collective in downtown Newmarket: 'There's nothing like it'