While the rain meant activities had to be shifted inside, that didn’t stop Euclid’s Shore Cultural Centre from having its Eastside Art and Vintage Market.
With a lone food truck in the parking lot of Euclid’s Shore Cultural Centre, 291 E 222nd Street, several vendors made the most of the downtrodden day June 14 staying tucked in the gymnasium and community room on the main floor of the former high school.
According to Lisa Krieger, Shore Cultural Centre’s executive director, even though there were not as many visitors as they had hoped, she was looking forward to networking with vendors who might want to move to a more permanent location within the building.
“It’s easy for us as we have a big building, so we’re kind of equipped for it and always have a backup plan,” Krieger said of the move indoors. “People prep to be here and don’t want to lose the day so that’s why we do it. We have a whole variety of different vendors.
“From this event, I’ve actually gotten tenants in our building, which makes it nice,” she added. “The idea is for them to learn what we do at Shore. And when you have an event with us, we share that information around to everyone so it’s sort of networking at the same time.”
She added that because the center is a business incubator the goal is to take people who might be making their products at home, into the center, then into an actual storefront.
“Some of them are working from home, and we wanted to get them and (see) if they are ready for a storefront? Are they ready for a place here?” she said.
“We want to eventually get our tenants move into a storefront. We’re like an incubator space, so gotta kind of start to walk before you run, which is why I do this.”
Alicia Mitchell, owner of Ivory Collins Candle Co., said that it was her as a vendor at the market. She recently moved from North Carolina where she started her candle company during the pandemic in 2020.
While she makes different types of candles, including her Signature Collection which has candles based off of different perfumes, one line that sticks out is her candles with scents based on food and cocktails.
While they smell like anything from Sol Elixir cocktails, birthday cake, or Fruit Loops cereal, they also look like the products too.
“The cereal are wax embeds, so they are hand poured into mini molds, colored for each piece and scented,” Mitchell said. “The birthday cake, same thing, they are fruit molds, candy bar molds, and then sprinkles attached to the side. (I get ideas) from Pinterest and a lot of YouTube, looking at different types of candles and seeing what niche I would be good at.
“I know a lot of people do, like dessert candles and making it look realistic, like cake and stuff like that, so that’s why I’m trying some changes.”
She said the one piece of advice she has for anyone who might be interested in starting their own candle business is to find your specialty and stick with it.
“A lot of people started candle businesses during COVID as well. It’s just trying to find your niche …,” Mitchell said. “There’s room in the market for everybody. Everybody brings a different approach to candle making so it can be different, a lot of people make coffee candles, realistic gel wax candles, so it’s a broad spectrum for any candle maker to get into.”
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