NEWMARKET – Sisters Deanna Raymond and Amanda Loureiro have opened Black Crow Collective in downtown Newmarket, a store dedicated to their late mother.
The shop, located at 165 Main Street, offers a curated selection of vintage clothing and antique furniture and serves as a center for creative workshops. The 63 square meters across from Johnny Boston’s international restaurant was formerly home to Follicles Hair Studio.
“We grew up with very creative parents,” said Loureiro, who also ran a vintage clothing store called Dusty Buttons in New York City for eight years. “Our father reproduces antiques… Our mother was a painter and taught us to paint, but she was also interested in herbs, gardening and wildlife.”
Loureiro said they opened the new store to honor her 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,” Loureiro said. “We’re going to try to have creative sessions… we’re still working on that right now, but we might want to do a grief journaling workshop, a creative writing workshop, healing circles… there are so many things we want to do.”
Raymond said they named the store Black Crow Collective because her mother was known as the “crow whisperer.”
“There’s a flock of crows behind my parents’ house, and (our mother always fed them),” she said. “If she wasn’t out by 2 a.m., they would come and take a canary.”
“She had crow feathers in her hat and she went out … and fed them,” Loureiro added.
Loureiro said that when her mother was dying, “her crows just exploded out of the forest.”
“I feel like they took her with them,” she said.
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What does the Black Crow Collective offer?
From vintage clothing from the ’70s to antique homewares, Black Crow Collective is the place to find treasures. Whether you’re looking to furnish your home or snag an heirloom-like piece of jewelry, the sisters say you can find it in their shop.
The sisters say there are currently nine vendors selling their wares in the store. They plan to rotate vendors throughout the year to offer customers something new each time they visit. In addition, they offer locally made items such as hand-poured soy wax candles, burning sage leaves, essential oils and more.
“I’m excited that we’re going to have different renewables,” Loureiro said. “So people can come in and refill their dish soap and hand soap… they don’t have to worry about plastic.”
In the back of the shop, Raymond and Loureiro plan to offer creative workshops, including grief journaling and clothing mending. The space can accommodate six to eight participants per session.
“My idea for the grief journal is to buy these journals with the blank pages and have people draw whatever they want on the front… and then just give pointers on how to start processing the material, because that’s how I’ve done it,” Raymond said. “Journaling is a very 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 few times a month to stop by the store.
Both sisters said Newmarket was the perfect location for their business as there was “nothing like it” downtown.
“You can see the city right from the window, you can explore it on foot, which is definitely what we wanted,” Loureiro said. “It’s always been a creative little hub and it’s close to Portsmouth and Dover… You can get a bit lost in the hustle and bustle of the bigger cities, so I think it’s nice to be building something in an up-and-coming city.”
“I want it to be a place where people can browse around and find something interesting, but also take advantage of the sessions in the background and maybe learn a new skill and just meet people,” Raymond said. “We really want to be part of the community as much as possible.”
The Black Crow Collective is open Thursday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm and Sunday from 11am to 5pm.
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