Crafters, artists to be showcased at downtown’s Hive

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 28, 2018

By Liz Moomey

By Liz Moomey
liz.moomey@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Michelle Pentoney is bringing crafts artists to downtown Salisbury with her second location of Hive.

Offering bath and body products, reusable napkins, prints and more by 70 artists and crafters, Pentoney said she wants Hive to be the destination for gifts.

“My goal was to be a one-stop shop where you get all the gifts that you need or things for your house or for your friends — house-warming gifts, things like that,” Pentoney said.

Having opened a store in Concord in 2017, Pentoney said she fell in love with the feel of downtown Salisbury with its boutiques, shops and restaurants and decided to open a second shop.

“I liked the downtown,” she said. “A bigger footprint, the more things to do. It’s more of a day-cation type of thing. You can come down and get food, you can shop. The (number) of shops and the array of different shops were what drew me to open my store here. Nobody has this, which is great for me, but there’s so many different things.”

In November, Hive will begin offering workshops and classes, where customers can make terrariums, do brush lettering or sew. Pentoney has a master’s in arts education and previously was a teacher.

“I loved teaching, loved the teaching aspect. Don’t love all the stuff that goes with it,” she said.” I like to teach for myself and my students and not for a test or a score. I made the leap. I quit my job a couple years ago and always wanted to do a store. I talked about it for years when we were in Buffalo, and it just didn’t happen. I just kind of got thrown into it.”

She said people who take the classes will learn the skill but will walk out with something that is their own.

“I teach the terrarium classes,” Pentoney said. “I give them five to six different types of plants, and they make it how they want. It’s not like, ‘This is how it’s supposed to look; you go home and everyone’s looks the same.’ That’s not what we do.”

After moving from New York to North Carolina, Pentoney and her husband attended numerous festivals and began collecting cards from crafts artists. 

“We’ve always been in the festival community, so we would always go to festivals when we moved here. And I just started keeping cards. And then when I opened my shop, I asked all these people to be a part of it, and here we are today,” Pentoney said.

The Salisbury location is a true expansion for Pentoney, doubling the space to 1,600 square feet.

“I started gathering all these things in my second bedroom, and I kept looking. ‘This is not enough,'” she said. “People are still stocking me for the size of my 400-foot retail space, and I’m like, ‘You need to triple that.'”

She said she plans to use the space to add works by 20 crafters, have bigger workshops and host parties on weekends. She wants to feature artists at the shop on Saturdays.

“You can come in and meet the maker,” she said. “Come in and see the face behind it. I’m going to have these cute little cards with people’s pictures next to it. You’ll be able to come and meet the person and have a full one-on-one conversation with them if you want. I know everybody.

“For me, it’s awesome, and I love supporting. They’ll all become my friends. I love supporting them, and I’m proud to have them in my store. I’m very lucky to find some really, really talented people (who are) awesome to work with.”

Hive opened Saturday. Hours will be 10 a.m.. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Classes will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. The store is at 126 E. Innes St. 

For more information about Hive, visit www.hiveandco.com.

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