Two new stores and a market debut this weekend at the Collective at Lulu

Tiffany Farha’s Collective at Lulu debuts this weekend with two new businesses along with a market.

Last month, Farha told Have You Heard? she’s moving her Tiffany Farha Design and her Shop Tiffany retail store to 233 S. Lulu and starting the Collective to expand her business and house others as well.

The Optimistic Elephant yoga studio is already open there, and now Farha’s Art Garage and Gabbie Grim’s Lola Candle Co. are opening, too.

“She’s just putting her windows up right now, and they look so cute,” Farha said of Grim’s window displays.

Lola Candle Co. opens Saturday, and the Art Garage and Shop Tiffany will open Sunday when the Collective’s first market happens from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Farha hopes to host a lot of markets and events at the Collective, whose buildings are centered around a courtyard. That’s where about 25 vendors, including food vendors, will be on Sunday.

Her Art Garage is born from an excess of inventory at her other businesses.

“I don’t just have extra, I have so much inventory that I collect for my clients and my store,” she said.

“Art Garage is full of all different types of art: photography, paintings . . . art that’s accessible to all and some that’s collector level.”

Farha said the store will be “just coated floor to ceiling with all different shapes and sizes of paintings.”

The Art Garage and Shop Tiffany will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It also will be open by appointment and during weekend markets.

Tiffany Farha Design is going in a building that’s still under construction at the Collective, so it won’t open there for a few months.

Grim has been operating her business out of a home studio for the last year.

“I’ve been making candles for over 15 years,” she said.

Grim said growing up, she spent her summers with an aunt who lived at an apiary in Buffalo, N.Y. That’s where she learned to make candles from beeswax.

As an adult, she switched to soy for the candles since beeswax has its own scent, and she wanted to create an array of scented candles.

“I wanted to make very clean, nontoxic scented candles.”

Grim named the company after her 6-year-old in the hopes that she will learn lessons about business and entrepreneurship.

“She helps me with a bunch of different aspects of the business. . . . She calls it her candle company.”

Grim teasingly suggested to Lola that she might name the business Gabbie Candle Co.

“She’s like, ‘It just doesn’t have the same ring.’ She’s quite the character.”

The store will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Grim said she’ll use the other days for candle production.

She also will offer candle-making classes by reservation on Friday and Saturday nights.

“You actually get to create your own scent,” Grim said.

The evenings are BYOB.

Then once a month, usually the final Saturday, there will be what she calls sip-and-pour parties where food is included.

“As the candle is cooling, you get to enjoy food and wine by the . . . fire pit,” Grim said. “It’s definitely a nice, relaxing event.”

On one side of the shop, there will be other vendors as well.

“One of my missions is . . . to bring light or awareness to other local artisans and artisans from around the world,” Grim said.

There will be home wares, local art, fashion and hand bags. There also will be global fair trade goods such as baskets and blankets.

In addition to the Collective’s shopping opportunities, Farha plans more where her design company and retail shop have been in a Spanish-style former gas station at 2820 E. Central just west of Hillside. Look for an announcement on those plans soon.

This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 1:28 PM.