09-03-2025
Vendor market brings together women business owners
DES MOINES, Iowa — Women owned businesses gathered in downtown Des Moines during International Women's Day.
More than ten women owned businesses gathered at Big Grove Brewery to showcase their work during the annual International Women's Day Vendor Market. Vendor's during the market were excited to share their stories and their work.
Stephanie Majeran, with the Des Moines Craftmakers Collaborative, fell in love with yarn art a few years ago and was able to turn that love into a profit.
'I was just doing crafts with my daughter, and we were doing all these fun things, and I was playing around with some yarn I had, and I decided to try yarn hanging,' said Majeran. 'It was really fun, and I love the texture of yarn and the things I can do with it.'
Britney Brown, Glitter Factory DSM Owner, started her business in November and wanted to bring ready to go crafts for people who are 'burnt out.'
Women share their stories at Perry International Women's Day Celebration
'It's been amazing to be able to connect with people and help feed their mental health in ways that they hadn't anticipating needing,' said Brown. 'So, we just pop-up different types of crafts every week and you can come in and make whatever you want, or you can obsess and sit.'
Kayli Nartatez, with Art Terrarium, enjoys sharing her love of plants with customers and seeing women owned business thrive.
'Our owner is a woman, the founder of the store is also a woman, we have a primarily female team,' said Nartatez. 'It's great being able to work for a woman owned small business and just really celebrate that.'
Meri Deerr, an artist and bartender at Big Grove Brewery, got to share her art during the market and says it's awesome to bring her art into work.
'It's something I look forward to every year, it gives like an outlet for a lot of us smaller artists or smaller businesses to be able to get our stuff out on a different platform,' said Deerr. 'People come and go drink some beer, have some drinks, and being able to chat and connect with other women is really cool.'
According to the Small Business Administration more than 43 percent of Iowa businesses are owned and operated by women.
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