BEEHIVE: Jim Dowd and Sandra Bonazoli

Cheers to BEEHIVE. Bonazoli said they chose the name beehive because it connotes both domesticity and industry.

By Andy Smith

Journal Staff Writer

asmith@providencejournal.com

FALL RIVER, Mass. — In 1999, Jim Dowd and Sandra Bonazoli, who met while studying jewelry at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, decided they were tired of working for other people, and wanted to start their own business.

Both had a love for cooking and kitchenware, so they came up with some prototype products in metal, inspired by items they found in old homes and flea markets.

Their very first product, still one of their bestsellers, is a set of pewter measuring spoons with heart-shaped bowls and handles that resemble the shafts of arrows.

Dowd and Bonazoli applied to the American Craft Council show in Baltimore, took their new products, and did well enough that a new company, originally called Beehive Kitchenware (now Beehive Handmade), was born.

Bonazoli said they chose the name beehive because it connotes both domesticity and industry.

Beehive still goes to craft shows, such as the annual Foundry show in Pawtucket, but the company also sells through a retail stores in 38 states, their own website and a network of catalog and online merchants.

The line now includes baby products, holiday ornaments, jewelry, and ceramics, as well as kitchenware. Their work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly the American Craft Museum) in New York City.

“We’ve been able to carve out a little niche for ourselves,” Down said.

Beehive operates out of a third-floor space in an 1880 mill building in Fall River. Dowd and Bonazoli create the designs, models and prototypes for their products in Fall River. The metal manufacturing is done in Rhode Island and around Taunton, Mass.

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