From the outside, the Beehive is a square brick building surrounded by restaurants and other shops in the Edgewood Retail District.

A step inside brings scents of lavender and vanilla body butters and soaps, which line the shelves.

The song “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone plays in the background, giving the room a relaxed and upbeat mood. On one wall, patterned clothes hang next to t-shirts depicting scenes from around Atlanta. There are purses, outfits for dogs, stationery and Georgia souvenirs. However, the largest section is filled with a variety of unique jewelry, crafted by dozens of local artists.

The Beehive began as “Beehive Co-op,’’ a small boutique in South Buckhead with about 16 local designers selling high-end products. In 2009, the owner closed the store. The Beehive’s current owner and designer, Malene Davis, moved the store to its current location in the Edgewood Retail District. Davis now focuses on keeping products affordable and creating a community for the designers involved.

“For me, community is everything, and I wanted to provide the local designers of Atlanta outreach and accessibility that wasn’t afforded to me when I started my own jewelry line and had to learn the ropes on my own,” Davis said.

In addition to the community within the store, the Beehive supports the community outside of it as well, including  Grady. When Grady’s chorus approached the Beehive to request silent auction donations for its upcoming Cabaret Night, the Beehive agreed to support the program.

“In 12 years  of fund raising for APS schools at  Mary Lin, Inman and Grady, I have never had a business wholeheartedly encourage the whole community of their vendors to participate and support [the school],” Grady parent Liz Sullivan said. “The Beehive seems to be a very close knit, kind and generous business.”

At the Beehive, most shoppers are between 25 and 55 years old, but the store markets its products to be desirable to everyone.

“We want a daughter, mother and grandmother to come into the store together and all be able to walk out with a product for themselves,” Davis said.

Artists at the Beehive also serve as staff for the store. Shoppers have the opportunity to directly interact with the artists, who are in the store on a daily basis, talking to customers and manning the checkout counter.

“It’s a groovy and friendly environment with hip music playing in the background and cool artists working there,” Skye McKinney, a shopper at the Beehive, said.

The Beehive uses an in-depth process to choose artists for the store. Not only do they investigate potential Beehive artists’ products and personal brands, but they also meet them to make sure they will fit into the community.  Additionally, the Beehive  seeks a unique style to diversify products in the store.

“Having a great variety of products not only benefits our customers, but also allows the designer the opportunity to capture their own ‘piece of the pie’ in the store,” Davis said.

Every January and August, the Beehive hosts ‘’Bi-annual Warehouse Sales.’’ The sale allows designers to sell hundreds of products during times of the year when business is normally slow and introduce clients to the designs artists will be selling later on. It also provides buyers with 40 to 90 percent discounts, attracting new clients as well as returning clients.

In addition, the Beehive hosts single-day craft workshops, which they call the “Bee Creative Workshop Program.” These workshops are affordable and offer a chance for busy people to do crafts in a span of only three to four hours.

The Beehive finds it most important that designers and buyers are all part of a community.

“We are a think-tank, a creative incubator, and a place for creatives to express themselves, all in one,” Davis said.  p