Meet Grace Avery | Small Business Creator & College Student

We had the good fortune of connecting with Grace Avery and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Grace, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I am from Pittsburgh, PA but I am now going to school in Raleigh, NC for textile design. I come from a very close knit family which means that I am very family oriented. I care a lot about my family and will do anything for them and I know they will do the same for me. It was very hard for me to come to school here in Raleigh which is nine hours away from most of my family but it was their support of me coming down here that really pushed me to finally decide to come to school here in Raleigh. My family is my everything and I always make sure I have time to call different family members during the week because I want to stay close to them and show them that I still care about them.

My family is also very artistic but everyone is artistic in a different way which I think is what helped make me who I am today and have all the different interests I have. For example my mom has a great passion and skill for more traditional art mediums like painting and pastels. She went to school for animation and is now a high school art teacher. She has taught me most of the things that I know. She has helped me improve my art ever since I can remember and has supported me in every way she can. She was pretty much my own personal art teacher for many years. Then there is my grandmother who is the one who taught me how to sew and knit. She was never a huge artist and did art as more of a side hobby but when I asked to learn how to sew so that I could make clothes for my dolls she was ecstatic to teach me. I have many memories of spending my weekends at her house sewing tons of different things and then running through the back alley of her house to my great-grandmother’s house to show her what I made. This brings me to my great-grandmother. I was extremely close to her even though there was a 80 year age gap between us. For the first few years of my life I lived across the street from her and I would run over to her house every day to spend time with her. She was a seamstress for many years of her life and was extremely good at it. By the time I was born she was loosing her eye sight so she was not sewing as much any more but I was still able to gain so much knowledge from her whether that be about sewing, crocheting, or knitting. She just seemed to be a Jack of all trades when it comes to crafts and textiles. I think I got my passion for textiles and crocheting from her and I contribute her a lot to why I am here at NC State studying textile design. Her death really sparked something artistic in me though. Before she died I did a bit of crocheting and sewing but after she died I started doing it all so much more and with a lot more of a passion for it.

At this time I really was not making things for myself I was making them more for other people whether it be something someone asked me to make or it was donations for charity. This charity aspect of creating was something that just felt engrained in me. All these three lovely ladies I talked about all have this in common of doing things they are good at for other people with no benefit for themselves. It has made me very selfless and even though now I am selling the things I am making I still try to donate my work when I get the chance to because it makes me feel good but I also know that the thing I make is probably going to make the recipient of it feel even better than I do.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I would call myself a textile artist. I do more than just textile art but for the most part I am working with and creating from textiles whether that be yarn or fabric. When it comes to textiles I do a lot of 3D work whether that be sculptures or even like for my business stuffed animals. I really like to experiment and push my art into new directions. In the past I have done some 3D crochet sculptures. One of them was a Candyland board game on one side and the other side was checkers with moveable crochet pieces. With my business right now, I am focused on crochet items of all sorts but mostly toys. I like to make things that are easily enjoyable for as many people as possible. I want my art to make people happy and if it does not I know that I did not do my job successfully. I have a large focus on children’s toys and I think that is because I have a lot of little cousins that I am use to making things for. Making things for kids brings me a lot of joy. I am the oldest of nine cousins and I started making things for them when they were really young. From there I just started crocheting more and more kid things like dolls, hats, food, loveys.

My business pretty much started by my aunt asking me to make her a set of characters from one of her favorite movies and then it slowly snowballed from there with others asking me to make them things. It kind of naturally got the slightest bit bigger until late 2019 early 2020 when a local library where I live were doing an art selling event for high school students. From the point I got accepted into this small little show I got making new things right away. This was my first time selling my crochet creations to others besides my family and I was really nervous. The show went really well for me. I think I made the most sales out of all of us creators selling there. I ended up having so much fun talking to people and seeing people pick up my creations and see joy fill there eyes. From that point on I knew that I wanted to keep doing this and a month or so later I did my second selling event at another library. Once the pandemic hit, I had plenty of time to bring my stock up and was able to make an Etsy store to try to sell my crochet stuff on.

In 2021, I got the amazing opportunity to sell at a huge holiday craft fair. The organization running the event chose me to be one of their student makers which gave me a free 10 by 10 space at the event as well as $500 dollars to spend on supplies to make more inventory for the event and gave me a mentor who has sold at this event before. I had less than three months to prepare for this event where thousands of people were about to do their holiday shopping. So from the day I found out I got in till the morning of the event I crocheted my head off between school related responsibilities. The event itself was absolutely amazing. I had a great time talking to everyone who came to my booth. It was such a whirlwind of a day. I got to meet so many lovey people that day that were both shoppers and fellow creators and I will remember this day for the rest of my life.

After this event my business kind of went dormant because of a ton of different things happening between me graduating high school and starting college here in Raleigh. During the first few weeks at school I was interested in getting involved in clubs and organizations and this is when I found Student-Made which is a student run organization that allows students to sell there art on the campus’ Student-Made website as well as at on campus pup-up selling events. This led me to start to want to work on my business again. I joined the organization my first semester at college and this is now my fourth semester selling through them. Selling through Student-Made has given me to many more opportunities to get by business and my products out there. I really enjoy selling through them because there are Student-Made branches on so many different colleges across the US and it blows my mind that there are kids in totally different states than me playing with the lovey that I created.

From where I started to now is crazy. I have seen my style change. I have gone through major life events like graduating high school and moving nine hours away from home for college. I have been through some challenging things but the thing that has really gotten me through these rough times was crocheting. Crocheting has just been this constant in my life that has been there for me. When I was a kid I would go through phases of doing different crafts but it seems like I have never grown out of my crochet phase. My crochet phase has only ever grown.

One thing I pride myself with a lot within my business is that I try to only use my original patterns for my creations. I do not want to profit over someone else’s hard work. I will take inspiration from others but I will never straight out copy someone. I just don’t feel that it is right. The only time I use someone else’s pattern is if there is permission on that creators website saying that you are allowed to sell your creations made from their patterns but I still try to stay away from this as much as possible. Because I try to only use my own patterns it can take me some time to figure out a pattern for something new. It will usually take me two or three prototypes before I get something that I like. It is also more than just designing the pattern but it is also choosing the right yarn to use for the design as well. For example, I think I went through three different types of yarn for my crochet lovey blankets before I found a yarn that was soft, cost effective, easy to work with, and have plenty of colors to choose from. I was having an issue where I was wanting to create more variety of animals but the yarn I was using only had a limited amount of colors. Also the yarn’s price kept going up and was becoming not worth the price of the yarn. After a few different changes I have finally found a yarn that has been working well for the loveys and I am going to continue to use this brand as long as it does not change.

I know that I still have so much to learn when it comes to running a business but I am trying the best that I can at the moment. I want to continue to create things that make me happy about also what makes other people happy. One of my favorite things about selling my items in person like I said before is seeing people’s eyes fill with joy and excitement when they see my items. That shows me that all the hard and frustrating times I have had are worth it because my creations are bringing others so much delight.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am not originally from Raleigh so I still have not explored too much here yet but there are a few places that I would probably take a friend visiting me. I would want to give them a tour of NC State’s campus because I think that our campus is quite beautiful when it is nice out especially because of all of the bricks. I would want to take them over to NC State’s Centennial Campus because I send a lot of time there because most of my classes are in the Wilson College of Textiles building. Centennial campus is like my second home at school. I would also take them to the Howling Cow Creamery to get some ice cream.

I would take them to Crabtree Mall and do some shopping in that area. I also might take them to some of the different museums around Raleigh like the CAM and maybe the North Carolina Museum of History. We could also just go walking downtown and explore. If they were coming early enough in the month we could go downtown to First Friday and see all of the art. I think that we could even go to the farmers market near by if we want to do something that is a little more chill.

For some different places to eat I would take them to Amedeo’s Italian Restaurant which is right on the edge of NC State’s campus. I would also take them to Randy’s Pizza and get some pizza and a meatball sub. I would also be willing to go somewhere new because like I said before I am not from Raleigh originally so I am always willing to explore new places.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my family. I would really not be who I am today and be where I am doing what I love to do without them helping, supporting, and encouraging me along the way especially my parents.

Website: Student Made Store: https://www.studentmadencstate.com/ Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GracesYarnTales

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gracesyarntales/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/grace-avery-21998a296

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087141461041