We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Arden Cote a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Arden , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I have always been an animal lover, particularly cats. So I knew I wanted to bring cats into the name somehow, and of course I kept coming back to their paws, affectionately called ‘Beans,’ and I work with fiber, yarn and string of course, so String Beans just had a nice feel to it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
It all started when I was on furlough during Covid and the derecho aftermath, I knew the basics of crochet and I decided I would finally sit down and learn to read a pattern. From there I discovered the world of Amigurumi, crochet plushies big and small. It felt magical to take a ball of yarn and turn it into a dinosaur, and I found so much joy and comfort in it. I am forever grateful to my friends who pushed me to apply for my first market and sent me on this journey.
My style tends to be a little bit of everything, I just ask myself ‘what would be the most fun to make right now?’ and go with it. I primarily work in medium and plush yarn in as many colors as I can find, with lots of rainbow sprinkled in of course!
My goal with String Beans is to do what I can, no matter how small, to bring a little more joy into the world. I can’t do a lot about the state of the world, but I can make a little yarn cat to hopefully help you smile.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Definitely word of mouth, many times I have been contacted by folks who have seen one of my little creations on a coworkers desk. As well as meeting new people at in person markets!
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
As of right now I am almost entirely funded by my personal contributions from my day job. I am still a very small fish in this enormous pond. Thankfully costs for my materials are relatively low. My supplies for markets was a bit of a chunk of change but overall getting started was very doable. So I hope more people are able to put their art out into the world and maybe even make a living from it someday!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stringbeansknitshop/?etsrc=sdt
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stringbeanscrochet/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063838760932
- Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stringbeanscrochet.bsky.social
Image Credits
Arden Cote, All photos are mine