We were lucky to catch up with Shelly Christiano recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When COVID first hit, I worked in a healthcare office. I remember my husband saying to me, “You can continue to work at your job or you can see your parents. You can’t do both.” Knowing that my parents were far more important to me than my job, I quit with no real idea of what I was going to do next. I taught myself how to crochet as a way to help my anxiety during this uncertain time and to give myself something to do while I planned out my next job steps. Pretty soon our house was filled with yarn and all of our neighbors, their kids, and their grandkids had hats and scarves. One of my friends encouraged me to start an Etsy shop. After some internal debating of whether or not this was the right step for me, I decided to take the plunge in February of 2022. A few months after starting my shop, my husband ran into one of his friends who makes soaps. He was showing off some of my creations to her and she encouraged us to sign up for Art in the Park in Flagstaff, AZ where we live. Not knowing anything about craft shows, the work that went in to them, the best way to sell my product, etc., we took a risk and dove in headfirst. Since then, I have turned my business into my full time job in less than three years, having both a successful Etsy shop and vending at the most premier shows in both Flagstaff and Phoenix.

I am not sure I really ever made a conscious decision to pursue a creative path professionally. I honestly sort of just fell into it and followed where the journey took me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I make handcrafted, homemade crocheted products using mainly cotton and acrylic yarn. It is important to me to find high-quality fiber to use while still being able to maintain and sell an affordable product. My most popular item that I sell are my animal hats. I started by making just a bear hat, but have expanded my menagerie to include the following animals: bear, puppy, fox, dinosaur, penguin, owl, koala, cat, turkey and frog. I try to add 1-2 new animals a year. Unable to keep up with demand for my animal hats, in 2023 I started employing contract workers to crochet the base hats for me. I do all the hat assemblies in order to ensure consistency and quality. My other popular items include water bottle holders, bandanas, and flowers.

My husband, wanting to do more than help set up booths, and sell, also taught himself how to crochet. Unfortunately, he did not meet my quality control standards and I had to “let him go.” However, he bought a laser, taught himself how to use it, and began producing items to compliment my crochet work, such as coasters and trivets with crochet and yarn sayings. He then branched out and started burning other patterns and now has a thriving laser side business to his full-time job.

This year I was contacted by Etsy asking if they could use my dinosaur hat in their Cyber Sale marketing campaign. My dinosaur hat was featured on their homepage and in Etsy commercials from November 18-December 3rd.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I have two main goals in my creative journey:

1) Providing people with quality handmade items that they can afford and that brings them joy. The pricing of my products range from $5-$40. I want every parent, teenager, or adult that walks into my booth or sees my Etsy shop to be able to buy something for their child, their sibling, or themselves, if they choose too. I don’t want cost to be prohibitive.
I never tire of seeing a child or adult try on my animal hats and the delight that they get when doing so.

2) Having the flexibility to spend time with my parents and help them as they get older. I am very close to my parents and am a very active participant in their lives. As they get older, it is very important to me to be able to spend time with them and help them with various tasks. Running my own business allows the freedom and flexibility that I need in order to assist my parents.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many resources out there that it can be extremely overwhelming as you are beginning your journey. Who do you follow, what do you focus on first, etc. I think the most important thing is to find one or two people/resources that seem to resonate with you, learn what you can from them, and then find additional resources that speak to what your new needs are. Focus on 1-2 main goals at a time so that you don’t get overwhelmed. I have also learned that it is okay to admit and realize that something is not in your wheelhouse and to farm it out to someone who is an expert at a particular task so that you can focus on what you do best. For me, I realized that social media is a beast that I am not too familiar with and that it is more important for me to have time to crochet and build up stock than it is to figure out how best to market myself. Therefore, I have hired a content creator/social media manager for my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://HatsNThingsByShelly.Etsy.com
• Instagram: @HatsNThingsByShelly
• Facebook: @HatsNThingsByShelly
• Other: Pinterest: hatsnthingsbyshelly01

Image Credits

Mark Christiano