Yahoo Finance ‘Art pieces you can hug’: NC State grad turns hobby into an adorable, thriving business
Walking into Emily Foster’s west Raleigh warehouse is a mess of colors, boxes and of course, plushies. From Mushroom Dragons to Sprout Sprout Cows and even Koffee Kittens, Foster it has it all.
Foster, owner of Raleigh-based AlpacaSews, is a North Carolina native who made a pandemic hobby into a thriving local business. After earning a degree in meteorology from NC State University, Foster found that the small stuffed animals she’d begun sewing in common areas on campus were something that other people were interested in.
“I made like 10 of them,” Foster says of her original creation, the Mushroom Dragon. She did a giveaway of the plushies on her TikTok page, which by then was still small, and it gained 30,000 views. “Let me tell you, I was on cloud nine. And I was like, this is crazy.”
Foster is one of many artists and creators who use TikTok to promote their businesses and grow their audience. What started as Foster posting to show friends her work turned into a TikTok account with more than 300,000 followers, and a business that has moved out of her home and into two office spaces.
A hobby becomes a business
At the time Foster launched her business, she was working at the North Carolina State Climate Office in their drought communication program. Foster said she learned not only about droughts in North Carolina, but expanded her skills in graphic design. It was a job she’d gained in part due to her stuffed animal hobby.
“I wrote that I was proficient in physical media, and my mentor, she’s like, ‘I want you to come and show us what that means.’ So I came into the interview with all these hands-sewn plushies.”
When her first launch of products sold out, Foster realized that she had made more money in that drop than she had working a whole week at her job. She continued to advertise her products on social media, doing product launches and giveaways, and gained thousands of followers.
Foster admits that it was in this early stage of her business that she made some mistakes.
“I made plushies that were not high quality enough. I got bad reviews,” she said. “But I also got good reviews. I was really able to learn and grow.”
Mushroom Dragons continued to sell, the TikTok views increased, and Foster continued to sell out of her products with every drop and giveaway. Then she decided to try something more sustainable for her business: paying a manufacturer to make her plushies, instead of doing every single one by hand.
Baby Mothman helps build an empire
The first of these was a plushie based on the Mothman Statue tourist attraction in West Virginia.
“It’s biblically accurate,” Foster said, holding one of the gray Mothman plushies versions in her hands. “I promise you.”
To cover the cost of manufacturing the plushies, Foster turned to her social media audience, which by then had grown to 25,000 followers on Instagram and 100,000 followers on TikTok. Using Kickstarter, interested customers pledged over $40,000 for the Mothman plushie project.
Kickstarter is a website that prompts creators to set a funding goal for a project of their choice. Visitors to the site pledge money to go toward the project, and if the project is funded completely by a determined deadline, they receive rewards for pledging money.
With the Mothman Plushies came even more success, and an increased workload for Foster, who at that time was the only employee working for the business. Now, she has a warehouse manager and a partner who works on 2D designs that are sold on shirts and notebooks.
“I was working myself sick. I literally had to go to the ER and I thought, I’m going to ruin my body if I keep this up,” she said.
It was then that she leaned into manufacturing, but it was a struggle due to her desire to make sure everything was high quality for her customers. One of the first things Foster said during an interview is that she is a perfectionist, and expanding her business meant overcoming that.
“I had to realize, like I’m not the best there ever was,” she said. “I need to rely on other people for help.”
Learning about business — and about herself
Throughout the experience, Foster says she has learned a lot about aspects of business she never imagined studying as a meteorology major.
“I’ve learned a lot about commercial real estate,” she said. “You never quite think about the insurance that goes into it, the utilities.”
She also learned about herself. “I’m not just an artist, this is a business, this is something that is profitable and can grow.”
A large part of her transition from student to business owner was accepting that her hobby was something she could make into a living.
Art pieces you can hug
These days, most of Foster’s sales come from conventions. She has a website and an Etsy shop where she ships her products, but in-person sales have also grown. At any given convention, Foster sets up her stand for two to three days and brings a stock of 500 plushies. She says she almost always sells out by the end of the convention.
In-person selling also allows her to make connections with the local art community. “I will say I do have a really strong connection with people in Raleigh. And I love that,” she said.
Foster also stresses the importance of respecting artists and their work.
“People think plushies are just for kids,” She said. “But that’s not true. They are sculptures, they are art pieces — they’re just art pieces that you can hug.”
In the future, Foster hopes to hire more employees and continue expanding her business. In August, AlpacaSews will release its charity cat collection, with a portion of profits going to SAFE Haven for Cats and other cat rescues in the area.
Even as the business expands, and the business becomes more known in the art community and on TikTok, Foster remembers what drove her to create in the first place.
“I love making things that people love. My goal is to always just make someone’s day a little brighter.”
How to find plushies from AlpacaSews
in person: AlpacaSews will be selling at GalaxyCon Raleigh July 25-28 at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Website: AlpacaSews.com
Etsy: AlpacaSews
TikTok: @AlpacaSews
