Meet the Members! Sarah of WellCriated

Fawn Alpaca Felt Kit (with a real alpaca!) by WellCriated

Michele, of Lolasjewels, recently interviewed Sarah of WellCriated to discover more about her Etsy business and found that the shop is truly a family affair.  Keep reading to learn more about their unique alpaca products.

1. Tell us about yourself.
My name is Sarah! My parents (Robert and Debra) and I, have a small ranch in Olympia, WA. We have over 50 Alpacas, that are all like family.

My Mom (Debra) and I run the Well Criated Etsy shop together. I do most of the Social Media, Design, and Advertising/Marketing for our shop. My mom and I do all of the felting, photography, and artwork together. My Dad (Robert) does all of our logistical work with herd sales, purchasing, breeding, and genetics research.

We also live with my boyfriend, Andrew, who takes care of all the hard farm work for us, and is currently working on developing an Alpaca game for our (currently under construction, but hopefully up soon) website!

2. Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?
There must be thousands - maybe even millions - of things that inspire me! I'd have to say, that both my mom and I are particularly inspired by our Alpacas, the beautiful Washington (and Oregon) scenery, and the ranch lifestyle. With so much beauty around us, we find it difficult to NOT be inspired.... which sometimes works to our disadvantage, believe it or not!

We're on constant inspiration overload! Always dropping this and starting that! It can get pretty crazy around here. :)


3. Which item in your shop is your favorite and why?
I'd say (for both of us) our favorite would have to be our Owl Felt Kit. He's VERY special, because we took turns working on him, so he's a combination of both of our creative processes.

He was made for the NonTeam Treasury Challenge (we won a few weeks ago and wanted to provide an inspiration item that no one had seen before). But... it meant we had to whip him up in a day! So we took shifts at felting. :) And the result was incredible! He's our favorite feltie yet!

Great Horned Owl Felt Kit by WellCriated

4. What are some other hobbies that you like to do?
My favorite hobby is my work! But other than that... Painting, photography, crocheting, sewing, any kind of arts or crafts really! Also love... going on walks in the rain, reading great novels, and Etsy shopping therapy!

And my mom (when she's not needle felting like crazy!) likes to do stippling, watercolor, and is now getting into weaving and wet felting too!!

5. What are your Summer goals for yourself and your shop?
One of our BIGGEST goals is to help promote the Alpaca fiber industry and the Alpaca community on a larger scale - so getting our 1000 Things Alpaca team and blog more active is VERY important to us.

We've started our blog and actually have several activities going on now, including member interviews and a weekly treasury challenge! Plus we're teaming up with the Handmade Movement team to do Sneak Attacks featuring Alpaca team members, once a month! So we really want to continue progress with the team and the blog - we have SO many more fun things planned! And I think they're going to have an amazing impact on the Alpaca and fiber communities on Etsy!

6. Where are you vacationing this year?
Does going to craft shows count? Haha. :)

I don't know if I can remember the last vacation we took! Luckily, living on a ranch with 50 gentle wonderful Alpacas, I can take a mini-vacation whenever I want! I just go for a stroll in the back pasture, or hang out and listen to them hum and laugh at the babies playing king of the hill.

"Don't Go" Large Greeting Card from WellCriated

When we DO get time to go on a vacation - anywhere along the Washington coast, along the Puget Sound, or up in the San Juans, is ideal! We're a road-trip kind of family. Taking a drive up north, and seeing what little fun town we end up in, is the best!

7. Name one word that best describes you.
Clever!

8. What is your favorite late night snack?
Me - something with caffeine! I usually stay up late working. :) My mom - popcorn! She rarely stays up late, but when she does, it's usually watching movies (especially musicals)!

9. Name one thing on your bucket list.
Take a trip to Peru! My mom and I both want to go there sooo bad and visit the Alpacas!!

10. How did you choose the name for your shop?
It was easy!! The name of our Alpaca ranch is "Alpacas at the Well." My mom has always wanted to have her own Ranch-Resort and artist community, called the Well. That's what we're really working towards. When we decided on Alpacas, "Alpacas at the Well" seemed like a perfect fit!

And "Well Criated" is the name we chose for our product line! Created is spelled with an "i" because a baby Alpaca is called a "cria". So that's just our way of being cute and criative :)


Thank you to both WellCriated and Lolasjewels for putting this interview together!