Daily Inspiration: Meet Alexis Shea

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Shea.

Hi Alexis, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Crochet is something I’ve wanted to learn for a really long time. I have battled with anxiety since I was a kid and when I became a flight attendant, I had started on call so had a lot of time to sit around and needed a hobby. In 2018 when I was suffering from some pretty bad anxiety, I decided to learn how to crochet and quickly discovered that it helped a lot with my anxiety and to occupy my spare time. I fully learned how to crochet from YouTube!

I picked it up pretty quickly and my first projects were blankets and beanies. I initially just made stuff for fun, then started making gifts for friends and family for Christmas. My husband, Tanner was always impressed with everything I would make and told me I should turn my hobby into a business… and then CroShea Co. was born (Shea is my last name, so it was a perfect and clever name for my business).

Shortly after I got my business started, I got really into making amigurumi (crocheted plushies) and that’s what I primarily make. CroShea Co. picked up pretty quickly when I started making SPAM plushies. I’m from Hawai’i and we love our SPAM there so that’s kind of what gave me the idea. When Covid hit, I was furloughed from my job and not really sure what I wanted to do for income, but at the time, CroShea Co. was doing so well, that Tanner encouraged me to pursue crocheting full-time until I figured things out.

So I did! Business was going great and then Tanner unexpectedly passed away in December of 2020, putting a pause on CroShea Co. and the rest of my life. I took a big and long break from life, from everything. Crocheting had been on my mind while I was grieving, I wanted distraction, but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to crochet again having the reminder that it was something that reminded me so much of my husband. I was often very hard on myself with things I would create, feeling like my work wasn’t good enough.

Tanner would always encourage me to keep going and he was there to tell me that my stuff was good enough. I was good enough. When I started getting further along in my grief and did some healing, I started to get back into crocheting and then when I had more energy, I started to pursue CroShea Co. again. My motivation was that I wanted to make Tanner proud of me and I wanted to find ways to be proud of myself too. In the past year, I have been working on building CroShea Co. backup and making some new products as well as pattern designing.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Aside from the obvious struggle of losing my husband, I have struggled off and on with staying motivated. I think that comes with depression and grief. There have been so many ups and downs in the past few years. I have gone through times of silence with my business, not really knowing what direction I wanted to go with it or if I should just give up altogether.

I have my own website and choose not to use Etsy due to the profit that Etsy takes from their sellers, but have found it to be difficult these days as I do my own advertising through social media and Instagram has really made it hard for small businesses to strive. Sometimes that can be discouraging when you’re not getting the interaction you need for your business to grow, but I’m still going to keep doing my own advertising and I hope to get back into vending again sometime soon.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I crochet! I mostly specialize in plushies. I like to make a lot of whimsical and weird stuff. I am definitely the most known and most proud of my SPAM plushies. It’s a pattern I created on my own and as far as I know, there’s not anyone else crocheting SPAM plushies out there! I crochet the plushies and place them in recycled SPAM cans.

People always get a kick out of how many SPAM cans I have on hand and always ask me where I get them from… and the answer is I eat a lot of SPAM (haha)! And that my family and friends from back home in Hawai’i constantly send me their empty cans. I think what sets me apart from lots of other plushie makers is that I always try to add a little flair to the things I create. I like to try and make unique items, things that I would buy as a consumer.

Another thing I’m really proud of is my Emotional Support Blobs. It’s another pattern that I created on my own and it was the first big thing I started making after my husband passed away. I wanted to make something that just brought even a little bit of joy to people who are struggling with their mental health. I’m also a flight attendant so that’s kind of where I got the emotional support idea.

At the time, there were all these memes about emotional support things… so one night, I crocheted a little round plushie with nubby arms and legs and decided it was an Emotional Support Blob. So I’m pretty well known for those as well.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think risk-taking can be pretty important when it comes to business – having a small business is definitely a risk. You invest lots of time and money into a business not knowing if you’ll be successful or not. I think the risks I have taken have been kind of low in my line of work… the biggest thing is spending money upfront on materials (yarn is actually pretty expensive haha) and then of course crochet takes a lot of time.

Sometimes I’ll spend money and time on things and they won’t do as well as I expected they would. But I try not to get discouraged about it, I still pursue trying and making new things because most of the time, risks are worth it! I would say that applies to life too… how will you know if you don’t try?

Pricing:

• SPAM plushie – $30
• Emotional Support Blobs $17-$40
• Blankets $90-$275

Contact Info:

• Website: Crosheaco.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/crosheaco
• Twitter: Twitter.com/crosheaco