Meet Kristin Rice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Rice.  

Hi Kristin, 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 backstories with our readers?
As a young girl, you could always find me creating. I could be found with embroidery floss safety-pinned to my jeans for friendship bracelet making, or carefully organizing the beads in my Caboodle. Family trips always included my activity bag to keep my hands busy and my creative spirit alive. In my early 20s, I could be found knitting felted purses, making beaded jewelry, and doing sterling silver wire weaving. I dabbled in precious metal clay and often took classes to learn new skills and play with new mediums. Before I got married, I went on a mitten-making kick. Scouring the thrift store racks for 100% wool sweaters that would felt beautifully and allow me to cut and stitch them into awesomely cute and super warm wool mittens. I sold over 100 pairs of handmade mittens in the season before my wedding and made enough money to pay for our plane tickets to Jamaica. It was fun to have hobbies that could make me some extra money and that people loved to buy for themselves, or as gifts. 

My next venture brought me to leather earrings, after seeing the adorable ones Joanna Gaines wore on Fixer Upper. I set out to try and make my own, searching the Hobby Lobby aisles for cute leather and some sterling silver ear wires. I bought everything cute I could find and started hand-cutting my own leather earrings. I wore them to school as a kindergarten teacher and gave a few pairs as gifts. I had a handful of earring patterns cut out of a 3×5″ index card that I would hold on top of the leather I was cutting. I wasn’t high tech, and I wasn’t particularly fast, but I was having fun! My husband made me a folding earring display case that I started to fill and eventually brought into the teacher’s lounge for my colleagues to shop from. People seemed to love what I was doing and it made me so happy. 

In 2019 I decided to open an Etsy shop with the name of Fleece & Fancy. “Fleece” for the wool mittens I loved to make and “Fancy” for all the jewelry I created and sold. My husband came up with the name and continues to be my biggest supporter. 

He helps with the business side of things and makes sure I actually make some money and don’t just give all my products away! I didn’t know what the future would hold for Fleece & Fancy, but I was excited to think of the possibilities. 

Fast forward to 2022, my Etsy shop now has 4,153 sales and 558 reviews. Fleece & Fancy has made the way into 35 retail stores in the Midwest. I am so proud to be a part of stores in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Indiana. I recently launched a Faire wholesale website so it’s even easier for retail shop owners to shop my wholesale offerings. I pride myself in using the best materials on the market, having outstanding customer service, and keeping my designs and ideas fresh, affordable, and fun. 

When visiting one of my retail stores years ago I found a sign that reads, “I’m going to make everything around me beautiful-that will be my life.” ~Elsie de Wolfe. This has become my Fleece & Fancy motto…something I work very hard to achieve. I want to create a beautiful product for my customers, AND I want them to feel beautiful wearing my jewelry and accessories. 

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I am the oldest of three children in my family. Growing up with both parents as teachers provided summers together for backyard baseball, endless beach days and three-week family vacations, driving cross-country, in our trusty Suburban. My parents showed us as much of the continental US as they could, and even though we all complained about long days in the Suburban, the experiences and places we got to visit on those family vacations is priceless. Growing up, I was the quiet, sweet, people-pleaser who did no wrong. I knew the value of education and was taught to work hard always. I loved traveling, movies, games, hanging out with friends, and creating. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I think my road to running a successful small business has been smoother than most because when this all started, it was my side hustle. I was making cash on the side, with little to no expectations, and I was just having so much fun. One of the toughest decisions I have had to make was when I decided to leave my teaching career after 19 years to do Fleece & Fancy full-time and to really run it as a business. I absolutely love teaching, and that decision was scary with lots of unknowns. But one year into running this business full-time and I couldn’t be happier. 

Running my small business through a pandemic also provided some challenges. With lockdowns and store closings, very few of my retail locations were ordering any wholesale offerings, putting that part of my business at almost a standstill. In-person vendor events were also canceled…lots of essential parts were missing. But, with all that, came great support from my customers through my Etsy site. During the pandemic, SO many people were shopping online, shopping handmade, and supporting local artists like me through Etsy purchases. My local customers came out of the woodwork and there were many days when I would drive around town for an hour making local deliveries to customer mailboxes. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Fleece & Fancy started as just leather earrings but has since grown to include leather, wood, and acrylic jewelry and accessories. My earrings are now cut using a Sizzix die cutting machine and a Glowforge laser cutter and engraver. Each pair of earrings include sterling silver ear wires or posts, making them perfect for sensitive ears. I use genuine leather, leather-backed cork, white oak, walnut, Sapele, and high-quality acrylic for my products. I am extremely proud of the variety of items I now offer…I literally carry something for everyone. My earrings are known around town for being fun, cute, affordable, and extremely lightweight. It’s not uncommon to hear people say, “I love your earrings, are they, Fleece & Fancy?” Hearing that is literally my dream come true. 

Contact Info:

• Email: kristin@fleeceandfancy.com
• Website: www.etsy.com/shop/fleeceandfancyshop
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fleeceandfancy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fleeceandfancy
• Other: http://www.fleeceandfancy.faire.com