Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Pearson.
Hi Emily, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey with The Craft Apothecary started only just this past May (2025) but I sort of feel like I’ve been working toward this my whole life. I was always the crafty kid growing up, both of my grandmothers and my mother were very talented & creative women. I started scrapbooking early on in the 90s when stores like Archivers were booming. This love for scrapbooking and the supplies that came with it started my creative supply hoard. After high school I took that creativity and turned it into a career, getting a Print and Graphics Communication diploma at a small technical school on the Iron Range. Which then lead me to my career in educational testing and publishing where I’ve been for over 20 years. While my day job let me flex my technical troubleshooting skills, it left my creative brain to fun side projects such as scrapbooking, designing and printing t-shirts, as well as social media/brand management for businesses and non-profits, and designing/selling embroidery patterns.
May 2025 is when it all started for The Craft Apothecary. I was on a facebook group for hand embroidery and I saw a post where someone was sharing their embroidery supply haul they got at “a crafting resale store in Kansas City,” Scraps KC. A thrift store of JUST art and craft supplies? This is a thing? This sparked something in my brain and I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities.
Thinking about how much STUFF I have, my friends have. STUFF that we accumulate and while it is still perfectly good stuff, we’ll never use it all. What if there was a place where creative people can donate their extra supplies and those supplies inspire someone else to create something with them. So many times people hesitate to try something new since they already have so much stuff, the thought of getting more is overwhelming. Or they do go ahead and try something and find it doesn’t bring them as much joy as they thought it would.
The more I shared with family and friends the more this started becoming a reality. The Craft Apothecary came together from the belief that crafting is medicine for the soul—one stitch, stroke, or embellishment at a time.
From there I put up a website, started a Facebook page, and just started talking about it. I started sharing the idea publicly and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Around that same time, the Owatonna Area Business Development Center saw one of my posts on Facebook and reached out about their upcoming 10-week Small Business CoStarters course. It felt like the right next step, so I signed up and started turning the idea into an actual plan.
Through that course, they connected me with the director of Owatonna Makerspace, which was also in the planning phase. The Owatonna Area Business Development Center was working to open the Makerspace, and it quickly became clear that we shared the same heart around creativity and skill-sharing. From the beginning, we knew we wanted to collaborate — not compete.
At the same time, the OABDC was finalizing a partnership with the City of Owatonna and the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce for a shared community space, the Rose Street Center. After a meeting with their executive director, they invited The Craft Apothecary to be part of that vision as well.
Within four months of the idea sparking, I was offered a full-time position to run The Craft Apothecary at the Rose Street Center — under their 501(c)(3) umbrella and located in the Owatonna downtown district.
We are still very much a work in progress and haven’t opened yet. We are busy with painting our spaces, setting up equipment, sorting donations. The building has some accessibility updates that are in progress and once those are complete we can set our grand opening date. We’ve already taken in 1718 pounds of donated supplies, and will open donations back up once we are done painting. While we wait to open fully though we are doing Sunday CrafterNoons. Every Sunday we invite people to bring your own project and come create together from 11-4 at the Rose Street Center. It has been a great start to build this creative community and build the momentum while we are working behind the scenes.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Considering this wasn’t even a thought of mine this time last year, things have been incredibly smooth. We keep saying that things have been perfectly aligned for all of us to come together at the same time to make this all happen. It hasn’t been without a lot of work, and sometimes I faced skepticism. I’ve had to get over insecurities and doubts in myself that I’m capable of doing something like this. This couldn’t be a bigger 180 from the only other job I’ve known in my adult life.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Craft Apothecary?
We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit with the overall mission to give craft supplies new life, and creative people a home. We take donated art and craft supplies, tools, and equipment and either resell it, or use it in our community use supplies and tools. We hope to have supplies, tools, and equipment of all kinds available for people to come use and try out.
We will have creative spaces available for people to reserve to come and create during regular open hours. Reserving a creative space gives you access to all of our community supplies and tools. In addition to our spaces in The Craft Apothecary, we will also hold larger community crafting times every Sunday, and Thursday. These days our large community room at Rose Street Center will be reserved and we can hold up to 16 people. We invite people to bring their own projects and enjoy the creative company.
Individuals who’d like to share their skills and teach a class can set their own prices and we’ll help facilitate the classes with space, tools, and supplies as needed. Sharing and developing creative skills and knowledge is very important to us.
We’ll have monthly, yearly, and senior membership options available for individuals who want to support our mission and have access to all of the supplies any time. Included in membership is access to the community use tools, equipment, and supplies, as well as free use of the creative spaces both in The Apothecary as well as the larger Sunday CrafterNoon and Thursday Nights at Rose Street times. Our memberships also will include access to the Owatonna Makerspace and all they have to offer as well. If you are not interested in a monthly or yearly commitment we’ll have day passes available for anyone at just $10 for adults/$7 seniors/$5 kids. Shopping the secondhand retail will be available to anyone, no day passes or memberships needed to just come shop and see what people are up to.
One unique part in all of this is we want to give people a path to entrepreneurship. Being under the Owatonna Area Business Development Center there are so many resources we have available to help people do just that. Use The Craft Apothecary and Owatonna Makerspace to expand on that creative idea you have or turn it into a product, service, or small business.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The dreamer part of my brain has never considered this a risk. I’ve never wondered ‘what if this fails?’ Part of that has been the amazing support from the Owatonna community and people cheering me on. Another part is the support from my husband and family. For a while I knew I’d have to do both, both work full time and do this on nights and weekends. While that’s been reality for 10 months, the practical analytical side of my brain knew this was a risk. Risk of burning out. That’s where I’ve felt incredibly lucky that the OABDC is bringing me on full time in June to make this my new career and this has solidified that this isn’t a risky move but instead just the next step in my career and a way to give back to my community.
Pricing:
- Yarn, fabric, paper, embellishments will all be sold by weight.
- Day passes: $10 adult/$7 senior/$5 child
- Monthly Membership: $50/$35 senior
- Yearly Membership: $550/$400 senior
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thecraftapothecary.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.craft.apothecary
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecraftapothecary
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecraftapothecary
