Rising Stars: Meet Kayla Albertson of Downtown Apex

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Albertson

Hi Kayla, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I graduated from NC State (Go Pack!) in 2012 and immediately got a job working in finance where I got my stock broker’s license and helped people plan for their retirement. I realized that the corporate world was just not for me, and after having my oldest daughter, decided to become a stay at home mom. While I was home with her, I couldn’t stay still and picked up different side gigs for the next couple years until I had my second daughter. We welcomed our third, a son, and youngest in October 2019 and our family was complete!

Being a stay at home mom to a 5mo, 2yo, and 5yo during the pandemic rewired my brain in a way and gave me a different outlook on what I felt was important to focus on outside of my most important job, being a mom to 3 amazing kids. In early 2021, after being home during the pandemic for a year, I was itching to get out of the house even for a couple hours a week. I applied to book stores, local box stores, or any where else that seemed to be hiring and didn’t hear anything back after weeks. I took that really hard and felt like I had nothing to offer if I couldn’t get anyone to call me back for a part time position. But my availability was so limited with a kindergartener, preschooler, and breastfeeding toddler that I started to realize attempting a regular job just wasn’t in the cards for me. So I decided to create my own space in the world where I was still able to focus on my kids but also have something on the side I did for me.

I’ve always been a crafter and maker. Making things, watching it take form in my hands, and having a finished custom project is such a good feeling and has continued to challenge me. I’ve always been a big reader as well, but took a break during college and when I started having kids. During the pandemic, I started reading again and I truly think it was what kept me sane in such a difficult time. It allowed me to mentally check out and absorb another world instead of focusing on all the uncertainty that we all lived in for so long. I loved the idea of bringing pieces of these fantasy worlds to life in the way of crafting, and through that my first brand, 3 Cubs Candles & Crafts, was born.

I decided to open my Etsy store in March, 2021 focusing on book themed candles and small book accessories. I was not the first with this idea, using scents described in books to create a curated candle, and I knew I needed to make mine stand out against other candle makers. I curate each candle using 100% locally sourced soy wax and “clean” fragrances that don’t use any harsh chemicals or known carcinogens, and tailored the scent around the author’s description of a person or place. I hand poured and hand decorated each candle tin by lightly melting the top and adding authentic crystals, gems, and dried flowers that compliment the theme of the candle which gave each candle a handmade quality that had people hooked!

Within the first year of my Etsy store being open, I had over 4,000 orders. I was overwhelmed to say the least as my side gig had become a full gig, but I invested in more equipment like a 40lb wax melter instead of melting each pot of wax on my stove and I learned how to screen print so I was able to produce my best selling tea towels without having to cut, weed, and press each one with heat transfer vinyl. As overwhelmed as I was, I continued to learn how to streamline my handmade processes and offer additional items like tote bags, hand screen printed t shirts, jewelry, stickers, etc. and started to really develop the 3 Cubs brand.

I started investing in doing local markets for the first time in 2022 where I was so impressed by the community’s interest in the products I offered. It was amazing to have live feedback on my items since I had been running solely on Etsy up until this point. Because my products at the time leaned toward a very niche market, fantasy book lovers, I wanted to try some conventions where I was more likely to appeal to a large group of book lovers in one place. I was accepted into Galaxycon Raleigh in 2022, 10 days before the convention began and scrambled to get everything ready in such a short time frame. I was astounded that people at the convention where lining up to get into our booth, and sold out of almost everything by the end of the weekend. It was a validation that I didn’t need to keep doing what I was doing because I truly loved creating, but it was a validation that gave me the confidence to continue to branch out, try new things, and believe in myself and the arts and crafts I was offering.

I continued to try other conventions and markets all over the East Coast. At a smaller convention in Georgia, I met the directors of Momocon, a convention that brings in about 45,000 people in a weekend. They asked me to come and teach some classes on polymer clay creations. I had never taught a class before, but enjoyed the idea of the challenge and accepted their offer. I decided to teach polymer clay fairy doors and hanging moon phases thinking it would be challenging for people but also rewarding to watch the projects develop right before their eyes. The classes sold out and when I walked into a conference room of 100 people waiting to learn how to make these crafts, all I wanted to do was run. I was so nervous, but as I started making and showing everyone how to get started, I found a groove I didn’t know I’d find. I have never thought of myself as a teacher, if anything I didn’t think I had the ability to extract the jumble of thoughts and processes in my brain and present it to another person in a way that was coherent enough to help someone create something. But I found myself walking around the room, checking in on participants, and helping them with the logistics and artistry of the project in a way that not only helped them learn something but also gave them a sense of confidence that they could create something beautiful, artist or not. That feeling of showing another person that they can be creative and make something they are proud of whether they were new to crafting or wanted to challenge themselves, is a feeling that filled me with such a sense of fulfillment and purpose that I knew I had to do it again in any capacity I could.

I started working with the Town of Cary doing workshops on candle making and later moved to workshops on our best selling mini terrariums that use preserved moss, charms, gems, and dried flowers. My love for teaching others how to craft at any skill level just continued to grow and I truly felt like I was offering the community something special and needed. Crafting, to me, is a form of self care. It is something we do for us, whether we give it as a gift or keep it, and creating something with your own hands can bring such a sense of self confidence and gives us something tangible in our hands at the end that can show us we are capable. A seed was planted in my mind that was starting to blossom in to something real- I wanted to open my own craft studio and offer the community the opportunity to have a place to come and craft at any time whether it be a workshop, class, or just something to do with friends and family.

I knew I wanted to open my own studio, but I wanted to get all my ducks in a row including having all of my kids in elementary school before I really started to get serious about finding the right place. The Universe had other plans though! In May, 2024, I was talking to another small business owner who was moving spaces and she connected me with her landlord who just so happened to have a space opening up. I was hesitant, but went to see the space and immediately knew that this was the opportunity I needed if I was really going to open my own craft studio. I had to push my anxieties aside, trust in myself and my vision, and follow the path in front of me that was being laid out. I signed the lease for the space and started planning.

The space is a converted home in Historic Downtown Apex that was originally built in 1825, and has all the character I wanted to represent the brand. High ceilings, two fire places, original window panes, hardwood floors, giant front porch, a communal workshop space, a retail space, a lounge, and so much potential for the aesthetic I had in mind. It took four months of tirelessly working in the space to get it to where it is today, and it was worth every challenge along the way! Our fairycore meets dark academia aesthetic is so unique and offers an interesting space to the community that I am so proud to call mine!
I wanted the store to carry my handmade candle and jewelry brands, but with the addition of workshops and classes, I needed a name that represented all aspects that the store offered. Growing up, all of my friends called me “K Bear” and when my kids were born, we called them my “cubs.” Hence the original brand, 3 Cubs, for my three children. I knew that there were people in the community who followed 3 Cubs on social media and in local stores where my products are sold, and needed to keep the store name representative of that. When I gift a handmade item, I always say that I made it with my “Bear Hands,” and thought that name would be perfect to incorporate 3 Cubs but also the crafting aspect of the store.
Bear Hands opened in September, 2024 and we have had such a positive response from the community not only for the products that we offer, but also for the workshops we teach, the other artists we bring in to lead classes and workshops, and the communal space for book, fantasy, and mysticism lovers in the area. It has been a dream to offer something so different and unique to the Apex area, two blocks from the house I grew up in, and I am so excited to keep creating, curating, and developing more for a place so close to my heart.

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?
The road has been anything but smooth, but I think most of that rocky terrain has been my own mental and emotional obstacles I’ve needed to overcome and continue to work through. As a handmade artist, when you put something out in the world you are offering a piece of yourself and hoping someone out there accepts it. It can be validating or crushing to work so hard on something and watch it either get picked up and admired or continuously walked past. Putting a piece of yourself out in the world to have it judged is a practice in your own personal self worth and ability to place your validation in your own hands rather than others’. That has probably been my biggest struggle along the way, but I am also really proud of myself for taking on the challenge and doing the inner work that has allowed me the confidence to continue to create things and offer different types of events and workshops even if something doesn’t work out in the way I thought it might.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a handmade crafter and maker of bespoke book, fantasy, and mysticism inspired items including 100% soy wax candles, jewelry, home decor, and accessories. I started making book themed candles, and that is one of my most well known products locally and online. One of my most unique items are tiny terrariums where we use a 1 or 3 inch glass cloche terrariums and put preserved moss, dried flowers, charms and miniatures inside to make a fantasy inspired theme that doesn’t require any care. We are known as the one stop shop for everything a book lover may want for themselves or to gift! Outside of our handmade items we have also curated a litany of other products that our customers love including purses, bags, enamel pins, books, art prints, iron on patches, hair accessories, mugs, fantasy inspired fresh roasted coffee & tea, bookmarks, stickers, and so much more for anyone looking for something different and unique they won’t find anywhere else in the area!
I think what I’m most proud of are the DIY kits we offer in store where customers can take home a kit, watch the included tutorial, and make different products from the kits we offer like our tiny terrariums, mini fairy frames, or curated friendship bracelets. It was something that sat on my mind for so long after seeing how excited people were over the tiny terrariums and mini fairy frames and being able to offer them the option to make one themselves at home was a goal I wanted to achieve. Figuring out the logistics took a while, but the result is exactly what I was hoping for and people absolutely adore the opportunity to be able to take a piece of the workshop home with them and craft something! We have expanded our DIY kits to included felting, embroidery necklaces, book nook kits, & cross stitch kits with plans to development even more on the new year!

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
That’s a good question! When I started 3 Cubs, I had to reframe what success was to me and decide how I viewed success outside of money. I discovered that success, to me, was providing a unique quality product that brought people a slice of self care. I wanted to make sure that how I viewed success wasn’t 100% tied to the amount of money I was making, but tied to an emotional fulfillment I got from providing people something I made with my own hands that brought them joy.
I would also be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t make a shout out to my grade A stubbornness and inability to hear the word ‘no’. Hearing ‘no’ feels like a challenge, and I find myself rising to that challenge time and time again.
Overall, I think being able to view myself as successful because I am doing what I love mixed with accepting and executing a challenge has gotten me to this point in my career.

Pricing:

• 100% Soy Wax Hand Poured Candles: $13-$16
• Hand Screen Printed Tea Towels: $10
• DIY Kits: Range From $15-$50
• Tiny Terrariums: $11-$16
• Book Accessories: $2-$7

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bearhandsgifts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearhandsgifts/