Our journey began in 2010, when felt maven, creative mind, and founder Renae Bradley opened shop from her home's basement. It quickly became clear that you can't contain a rainbow in 700 square feet, so Renae expanded her felt stitchery—first to a more robust, vibrant e-commerce space, then to our bright, lively brick + mortar store in Plainfield, IL.
We now house wool blends in 90+ colors and ship felt, poms, tools and notions worldwide, to any spot on earth the rainbow touches. Benzie felt has been featured in HGTV Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens magazine, Macy's Flower Show (Chicago), and in the Dreamworks Animation film, Trolls.
We pride ourselves on making beautifully-curated color palettes available to crafters of all skills and imaginations. Whether you're starting with a doodle, a day dream, or a meticulous plan detailed stitch-by-stitch, welcome! We're tickled pink you're here.
About Renae
Welcome to Benzie! I’m so excited to introduce you to our staff, made up of enthusiastic and hard-working women who make this shop come alive. I serve as the Creative Director and CEO; you'll find me taking photos, threading my favorite needle or brainstorming with the team. Outside the shop my husband and three teens keep me laughing and on my toes.
In 2010, I started selling high quality wool blend felt after I discovered how challenging it was to find this fun and adaptable material for crafting. Now, the Benzie Team and I are thrilled to continue pursuing this mission of making quality and reliable craft supplies available to all. We hope you feel at home in the community and most of all inspired to create!
Meet Our Team
My name is Michelle. Like many of my co-workers, I am a crafter who enjoys to dabble and learn to craft in new ways. I’m a mom, so I enjoy using my 25 years of intermittent crafting to do activities with my children and make home-made gifts. Working at Benzie has allowed me to take classes with my daughters and experiment with new fun craft tools, such as die cuts and our miniature hot glue gun. I love to decorate, so I find our White Truffle felt especially pretty because it’s neutrality is perfect for all sorts of Pinterest decor.
I’m Stephanie! As a versatile crafter and fun-loving person, working at Benzie is a great fit for me. I’ve been crafting since I was a child and to this day, I find joy in the entire process of doing and planning a project from start to finish. Particularly, I enjoy working with our wool roving, and getting inspiration from nature photography; there have even been opportunities here for me to combine these two things by making needle felted mushrooms and wild critters. Creating with a purpose and in a creative community like this one is what makes working here so great!
Hi! My name is Crystal. Working at Benzie is a joy for so many reasons- the colors and products, opportunities to craft, time to talk with customers, the great team I work with, and the camaraderie of the shop’s culture. Not to mention I am an obsessive crafter! I want all the glittery stuff, such as our sequins, beads and glitter felt; additionally, you’ll find that plenty of my own felt-based crafts use different shades of Benzie’s pinks and corals because I love them ALL! When I’m not at Benzie, most of my time is spent trying new types of crafts, though I specialize in card making, paper crafting, and stitching.
Hi, my name is Tarryn. I love working in such a vibrant and fun environment. The beautiful products and the creative people are so fun to be surrounded by. The poms and wool shapes are my absolute favorites. I am fairly new to crafting and I find them easy and enjoyable to work with. Since working at Benzie I’ve started dabbling in embroidery. It’s fun to get all my embroidery questions answered by the expert crafters that work at Benzie. Whenever possible I try to incorporate the felt colors rainstorm and midnight into my projects as they are my favorites from our wool blend collection.
Privet or hello, I’m Antonina! Benzie is such a fun place to work and I love when my co-workers bring in their crafts to show off. It is so great working in such a pleasant environment. When I used to live in Ukraine I would only cross stitch, but now living in America I’ve learned about so many other crafts! Since working at Benzie I’ve tried needle felting, needle painting, and various sewing projects. I am interested in learning more about sashiko, weaving, and appliqué. So many crafty options! I really love seeing the color combinations that customers put together that I may never have realized were pretty. I really enjoy sewing with our Tulip brand needles and tiny scissors and snips, they make crafting so much fun!
Hi there, I’m Laura. I have been crafting as long as I’ve been able to hold a crayon. I always love trying something new and have experience in a wide array of crafts, from ribbon embroidery, watercolor, and flower arranging to appliqué quilting, and more! My favorite product at Benzie is of course the gorgeous felt, but I really love the stuffing tool for filling all the ornaments I make. Pool is the color I love the most in our beautiful wool blend rainbow! I really love working in such a creative environment. Benzie is the best!