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Syracuse resident Ciarah Richardson purchased a sewing machine in January 2020. Little did she know that the COVID-19 pandemic would inspire her to jumpstart her independently run embroidery business, All Things Plush.

Shortly after purchasing her sewing machine and adjusting to the stay-at-home order in March, Richardson created the online lifestyle and beauty boutique, which sells embroidery and needlework creations. Richardson’s business currently operates out of her home in Syracuse where she manages all of the businesses’ responsibilities on her own.

“I have a 7-year-old son that looks up to me,” Richardson said. “I definitely want to be someone that shows him that anything is possible as long as you put your hard work into it.”

Since launching her business, Richardson has sold a wide range of products, such as masks, sweatshirts, jackets and bags. She has collaborated with customers for both individual orders and bulk orders, all while shipping nationwide.

Richardson got the idea for the business when she saw Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the start of the pandemic encouraging businesses to sell masks. She began embroidering masks and publicizing them through her social media.

The inspiration behind embroidering came from Richardson’s great-grandmother, who was a seamstress and hat maker in Syracuse. Richardson was an apprentice to her great-grandmother as a young girl.

She continued learning the trade by taking a fashion elective at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, where she worked with an embroidery machine. And while attending Onondaga Community College, Richardson gained her entrepreneurial skillset, earning her associate degree in 2011.

“My main thing is to make (customers’) vision come to life and see their brand on something,” Richardson said. “So it’s every type of customer you could think of.”

Richardson uses a software called Embrilliance to turn artwork and images into a pattern for embroidering. Courtesy of Ciarah Richardson

A lot of people come to her with their logos for branding merchandise, Richardson said, and she’s able to embroider the items by digitizing them using a software called Embrilliance, which helps turn artwork and images into a pattern for embroidering.

When Richardson begins an order, she checks to see if the client wants their own item embroidered or if she will supply the merchandise that will be embroidered. She then focuses on digitizing, which she will either do with her own software or with a company in Thailand, and stitching samples for the customer to approve. Once the embroidered product is complete, she either ships the package or provides curbside pick-up to her customers.

Running a business independently can make it hard to manage all of the responsibilities, Richardson said. Balancing work and personal life is a lot for her, but Richardson said she has amazing supporters such as her younger sister, Deesha. The two often exchange ideas for each other’s businesses. Her sister has a business called Glow By Deesha, which is located in North Carolina.

“I definitely have a great support system, but I am currently a one-man team with one sewing machine,” Richardson said.

Buffalo business owner La’Jon Chandler contacted Richardson about designing reusable party bags as merchandise for her company, Party in a Box, which creates different types of boxes containing activities for birthday parties or events.

The two worked together and created two color arrangements for a logo for the party bags. Chandler liked that Richardson responded to her in a short period of time and was thorough during the entire process.

“It wasn’t like I had to look around for everything,” Chandler said. “She was able to do everything that I needed.”

Another client, Natasha Oates, connected with Richardson to create merchandise for her female empowerment group, Females That Persevere, which is based out of Syracuse. The group consists of Black female nurses who advocate for patient education and for educating the community through volunteer work.

Oates wanted a logo that her daughter designed to be embroidered onto jackets. She said that embroidery is becoming popular right now, especially for health care employees and nurses because they want everything labeled to prevent things from getting taken or being misplaced. She reached out to Richardson knowing that she wanted to support Black women and her startup business.

Richardson hopes her business increases after the pandemic. Despite this, she understands that the current crisis has caused a strain on people’s financial situations.

“I definitely want to inspire people,” Richardson said. “I want to take people’s visions, whether they’re an artist or entrepreneur and really put it out there for the world to see.”

Published on February 7, 2021 at 10:39 pm

racramer@syr.edu