BUTTE — A Butte woman is bringing the unique concept of farm to boutique to Uptown Butte with alpaca products that are grown and made right. Now she’s celebrating one year of selling her products at a storefront on Park Street.
"The color of the die when it’s wet is going to be slightly different than the color of the yarn when it dries. It is almost like Christmas, trying to see if you really did get your math and your recipe done right," says Betty Kujawa, the owner of Snowdrift Alpacas.
See how one Butte entrepreneur turned her alpaca farm into a thriving boutique business
Kujawa is an alpaca farmer and fibre artist, and for a decade she has been raising over a dozen animals on her homestead north of Butte.
She has traveled the art market circuit for years, selling her yarn and other products made from her animals’ fibre, but last year she put down roots at a boutique in town.
"It’s kind of the evolution of ... the farm and me as a fibre artist – going from just doing occasional shows and the farmers market to finally just putting down roots and saying, 'No, this is ... where we are. This is what we look like," says Kujawa.
At Snowdrift Alpacas, you can find an array of Betty’s hand-dyed alpaca yarn. She also sells socks, gloves, shoe inserts, and felted hats. Soft alpaca rugs and soft sculpture teddy bears, chickens, and pumpkins are on display next to art made by family and friends.
"The majority of everything that we have there is stuff that we do take pride in and make ourselves," says Kujawa.
Becoming a member of the Uptown business community is also a source of pride for the small business owner.
"I’m just very proud of being here for a year, and it's amazing.... life... and when a door opens... if you don’t step through, you don’t know."
On Nov. 8th from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Snowdrift Alpacas is offering a ten percent storewide discount, and a chance to enter to win a basket filled with items from the store located at 127 Park Street.
