With Santa’s little elves busy toiling away in their workshops to meet the ever nearing Christmas deadline. It must mean it’s time for my final extra large festive edition of ‘Exploring Etsy’ and what treats I’ve got in store for you today! First up we have the amazingly talented Irina and her shop ‘Fancyknittles’.
After working as an architect for more than twenty years Irina grew bored of the work and found making dolls and tiny cute accessories much more fun! After staying at home to raise her baby son and watching him grow up she soon had much more free time on her hands. It was in 1999, during a visit to an art and craft fair in her hometown of Perm, Russia she found a stall full of crocheted toys and thought she could make better things than she saw. So she started to crochet her own dolls, to begin with they were awful and ugly, (looking at her flawless work I find that hard to believe), but over time her work grew better and better. She had to take a break from her crochet for eight years while she was busy working, moving house and country – to England. Thankfully it wasn’t permanent and once she arrived, she realised she could put aside her normal everyday routine and pick up her gorgeous crochet again. Always happy when people love her miniature creations, especially when one of them finds a new home, she continues to use her imagination to build pictures full of nostalgia in her work.
What is your earliest stitching memory?
Of my grandma, who, I think, was able to do everything — to sew, to knit, to crochet… I started crocheting when I was five. Everybody knows that dolls need lots of clothes! 🙂 And I’d sewn for them as well and made cosy rooms. I especially loved miniature dolls and Kewpies.
What fires your imagination?
I don’t know really… Maybe somebody inside tells me what I have to create, maybe everyday life helps me, sometimes customers give me new ideas!
It’s now time to introduce you lucky folks to the lovely and talented Julia from ‘Patricks Pieces’.
Julia a 30 something born and bred Southerner now living up North in the UK has always loved sewing, fabric, beads, buttons etc. She remembers being fascinated by all the hundreds of tubes of buttons in the local Woolies, and a trip up to London to wander through Liberty’s haberdashery when still at primary school (a trip she wants to repeat). Julia really started sewing again ‘properly’ when she was pregnant with her second child Patrick, so along with her son (I bet he’s a cutie!), ‘Patricks Pieces’ was also born.
What is your earliest stitching memory?
Hmmmm, probably one of those Tapestry for kids kits in school holidays. I remember my nan teaching me to knit when I was little, she was great at it, I’m still not. Proper sewing and learning different stitches would be a pencil case in 3rd year juniors, I’ve still got it and its not fallen apart yet.
What fires your imagination?
An unexpected delivery of an old collection of buttons, or the gift of someone’s old sewing box, a wander around a display of brilliant textile work or a newly discovered haberdashery shop/market stall. I love to feature nature but I’m never sure I’m doing it justice.
Right well I hope my bumper editions have helped inspire you all and given you lots of ideas for this festive season. Good Luck with all the stressful preparations and I hope you give yourself an extra treat by popping over to both of the beautiful shops held by today’s featured makers, here and here.
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Jessica Taylor aka Loadofolbobbins is a Textile Artist and Illustrator based by the sea in Portsmouth. At her happiest with a needle and thread, with a passion for genealogy she often explores old photographs in her Textile art. With her fingers in many creative pies she loves to experiment with new techniques, creating illustrated and stitched goodies for her new Etsy shop.
