Essbesee

I love creative people. I love creative mom’s, especially mom’s who don’t lose themselves in mommy-hood and who teach by example. Sherri is a music loving, creative and fun loving woman with a great sense of humor- who also happens to have two totally adorable monkeys with super cool names (if you follow along on her blog The Claw she may slip up and reveal those cool names). She is married to a rock star who by day is a doctor- (I’m married to a doctor who wishes he was a rock star).

In a previous life Sherri worked as a digital artist and has a new website called Headers for Hire

(she did mine which you can read more about here).

She also makes Stuffed Guys and Gals (as well as bags and banners) for her Etsy shop Essbesee and writes about them on her Essbesee blog.

These are her initials SBC! So clever.

Sherri agreed to answer a few questions for me so that we could learn about how this lady ticks:

What was your favorite toy as a child?
I had so many favorites. One was a stuffed animal elephant in blue jean overalls, who I named Elephanti. I loved stuffed animals and said goodnight to every one individually before I went to sleep. I also loved playing with Barbie dolls and designing new clothes for them fashioned out of my old socks. And then I'd promptly cut off all their hair.

Where do you find inspiration for your creations?
Fabric and color inspire me a great deal. I love bright colors and vintage patterns or fabrics (particularly, the sixties and seventies era). Also, my children inspire me daily. They love creating art and crafting, and watching their excitement making things keeps my creative juices flowing.

Do you visualize your final outcome or is you process more intuitive?
In general, I like to sew stream-of-consciousness without much idea of the outcome. I love sitting down to make something with no clear cut idea in mind of what I will end up with. I've always worked this way, when I used to paint, which I don't do much any more, that is the way I'd start out a painting. I'd paint something abstract and see what I "saw" in the painting and let that inform me what to do next. With my stuffed guys, that is pretty much the way I work as well. I cut out the shape of my stuffed guy or gal freehand, (I never draw it out first onto the fabric or do a sketch), thus the asymmetrical, imperfect quality they have in the end, which I like. After cutting out the back and front of the body, I work on the face, my favorite part. That is how the personality of each piece is cemented. Once I get the face done, it sort of tells me what else I need to do - whether or not the creation needs clothes or not, what kind of further embellishments make sense.

You often have detailed descriptions of your monsters and their characteristics- do you find that you become attached as each stuffed guy takes on a personality?
Definitely. The face lets me know the personality of the stuffie. I generally come up with their name after the face is completed. And I enjoy making up the back story for fun and hopefully, the buyer will appreciate my sense of humor when they read the description.

What are your favorite stores/websites to purchase your fabric from?
Especially the fabric for your bags-
I usually shop at our local JoAnn fabrics store, I find a lot of great fabric there, vintage and newer stuff that is pretty inexpensive. I love buying scraps that are marked down, you can find a lot of great stuff that way, if you don't mind wading through a lot of less appealing fabric.

You have described your creative space as your 'apartment'- what aspects of this space do you feel represent you the most?
It is a bit disorganized and a tad messy (sadly, this is very me) and it is a hodgepodge of a lot of different things from past and present.

Thanks Sherri!

To check out one of my favorite daily reads see Sherri's blog:

The Claw

(She is hosting a Fall Swap- the Spring Swap was loads of fun and I'm IN)

Blog: Essbesee

Shop: Essbesee