In January 2008, due to a ridiculous demand of my three year old for a very specific kind of toy, I broke out the old sewing machine.  I began trying to make stuffed animals based on my doodles, using the toys my daughters had lying around the house for help with construction.  I’d never done this kind of thing before and every stitch I made was ripped out and done again at least five times.  My first attempts were awful.  Simply awful.  But it was so much fun to see my silly sketches come to life that I kept at it for hours a day until finally people stopped grimacing when they looked at them and started asking how much I was selling them for.  And so it began, and I hope it never ends.

I like to create real animals instead make-believe creatures so I can challenge myself to do a fresh take on a predictable look.  I make my animals into bizarre caricatures, looking for their strangest trait and really exaggerating it.  The idea is that they are just cute enough to love, but have enough weird in them to make you think twice about it.
M two little girls are a great creative inspiration.  They are forever putting in requests of what animals they would like to see me make and nagging until I get them made.  They also happily help me pick out fabric and stuff my new characters and inspire me with creative ideas I would never have on my own.   I hope to never stop creating new characters and am ruthless in my quest to someday be on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list.  Just you wait and see.