This week I am featuring LEFTZ - an etsy shop where you will find the cutest one eyed plush stuffed animals.

1. Your name and/or Store Name: My name is Mary and I punch stuffed animals.. actually I create one-eyed Eco-friendly plush named LEFTZ

2. A little about yourself (besides crafting): I have an addiction to all things fuzzy! I’ve loved animals since as far back as I can remember. When I was little I told my mom that I wanted to be a cat when I grew up. Needless to say that didn’t pan out.. But my love of animals has carried over into all aspects of my life and has more or less turned into my career.

Plush Stegosaurus

3. Describe the items you would find in your store? The creatures in my shop come in many varieties but they all have one thing in common – they all are created with upcycled, recycled, an Eco-friendly materials. My new line of dinosaurs started out their lives as wool jackets, my line of snakes were once tweed skirts. My goal is to make others smile, so if I can create something that I like and someone else falls in love with it then my job is done.

4. How long have you been doing your craft/how did you get started? I started sewing in July of ’09 after helping my Mother clean out her craft room. She had collected fabric over the years in hopes of creating quilts but her tastes changed and she was left with boxes of fabric. At first, I wasn’t interested in any of it. The more we went through it, the more interested I became. So I grabbed a box and headed to the sewing machine.  My first creations were insanely simple and looked somewhat like bowling pins. But I found a freedom in the fabric. Since I can’t follow patterns to save my life, I made my own. I let the fabric tell me what it wanted to be and it was amazing. Everyday I would try something new and learn from my previous mistakes. Looking back now I’m even amazed at some of the creations I can come up with. I hope to be able to look back in a year and say the same thing!

5. Is this your full time job? What were you doing before this? Yep and I love it! I feel so free and creative. I love being able to run my own business and make choices about which direction it is going. Before I started down this path, I was a baker. It was fun but after awhile the repetitive work got to me.

6. What is the toughest obstacle you have run into? To this day I think the hardest part for me is talking about my work. People always ask me if I went to school for this or had any professional training. Nope! It’s just me, what you see I made up, and honestly I don’t even know the technical terms for what I do. I just try it and if it works, I do it again

7. What inspires you? Everything! My husband thinks I have plush on the brain! I see plush in everything. The hardest part is going into a thrift store to pick out fabric. My mind is racing trying to keep up with all the colors and ideas. My line of rabbits was a chance happening.. I was on hold with our internet company and drew a small picture of a high-heeled shoe. In my mind it instantly became a rabbit. Artists think differently than the rest of the world and I’m so glad I have such a fun way to express myself.

8. What is your favorite item in your shop and why? I love my dinosaurs! Honestly, I don’t want to sell them. I want to sit on the floor and play with them like a little kid.

9. What is the best piece of advice you have for other artists? Don’t give up. If a technique isn’t working, change it to fit your needs and don’t be afraid to learn new things. If you give yourself a chance it will open up a whole new world for you and you might just find that you’ve started something you will enjoy for the rest of your life.

10. Where would you like to be in 5 years? Just were I am now, creating things I love and sharing them with the world

If you would like to learn more about Mary and her creations you can follow her on twitter, read her blog, fan her facebook page or check her out on deviantART.

Mary and her softies have been featured in Stuffed Magazine !!!TWICE!!! (Winter/January 2011 and July 2010 issues) and have also been in Craft Leftovers Magazine (March 2010), Cut-Click Art&Design Magazine (Creature Issue) and This is Fly (Vol.2 Issue2) – wow!!

You can also find her work in a handful of stores throughout the US:  Young Blood Gallery & Boutique (Atlanta, GA), PackRats (Columbia, SC), Wholly Craft! (Columbus, OH) and eve-N-odd Gallery (St. Petersburg, FL).

Posted by: Becca | Twitter | Etsy