Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Love and a Sandwich Interview and Giveaway!

I have never met Chelsea but I sure would love to. Chelsea sent me the sweetest email along with her answers that put a smile on my face. I forget that some folks have been reading this little blog of mine for awhile and it's nice to know that it has inspired folks. I started seeing all of Chelsea's creations on our flickr pool and each time she updated a photo I thought, man I wish I felt ok about talking about her again! It is my great pleasure to have her up for an interview. Please leave a comment for your chance to win your own monster made by Chelsea herself along with your favorite color and contact info.



S- What was the first plushie you created? How did it go?

LAAS- I think my first ever plush was in my home economics class in middle school. I chose this super difficult cocker spaniel plush to make. The pieces were all there and all I had to do was sew them together, but I got bored of it real real fast. My mom finished it for me so I guess that doesn't count, haha. After that I tried it when I was 18, and I made this panda pillow out of an old tshirt and some night sky fabric from an old crafty christmas present. Oh boy was that horrible. It took me a good 10-12 hours to finish it, and it was lopsided and more bordering the lines of scary than cute. I gave it to my little sister.



S- How long have you been sewing and how did you learn?

LAAS- A little less than a year, actually, haha. I picked it up last summer while I was working at a craft store. One of my favorite artists, Brandi Milne, had started making these creepy cute dolls and I thought they were awesome & wanted to try it myself. I didn't know how to sew at all, I knew the basics of a straight stitch just from stitching random things to my clothes or to my backpack. So I took out some embroidery and doll making books from the library and taught myself! It took a lot of trial and error, and I learned a lot from plush specific books. I've made one (or more) almost every day for the past year. I still haven't mastered the art, but everyday I get faster & learn more. It's like anything else... the more you do it, the better you become.



S- How is your alphabet project coming along? What made you do that?

LAAS- I finished it! A little less than a week ago. I put them all together in a nice little digital collage to show them all together. I started it because I wanted to have some sort of plush-specific goal to work on. Something that would take awhile but I'd have a lot to show for it. Plus I've just always loved projects revolving around the alphabet, because I'm always thinking things like "oh man, what are they gonna do for X!? or Q! Those are toughies!" Things like that are exciting to me.



S- How do you promote your work? What do you think has helped you the most?

LAAS- I try to be active on as many sites as I can find. I'm a part of myspace, craftster, getcrafty, indiepublic, livejournal, deviantart, flickr, conceptart, etsy and probably some others I can't think of. I contribute, enter contests, update often. I figure the more places I'm on, the more chances of getting noticed I have. Probably what has helped me the most was updating so often, and keeping my work fresh in peoples minds. I was always working on new things and updating, and I think that always helps a lot.



S- Have you made more mini plush earrings? Those were super cute!

LAAS- Haha thank you! I havent made too many recent ones, but I remake the popular old ones because they sell really well. I've remade the yeti ones a little less than 20 times. I do want to come up with new designs, and this reminded me! I probably will real soon. I didn't realize how popular wearing little fuzzy guys on your ears would be. I've made about 15(?) earring monster designs, plenty of room for more.



S- What is your most popular character? What is your favorite character?

LAAS- My most popular is probably my first big monster, Weeko. I've remade him about five times, two were special orders. They were my most expensive monster by a longshot, and every time I listed one they were gone so fast! One of the special orders I did was a 2 foot tall Weeko! And he had a 3 foot antlerspan. It was excitingly huge & the biggest plush I've made (so far).
Oh man, I couldn't choose my favorite plush, that's like asking a mom to choose their favorite kid! But if I had to choose I'd probably choose one of my 90s rappers bears I made for the Crammed Organisms shows. I worked on them so hard. Fresh Prince of Bear-air probably was the best, because the name just worked so perfectly & he had the best accessories. A huge flat top, shutter shades, neon striped hoodie and an attitude problem.



S- Where can folks find your work?

LAAS- on my shop! http://loveandasandwich.etsy.com or my blog http://threeeasysteps.livejournal.com

or on a lot of sites, but I update & post the most work on
http://loveandasandwich.deviantart.com &
http://flickr.com/photos/loveandasandwich



S- Name the top five albums played during your plush making.

LAAS- Chromeo= Fancy Footwork
Daft Punk= Alive 2007
The Essential Michael Jackson
Run DMC Greatest Hits
Any album by The Knife

I also listen to a looot of audiobooks. Roald Dahl books are the most fun to listen to. Especially when read by a very old british man.



S- What is your favorite part of making plush?

LAAS- It used to be writing their mini life stories & giving them names. But I recently moved from a plain flat city in Illinois to a green mountainous small town in New Hampshire, and now my favorite part is filling up a backpack of my monsters and taking them around to rivers and up mountains to take pictures of them in their "natural habitat". Or just thinking up cute scenes for pictures in general. I really want to make a monster photo book.



S- Any exciting news you would like to share with us?

LAAS- I have a website in the making! loveandasandwich.com Right now all it is is an enter page, but it's a damn good one! It's fairly close to done, it might even be done by the time this interview is posted! But probably not.



Thanks again for wanting to interview me!
<3Chelsea

39 comments:

Erin said...

once again another great interview! it was awesome to see the 90's rapper bears in st. louis this summer! me and my husband got a huge kick out of the flat top!

emevans38@gmail.com

Mary Rebecca said...

I am completely in love with Chelsea's plushies! I get so excited when she comes out with new ones because they are so much fun. I'd love a blue-green monster to go in my new room I just moved into to. :)
Scarymary@gmail.com

Leeanna Butcher said...

I LOVE the yetis! The earrings are fab! If I had piercewd ears I would so order those...
Thanks for another insightful interview, it's so great to hear how other crafty folks are making things work! :D
(My favorite color is green.)
leeanna.butcher@gmail.com

Nosnin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nosnin said...

I first saw her stuff on Craftster.org
My husband and I check her shop all time looking for cute and new plushies. The drizzles are my favorite!
My fav color id green

nosnin@gmail.com

R. Stern said...

I adore Chelsea's plushies; I always love to see them when I'm sorting through the Craftzine Flickr pool! (My favorite color is green.)

Filipa Sompy said...

I first "met" Love and a Sandwich through devianArt and I can say those were the cutest monsters I've ever seen!
I even showed to my bf that loved them too.
Weekos are my favourites but I am always curious to see her latest projects!
I wish I had her talent but I'm determined to try to make a plushie sometime.

My favourite colour is Purple and my contact sompy_stuff@hotmail.com

Jaclyn said...

I discovered Chelsea's plushies only a week or two ago on Flickr. They are soooo cute! I want them all!

I like yellow.
savingrooster@juno.com

Anonymous said...

Oh! I love Chelsea's plushies! She's so talented and creative! I enjoyed perusing her Etsy store - the Drizzles are adorable!
And I love all colours! Okay - I'll settle for one =D: green.
Thanks so much for making the interview happen.
zlyn88 (at) gmail (dot) com

Bunny B said...

Ooo... super adorable!! Great plushies, Chelsea!! :)

bunnybx at gmail . com

John said...

Green, but the monsters look good in every color.

Natalie said...

Another wonderful interview.

I just love Chelsea's wonderful plushies. I'm constantly checking her flickr, etsy & da. Her monsters are so wonderful & she does a super amazing job on custom orders too.

fav color green/blue
happyjammer@msn.com

jnsart said...

I absolutly love chelsea's plushies...i recently commissioned her for a pair of monster earrings! They are the greatest things ever & I get tons of compliments on them. I'd love to see a "Monster Habitat" book...those pictures are adorable!

(My fav color is Orange :D)
jnsart@yahoo.com

Unknown said...

I love her work! Seriously, my new obsession. I just discovered her on DeviantArt a few weeks ago. I'd love to own every plushy!


(Fav color pink)
acidburn115@gmail.com

Michal Wright-Ward said...

i love love and sandwich! such fun work. we have a friend who love yetis, the snowman and other such creatures.

Unknown said...

hiya ;D this is Aviatorfox!
you know i've always loved your stuff especially the kid in the tiger suite XD so i guess thats what i want if i win ( he's orange too! my favorite color <3 )
thankies!

kahoaburame@gmail.com

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Awwww, I freaking love Chelsea's plushes!! Every time she updates her livejournal I squeal because they are so adorable. And I really REALLY like how she's been photographing them "in the wild", that was the cutest thing ever. When I save up some cash I'm after a pair of mini-monster earrings :) Wearing furry things on your ears is always in!! If I'm the lucky duck, I love browny earth tones. :)

zombietta@gmail.com

Sophia said...

I love loveandasandwich, and have been following her for a while now from devinantart, flickr, etsy, etc. :) This is a great interview, very inspiring how she came to be so good within such a short amount of time!!

sophia.eats.it at gmail.com

lookwhaticando said...

I love her work...she is super fab. Great interview too. :) My favorite color is green...so fun. xo

Jake1nTheGrass said...

It was cool to learn a bit about Sandwich, cool.

Me fav color is Blue

DoddProductions@gmail.com

May31 said...

chelsea's craftmanship is simply fantastic! i've been a fan since i spotted her drizzles and yeti's on deviantart ^^ monsters are koolest in blue ;) hehe
mk.looi@hotmail.com

lagolindari said...

Less than a year! I'm so impressed! Now that's real talent comung out.
I just love her yetis :)!!
My favourite colours are brown & green.. I'm a wood person :D!

Garrett French said...

Awesome interview! My favorite color is blue. No wait... pink!

Jessica said...

Nice interview! It's great to see Chelsea's work here; I've been following it over at The Needle and am always impressed. I love the yetis, and any monster with large crazy antlers. Blues and greens are my favorite.

jessica[at]crabtreestudio[dot]com

stinkybomb said...

great interview!
glad to see you are working so hard to pimp your plush.
moogancreations@yahoo.com

i like pink today

Eva said...

oh i've loved chelsea's work for a long time now, i love her yeti's, weekos, and all of them really. they are so lively! i would love to be included in this give-away :D

lately i've liked oranges, reds and yellows. maybe because it's summer ;) i like all colors really, but bright ones are my faves and chelsea works in bright colors- so it's perfect!

ekrzemin(at)yahoo(dot)com

drowningmermaid said...

I've seen Chelsea's stuff on livejournal for quite a while now and she's actually my favorite poster in the community we both frequent. I wish I'd been closer to her when she lived in the plain flat lands of Illinois because I would have bugged her until she became my new best friend.

If there's a great plushy god, he's green and he'd want to come live with me after the giveaway. He can find me here: eimABlasi2@sbcglobal.net

soundwave17 said...

chelsea's plushies are so awesome.
it's great to see somebody doing something new and inspiring.
the 90's rapper bears are probably my favorite.

FAV. COLOR - PURPLE
panchogurl17@yahoo.com

Kelly said...

aw! I love love&sandwich, and chelsea is so cute. I stalk her on DA, and when she joined a plush club I help run I squeeled XD
kelly.stroede@gmail.com (favorite color is orange!)

Unknown said...

What a great interview! Chelsea is my favorite plush maker :) I someday hope to learn how to make plush and make ONE in my lifetime that is 1/4 as cool as hers!

NoogyBish said...

What I love most about these creatures is their mini stories. I know Chelsea puts a lot of effort into bringing these creatures to life with their stories and names. They're all so adorable and lovable but my favorite is the purple one.

Harpy said...

I've been loving her work for a while now. Bought the baby yeti kit, and it was adorable. :D Favorite color is cherry red.

harpy@pigpig.net

D'ETRE said...

Hooray! Favorite interview ever ^_^

My favorite color is red.
The.Auximenes@gmail.com
-Ellen S.

dollsforfriends said...

We LOVE Chelsea! She is a terrific artist, and what a great interview! She has such wonderful ideas, and creations-one of our favorites!!!Yay Chelsea, we all need a little loveandasandwich in our lives!!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely LOVE Chelsea's work! I check the plush section on Etsy everyday and that was where I first discovered her. Her work is a great inspiration to me.

Keep up the amazing work!

I love anything with lots of teeth and/or horns. Colors -the more the better, I love them all.

Nicole

thecorpsegrinder66 at yahoo.com

Dodo Castagna said...

OMG! chelsea!!!! u r amazing!!!! i love your work!!! everything!!!!! omg.... i love to sew, but im not that experienced :).
(btw, my fav color is light blue)

dead as a doornail said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dead as a doornail said...

I loved the interview
and cant wait to be a proud
owner of bunches of Chelsea's creatures.

your stuff is incredible and
it just keeps better and better miss.
I cant wait to see what you do next.

kalvin.lazarte@gmail.com