Hine Mizushima Interview and Giveaway

The second I saw one of Hine's pieces I immediately gasped and smiled. When I asked her to be in my button book and she said yes, I immediately gasped and clapped my hands. The second I read that she had also applied to Plush You! I gasped and jumped up and down. Her work is simply amazing. She is one of those people I think a lot of people are watching and on the edge of their seat wondering what she is going to come up with next. I really enjoyed interviewing her and hope you enjoy reading it. Leave a comment here with contact info for your chance to win one of her amazing camera camera cases!



S- For those Plush You readers who might not know who you are, can you give us a
little background information on you

HM- Hello! My name is Hine (pronounced [hee-neh]) Mizushima. I was born and raised in Japan. I majored in Japanese traditional paintings at an art university, and worked as a designer/Illustrator for paper products in Tokyo. Then after I met my husband, we decided to move to Rome, then Paris, then NY. And two years ago we moved to Vancouver, Canada with our lovely son, and at the same time my creative life was completely changed! I was always just an Illustrator, but now I'm a PSMAVA (Puppet-Stop-Motion-Animation-Video-Artist) and a (slow) crafter as well, and I just LOVE to make things..



S- You have had various bouts of fame, with your video for They Might Be Giants, to your plush creations making the rounds on various craft sites. Why did you decide to get into plush work?

HM- I've never thought of getting into plush work before. I didn't even know what "plush" meant! But when I started to work on the second stop-motion music video for a They Might Be Giants kids DVD a year and a half ago, the wife of one of the band members, Robin, who is a talented musician and also a super crafter, made some great needle-felted number-shaped puppets for the video. So I wanted/needed to make other characters and the props with the same materials to go with them. That was the beginning. It was actually a lot of fun and easy to create 3D stuff with felting wool! Since then, I have been getting into plush work little by little. My plush always has wire inside, so you can pose them however you want!



S- How did you start working with They Might Be Giants?

HM- First of all, I have to say that I REALLY love their music! One day, I stumbled upon 'How to make stop-motion video with your digital camera and iMovie' on the Internet. So I made a video with tiny puppets for their music, just for fun. Then I tried to post it on their My Space page, but I didn't understand how it works. Then I found 'send message' button instead, so I simply sent them the link of my video. Then a few days later, they contacted me, asking me to work on a video project with them! I REALLY freaked out, of course.... I'm working on a different project with them now.



S- Do you favor any medium over another?

HM- Felt, felting wool, wool yarn and printed fabric. I also like matt color paper and printed paper.



S- How often do you try to make new products?

HM- I don't have any scheduled plan, but I always have new ideas in my head and on my sketch book. So if I have time, I try to give my ideas shape. But usually it doesn't work well at first time. So I let it sit, wait until it's ripe, and then try again.



S- Your camera camera cases and Phone iPhone cases are amazing! How fast did those sell out? How do you market your new products?

HM- Thanks! Usually those sell out in a few hours. But it probably wouldn't happen if I could just list more items on my Etsy store on a regular basis! And I'm ashamed to say I don't market now. But I often upload pictures of my new products and artwork on my Flickr page, and actually many customers come to my Etsy store from there and end up buying. And fortunately many people write about my cases on their websites and blogs. It helps me a lot, and I really appreciate that :)



S- Your attention to detail is impeccable. Has this come with a lot of practice or have you always been a perfectionist?

HM- Umm...., if you could see my desk (aka chaos), you would not think I'm a perfectionist! Recently I just happened to find a hand-sewn felt camera case which I made once for my camera 4 or 5 years ago. I was so surprised because it was so ridiculously bad! So it seems I'm getting better now. I always like to make small things. I think it is in my blood from my mother.



S- If you could spend more time on one thing, what do you think you would spend it on?

HM- Creating the same more plush dolls in the series that I made for the Plush You show, and making a short stop-motion video with them, or .... cleaning my desk?



S- What do you want to see for your business in the next few years?

HM- I would love to have a solo show and publish a book of my artwork, and while I have had a few series of zakka produced in Japan, I would love to be able to do the same thing in outside of Japan. But first, I have to make more pieces!



S- Any place folks can find you other than your etsy shop?

HM- My artwork website
My Flickr
My blog (in Japanese!)
You can also watch one of my videos, "The Secret Life Of Six" with many plush (puppets) for TMBG kids music here (my actual video starts at the 1:00 mark) here

Don't forget, Leave a comment here with contact info for your chance to win one of her amazing camera camera cases!. Leave your favorite colors too! Winner will be chosen on Sept. 30th.