May 22nd 2007:katinkapinka.etsy.com

1 what does indie mean to you well, independent. one person or a few people coming up with their own ideas, patterns, designs and producing them without a factory, without strangers that have no interest in the final outcome of the product and are working just to make a paycheck. indie designers put love and a soul into their craft...from start to finish. we do it because we want to share a part of ourselves with everyone else, not just because we want to make a buck or two. don't get me wrong, though...money is great! it just doesn't happen to be the driving force behind my creative urges.

2 at what age did you start crafting i don't remember an age in particular...i'm sure i always drew and painted as a toddler. we always had art supplies around the house. i do remember, as a very young child, hand-sewing a pair of "shoes" with some thread and peach polyester fabric from my granny's scrap pile. i was staying with my grandparents for a week or so during the summer and one evening they were invited to play bridge or cards or something at a friends house...it was very *old skool*, you know, some oldsters sitting around a card table set up in the formal living room, a bowl of mixed nuts on the table, whatever, anyway, granny brought me along with some scrap fabric and needles and thread and i came up with these "shoes"...they were hideous, i mean, peach polyester shoes, it doesn't get a whole lot uglier than that. but i remember prancing into the room to show off my creation to everyone and i was beyond pround...i was like, i *made* this! i made shoes...normally you'd have to buy these at a store, but i *made* mine. it was a defining moment in my very young life...realizing that i could make whatever i wanted. i think my granny giggled and everyone politely exclaimed how nice they were and how creative i was. i'm sure i never wore them again, in fact, i think i had sewn them onto my feet and probably had to cut them off (the shoes, not my feet) later that night. or who knows, maybe i slept in them. at any rate, that was when i knew for sure i'd be *making* stuff for the rest of my life.

3 when did you open etsy january of '07...i remember i was talking to my friend steph of *BluePlateStudio* (holla!) and i was like, hey i'm trying to work on my website so i can start selling my stuff there...i was asking her about her website and how her sales were and she said, no, no, no...you've got to do etsy. etsy, etsy, etsy. so i just started taking, like, a million pictures of everything i made and that was that!

4 what do you like the most about etsy jeez, what a great place. for reals! everyone there is so passionate about what they do and what they make...i love that. i love when people *love* the process of making art. or clothes or jewelry or collages, whatever. it really seems like the true etsy-ers dive headfirst into their craft, and that kind of devotion shines through in the final product. i like to know that i'm not the only person out there sitting in front of my sewing machine at three in the morning, buzzing away while the rest of the world sleeps. i think with etsy, i'm in good company.

5 what do you think of indie shop interviews totally inspiring. and funny! so many crafters seem to have such good senses of humor...i totally like to know what other people are thinking, how they're making their craft work for them. it's great for buyer's, too! i mean, so people can know where the stuff they're buying comes from, what ingredients are needed to produce it...it gives each product a story and a history; as opposed to coming from some ugly grey factory that's filled with robots and underpaid humans that probably don't give a sh*t about what they're doing. i read somewhere (and whomever said it, forgive me because i can't remember your name) that everything has a soul...even inanimate objects...and the souls of factory/slave-labor made stuff is cursed because the people employed by the factories are so unhappy or indifferent to their job. and when you buy that product, all that ugly grey underpaid factory karma comes with it and rubs off on you. so i'd have to say that it's great for people to be able to hear first-hand from the designers and to know the love and devotion that they put into their craft.

You can find katinkapinka.etsy.com here. Item to check out .Yellow and Blue Seed Pod Petal Blossom Earrings