Wednesday Indie Artist Fixx with Chez Sucre Chez

So, continuing with the embroidery theme from this post the other day, I thought I’d share my interview with Kimberly Scola of chez-sucre-chez with you. She was actually on my embroidery pattern sellers’ list, but she also sells finished art pieces as well as homewares. I just know you are going to love her work…I especially {heart} the two pieces with the Smith’s lyrics on them here + here.

What’s the name of your business, what do you create and sell and how did you get your start?

The name of my company is chez-sucre-chez, which is an intentionally poor translation of home-sweet-home into french. Most of the items that I make and sell are focused on hand embroidery and my modern take on cross-stitch, but there’s a bit of randomness in there, too, reflecting my passing interests, obsessions, and experiments.

What’s your favorite part of having a creative business? Is there ever anything about it that drives you crazy?

I love that I get to do what I love all day long, but that I do it as my job is also difficult in that there is no boundary line between work time and free time—I end up “working” twelve + hour days most of the time.

What’s been your biggest accomplishment so far?

It’s been over two years that I’ve been doing chez-sucre-chez full time, and I think that making it for this long without any other income source has been a real accomplishment. It’s been a huge challenge and at times quite a struggle to pay my bills and have money enough left over for anything else at all; I’ve been tempted several times to give it all up and take any boring, uninspiring job with a steady paycheck and health insurance, but then it’s always in these times of desperation when I have some wonderful interaction with one of my customers, or one of my products makes it into a magazine or blog, or I get a new wholesale account, or someone gets in touch with me through my blog to let me know that I’ve inspired them—and then it’s all worth it and I keep on with my twelve hour days and my very meager income.

Share something silly about yourself.

If I can’t think of something silly to share about myself, does that mean I take myself too seriously?

What’s your creative process like?

I do almost everything the long and hard way. Until just very very recently, I learned how to make my designs on the computer, I did my cross-stitch patterns all by making little x’s onto graph paper, and then I’d do the stitching and usually find that I messed up on the spacing, or some other element, and I’d have to backtrack and start over again. I make a lot of mistakes. but I always learn from them.

What’s new or in works?

My newest design is “listen to your heart and follow it, even if it takes you all the way to….” the original version said, “California,” inspired by my upcoming move (just for the summer!). then I did a version that said, “new york city.” in two weeks I’ll be offering these stitched-to-order, with whatever place name one wishes. it’s one of my favorite designs so far and I’m really excited to see what variations I get to do!