Jenny Hart is an indie craftin’ superstar. She was one of the earliest indie entrepreneurs to start selling on the Internet.  In 2001, she founded Sublime Stitching, her line of edgy (this ain’t your gramma’s embroidery) embroidery patterns and kits, which I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of before. She’s also a founder member of the Austin Craft Mafia (the founders of the whole Craft Mafia scene). She’s an accomplished artist, author and has even been on TV! She’s a featured artist in the Handmade Nation Documentary and that’s not to mention that her work has inspired collaborations with rock bands including The Flaming Lips, The Octopus Project and The Decemberists. Um, she’s pretty famous in the indie world.

But recently, Jenny took some time from her super busy schedule to look through her old pictures and be interviewed for When They Were Kids.

1. Share a favorite book(s) from your childhood.

- Any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. After that, anything by Judy Blume. I also had a book called Memo to Myself When I Have a Teenage Daughter that I read over and over. I also loved A Wrinkle In Time and read it more than once.

2. What’s your favorite childhood movie of all time?

- Probably Kingdom in the Clouds. It’s a really bizarre Armenian fantasy film they used to run on PBS that haunted me for life until I found it again thanks to the glory of the internet.

3. What types of games & toys did you like to play with?

- My mom used to give me markers and let me draw all over the surface of the kitchen table because she could just wipe it off afterward. I loved that. I also loved, loved, loved to roller skate! Then we got a computer at home, and I was all about computer pinball, Asteroids and a narrative game called “Cranston Manor”. It was one of those games where you give prompts like “Pick up the dagger and put it in the drawer.” I used to get so spooked by it, which is pretty funny considering it was pixilated green lines on a black screen!

4. Were you a creative? if so, what types of things did you enjoy?

- I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love to draw. I was always wanting to make things or try to figure out how to make things by myself.

5. What have you learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

- What constitutes a true friend.

6. Share one of the best things about your childhood.

- Growing up in a small town surrounded by countryside.

7. What did you want to be when you grew up?

- I have always wanted to be an artist.

8. What are you up to now?

-More than I can say in a few sentences! You will check have to check out the website to see what I’m up to!

I know you all know who Hannah Kopacz is…she is the designer and creator of Made With Love By Hannah, the folk inspired clothing line. Hannah has been creating her alpine chic designs since the very beginning of the whole indie online shopping scene and has been one of my faves from the beginning as well.

Hannah is also one cool chick, with one cool knick knack filled pad and I’m super pleased to be able to be to show a different side of her today for When They Were Kids. When They Were Were Kids is the new feature where I ask yours & my favorite indie artists/designers/crafters to share what they were like as kids. I also share then + now photos.

To learn more about Hannah and Made With Love By Hannah, read her blog. You can also see more of her, her home & crafty projects on flickr. Of course, to see her design, visit Made With Love By Hannah.

Hannah’s ‘then’ photo was taken in Germany, where she spent some time as a kid, and which appears to have influenced her design aesthetic. Now onto my interview with  Hannah about her childhood.

1.Why types of games & toys did you like as a kid?

- I loved to play with puppets and put on puppet shows. I also loved matchbox cars. There was a local craft store that had a matchbox display i was so excited when i would get to pick one out.

2. What was popular on TV when you were a kid and did you watch?

- We didn’t watch TV when I was little. I don’t even remember having one around for the longest time. It wasn’t until high school when I got my own TV that Istarted watching it regularly.

3. Were you a good student in school or a little rebel?

I was a little angel! Can’t you see my halo?

4. Were you a creative kid? if so, what types of things did you enjoy?

- My mother taught me how to sew and embroider and knit when i was little so I liked doing those things. I remember making a lot of little purses. I also used to like to write stories and draw pictures and make little illustrated books out of them.

5. What have you learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

- Not much! But there are a few things I’ve learned as an adult I wish I could forget!

6. Share one of the best things about your childhood.

- Swimming in Walden Pond or Crystal Lake and getting out of the water and eating the most delicious juicy peaches.

7. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A veterinarian.

8. What are you up to now?

- Working on a bunch of cute new prints for fall, and some fun project tutorials for around the house that I can’t wait to post on my blog.

You are in for a real treat today for the latest of edition When They Were Kids, the new feature where I ask our favorite indie artists/designers/crafters to share what they were like as kids.  I contacted Shawna Pincus of Pinkkiss Pottery and asked her if she wanted to contribute and was so tickled when she said yes and sent along the cutest images ever.

I met Shawna a few years back (as well as her husband Michael of Spaghetti Kiss) and just fell in love with her and her pottery. She is a beautiful person, both inside and out, and her pottery reflects that beauty. I am totally enamored with her latest printed woodland creature collection and even have my own very special deer mug from that collection (I hide and protect it from all other members of my household). Her work is appealing both visually & tactilely, which is so important to me for ceramic work. She also has a great sense of humor as evidenced by the pics below, don’t ya think?

You can see more of Shawna’s work in her Etsy Shop, on her Website and her blog.

1. Share a favorite book(s) from your childhood.

- I was a big bookworm as a kid and read all the time; I had a very vivid imagination and started reading at a very early age. I loved all the mystery books like the R.L. Stein and Christopher Pike series. I also loved the Wrinkle in Time books and for my girly side, the Babysitter’s Club.

2. What’s your favorite childhood movie of all time?

- I actually had a few movies that I cycled through as a kid. Disney’s Robin Hood (the one with the fox), Splash (my cousin and I used to put pillow cases on our legs and flop around the living room claiming to be mermaids), Princess Bride and Cry Baby (I was a Johnny Depp fan from way back!)

3. What types of toys did you like to play with?

- I  loved Barbie. I know it’s not very feminist of me but it’s what I liked. I used to create houses and neighborhoods with masking tape on the floor and have the Barbies drive around in shoeboxes. I also loved playdoh, go figure! I had a collection of paper dolls too.

4. Were you an artsy-craftsy kid? if so, what types of things did you enjoy?

- Yes! My Mom is very crafty and we did lots of stuff together. Sewing, cooking, craft projects galore! We even took a ceramic class together once.

5. What have you learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

- To be more assertive. I was always really quiet and if I had one thing to go back and tell myself it would be to speak my mind more. I had a really good childhood though and there isn’t much I would change.

6. What was the best part about summer when you were a kid?

- I had a love-hate relationship with my summer camp. I hated sports, so I always complained about going, but at the end of camp they would show us this really sappy slide show set to sad music which always made me cry and come home begging my parents to sign me up for the next year! We also had a community pool in my development and I love to swim.

7. What did you want to be when you grew up?

- First, a marine biologist, I learned to scuba dive when I was in middle school and I love the water (Pisces!). Then I wanted to be an actress like my older brother (my sister-in-law was the casting director for Conan O’Brian when he first started) and finally an artist.

8. What are you up to now?

- Now I am living in Baltimore with my husband Michael and our two cats, Mexi and Stranger. I just left my job as an elementary school art teacher to pursue ceramics fulltime so now I work from my home studio making pottery. I also love to cook and keep a blog about my pots and the food I put in them.

Well, you guys really seemed to love the debut post for When They Were Kids, my new feature where I ask yours (and my) favorite indie artists/designers/crafters to share what they were like as kids. I’m glad because I am having a lot of fun with this one and I think so are the artists I’ve invited to participate.

I’m sure you all know who Elsita (or Elsa) Mora is…she is a super talented artist who seems to be able to produce beautiful work in an infinite number of mediums. She illustrates, is a paper cutting artist, creates jewelry, sculpts, paints and more. I’ve interviewed Elsita before here and she is a contributing artist in the Feed Your Soul Project as well. You can see more of Elsita’s work in her Etsy Shop, on her Blog, her Papercutting Blog and you can also see more ‘now’ pics of her on her style blog.

Elsita grew up in Cuba and I thought it would be really interesting to learn about what her childhood was like, so on to the interview.

1. What types of games did you play as a kid?

- The type of games that you play when you’re really poor and have no toys at all Like making little dolls out of mud or mango pits. Jumping from a chair to the branch of a tree, chasing small animals down the street and things like that.

2. Share a special treat you used to enjoy.

- Spending time by myself inside a huge concrete tube that I discovered near our home. I loved the cold air over there (Cuba is so hot!) and I also loved the echo, echo, echo… of my voice.

3. Were you a good student in school or a little rebel?

- I was both. Pretty good academically but rebel when I thought that something was wrong and needed to be changed. I had very strong ideas about right and wrong but sometimes I was just wrong

4. Were you an artsy-craftsy kid? if so, what types of things did you enjoy?
- Absolutely artsy-craftsy. I loved to create my own clothes because we had no money to buy the ones already made. I started doing this at a pretty young age, my Mom taught me. With my two hands I created almost everything that I owned back then. I didn’t have that much but I loved what I had.

5. What have you learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

- That being a kid is the most wonderful thing in the world. And that your parents love you very much, no matter what.

6. Share one of the best things about your childhood.

- Dreaming, literally, I daydreamed all the time. And these dreams became so real in my mind, like a parallel life. I dreamed about having my own room, about my older sister being healthy (she is schizophrenic) about having lots of paper and color pencils so I could draw as much as I wanted. I dreamed about traveling out of Cuba on a big airplane, I dreamed about my Mom looking beautiful and happy (she had such a hard life raising 4 children on her own). Dreaming was the best thing that I ever did during my childhood because it saved my life and it also taught me that with a little bit of imagination life could be a lot nicer

7. What did you want to be when you grew up?

- In this order:
An Artist
A Nurse
A Teacher
A Lawyer A Psychologist
A Writer
A Cosmonaut
A Journalist

8. What are you up to now?
- I am still daydreaming as much as I did when I was a little girl

It’s new feature time, folks!  This one is a good one too…if I do say so myself. I’ve asked some of your (and my) favorite indie artists/designers/crafters to share what they were like as kids. Maybe it’s the history major in me or the museum curatorial experience  coming out, but I love the stories behind the artists.  Were they always creative, when did they grow up, did they want to be an artist when they grew up???

This new feature will appear periodically and I will share a ‘then’ & ‘now’ picture as well as a short interview with questions about what they were like as kids.

Ryan Berkley of Berkley Illustration is the first artist to participate.  Ryan is probably best know for his animal portraits, but he does other stuff as well. See more in his shop and on his blog, both of which he runs with his wife Lucy. Plus,  if you are in LA, visit him at the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, July 11th & 12th!

Ryan Berkley won a drawing contest back in his elementary school days!

1.  Did you have an imaginary friend? Was he named Kenny?

- No, I never did. And I don’t think I knew anyone who did growing up, either.

2. What was popular on TV when you were a kid and did you watch?

- He-man, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Transformers, Go-bots, Silverhawks, Tiger Sharks. Back when Saturday cartoons used to be important.

3. Were you a good student in school or a little rebel?

- I was always staying out of trouble and I was a great student, but as I got older my grades got a little worse.

4. Were you an artsy-craftsy kid? if so, what types of things did you enjoy?

- I think I just drew all the time. On anything with a paper surface. Mom was very encouraging.

5. What have you learned as an adult that you wish you knew as a kid?

- Eating meat is horrible.

6. Were you a comic book reader and if so, what did you read?

- Yes, I was. I remember reading random titles as a kid, but when I got into them hot and heavy in junior high, I was really into the Punisher.

7. Share one of the best things about your childhood.

- I’d say moving out of grimy, scary North Hollywood into a mountain town when I was 8 and just playing in the woods close to my house. Fresh air. Wild animals. Swimming holes. Getting grass stains and red volcanic dirt in my clothes. Playing with my best friends everyday- my brother and my dog Maxie.

8. What are you up to now?

- Nowadays, I guess I’ve become a pretty-well known artist on Etsy.com, drawing animals pretending to be humans. I’m also keeping busy with editorial work, participating in traveling art/craft sales, and gallery shows.