Welcome to another Muggles Market Spotlight for 2017! Today, we are delighted to announce the addition of new artisan Itty Bitty Beasts to our second annual Muggles’ Market at this year’s Geek Gala. Jeanne Wilson took a few minutes to answer some questions about her business and general geekery.
I knit and crochet offbeat toys! Lots of the items are inspired by nerdy and geeky pop culture.
I was not naturally crafty. My mom doesn’t cook or sew or knit or scrapbook or anything that you’d find at Joann Fabrics. I don’t think that I realized brownies could be made without buying the Duncan Hines box until I was a teenager. However, somewhere deep down I did feel vaguely creative though and it came out in awful teenage poetry and then pretty decent photography.
Eventually, I was a soulless drone working for the man and living in Brooklyn and feeling vaguely unsure of what I was doing with my life like every 20-something feels. Somewhere during that time, my mother-in-law came to visit and decided to teach me how to knit. I started a burgundy scarf that day and I didn’t finish it for about two years. I was not a natural talent. I made some truly hideous sweat bands after that and discovered that no matter what yarn I bought from a store or how beautiful I thought that it looked while I was there, it was always pea green when I got home.
Then one day I made a toy. I made a knitted penguin and my spouse looked at me, shocked, because it was adorable and that was a pretty big surprise to both of us. After that, I wanted to make more and more toys but I found knitting to be an awkward and finicky medium so I found that YouTube was full of more than just cute kittens and learned to crochet. I found the amazing book Creepy Cute Crochet by Cristen Haden and realized that toys could be weird and geeky. I started the slow march to inspiration.
My kawaii, little Oogie Boogie! I was so proud of myself for creating that pattern and I love how he turned out!
Now, I’m in my 30’s, working a job that I love, living on a tiny but beautiful little piece of the planet where I sometimes can hear cows from my living room and am embracing my love of toymaking. I hope that you love the geeky and strange and adorably offbeat toys that I make as much as I love making them.
Godzilla vs. Sharktopus!!
- Check out their website at: Itty Bitty Beasts
And make plans to come visit them on Saturday, October 21st at this year’s Geek Gala