Name: Brittany Sherrard
Name of Business: Brittany’s Buttons
Creative Influence: fashion magazines, pop culture, all things vintage
Creative Influence: fashion magazines, pop culture, all things vintage
Preferred Medium of Creativity: Crochet mostly but I also sew a lot
Brief Bio;
I grew up in the great state of Iowa. As a kid I was always wanting my make my own things but didn’t have any one in my life that could help me tap into my creativeness until I was in high school. I had a great teacher that taught me how to sew and a friends mom taught me how to crochet. I loved both right away and spent all my spare time either making afghans or quilts. As my skills got better I started making my own clothes and making hats for my friends in college. After graduation I found myself unemployed and decided to list some of my hats I had been working on in my Etsy shop and ended up selling 600 hats in about 5 months. This success came upon me so quickly that I almost had a hard time dealing with it. I was working 18 hours a day 7 days a week to keep up with demand and still couldn’t get all the hats out on time. I upset a few of my customers along the way and learned a lot about myself, where my priorities were and how I work under stress. Since this my sales have dropped quite a bit and I have gotten a full time job. I miss my shop being my fulltime job but I know that God will always allow crafts to be part of my life.
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One of my first early creative memories is trying to make clothes for my barbie dolls. My mom sewed just enough to have a few pieces of fabric scraps that I took and would hand sew little dresses. The dolls ended up looking like cavemen but I was really proud of myself.
I found my creative voice when I was in high school through a teacher I had that really encouraged me to work hard to improve my skills and grow as a seamstress. I feel like I have recently found it again through all the encouragement of people at my church.
In my first couple of years in college my creativeness took somewhat of a hiatus. Since I have started crocheting and sewing again I have been almost exclusively making things for babies and children whereas when I was younger I only wanted to make things for myself. I have gotten a lot less selfish with my talents over the years.
The reality of unemployment brought me back to being creative. I had to find a way to make money and pay my bills. Thankfully God saw it fit at the time to use my talent in crochet to make my dream of selling my stuff come true.
God has definitely guided me through a lot of ups and downs in my ‘business’. All good things come from Him and this definitely has been a good thing and a blessing in my life.
I would like to think that Creativity and my faith have always been fused but I know that probably isn’t true. I am a total sinner and have been a bad business woman at times and put myself ahead of my customers. I think when I realized that it isn’t about me and what I want is when they fused.
What are you working on currently?
Right now I am working on a line of dresses for little girls. I hope to have some photos up on my facebook page soon.
Music brings me into a place of worship. I love to listen to worship music when I am working. I also listen to a lot of sermons while I am crocheting.
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1 comment:
Those are gorgeous product photographs.
I'm really enjoying these interviews and reading how so many of us fuse faith and creativity together.
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