A Little Stranger

You can instantly spot the work Chelsea of Love And A Sandwich, her happy furry colourful monsters with BIG personalities will put an instant smile on your face! I have been seriously in love with this girls work since I traded a purple bear plush for her bunwich in 2008 and am now super duper excited to be selling her Monster Baby plushes through the A little Stranger shop.

How does it feel to make toys for a living? Feels great! haha. I do have to put in a lottt of hours and hard work for it to pay off money-wise, but I just remind myself that I’m doing something I love, and things could be worse!  I definitely love the hours.  I can sleep in and work late, which I love doing.  This wasn’t really something I saw myself doing when I was doing art when I was younger, but it just sort of fell into place and works better for me than any other medium could. :D


What is it about monsters that captures your imagination?
I just love that they can be anything!  There is no imagination limitations when it comes to monsters, and I think that’s awesome.  They can be any color, shape, size, and have as many eyes, limbs or teeth as you want!  The only limitations are what you can dream up.

When you’re not creating what do you like to do in your spare time? It’s basically all I do all day haha but I love watching cartoons while I work, and playing with my puppy (& my new puppy to come soon!) I live in the mountains of New Hampshire so I also love hiking, swimming and being outside.

What are you present influences?
People with great styles and big ambitions!  & That make monsters, of course. I love Felt Mistress, AJ Fosik, Jenny Harada, A Little Stranger ;) , Cotton Monster, and Cat-Rabbit!  Just to name a few, but I’m always finding more people I absolutely love. My live-in boyfriend is also a huge influence (www.daverapoza.com), he loves monsters as well and he’s in a totally different field of art than me (concept art) & I’m influenced by him every day with his hard work and his constant need to get better at what he does!

What do you collect? Fabric!  Faux fur, mostly.  I’m running out of places to keep it in!  It just comes in so many cool colors and designs, I want to have it all!   I guess I’m kind of a sunglasses collector as well.  I’m not really much of an art collector just because I can’t afford the art I want haha, most of the artwork I have is made by friends or I got in a trade. :D

Whats next for Love and A Sandwich? Lots of things! I hope.  A move to Seattle so I can be less in the middle of the woods and more around like-minded people!  I want to be in big craft shows so I can meet people instead of being a hermit.  I want to learn to animate, knit, needlefelt, and how to make my own clothes!  I also want to start up a website to sell my work in so I don’t have to rely on Etsy anymore, as much as i love Etsy.

What work are you most proud of? That changes a lot!  Usually the newest plush I’ve made of my own design is my  newest favorite.  I guess my most recent plush I’m most proud of is my Lion-o plush!  It was super fun to make and I was really excited about it when it was finished (& really didn’t want to part with it D:)

Links!

Love and a Sandwich Blog

Love and a Sandwich Shop