Robyn Fabsits

Robyn Fabsits was one of those hot topics of Plush You! Her stuff sold super fast, is very detailed and basically amazing. I decided that I would love to learn more about her so here is a lovely interview with her.

You received your MFA and do commercial work for Shoebox (a Hallmark line). Is this your full time job or do you do other commercial work?

My MFA is from the School of Visual Arts in New York. It was one of the best things I could have done and I’d do it again. My major was Illustration and that’s what I do today. I work for Hallmark, here in Kansas City, and create illustrations and designs for the card line,Shoebox. For those who don’t know, Shoebox is Hallmarks edgier humor line. It’s my full time job and luckily I get to work with really talented
artists and writers who all have different interests outside of work. Occasionally I get a chance to work on special projects here as well. I’ve done a few week long plush workshops in our textile studio as well as some other textile workshops and I’ve been involved with quite a few plush brainstorms. So I get a variety of things to do other than just designing cards. When I started 7 years ago I always thought I’d attempt to do freelance on the side but found out It just wasn’t for me. That’s when I began sewing. Not just plushies, but bags, pouches, clothing...you name it I sewed it.




2) Was making plushies always something you were interested in or was that something that developed later in your art career?

Plush and Toys are always something that I’ve been interested in and have tried to keep up with viewing on the internet. Locally there just aren’t a lot of places that carry that stuff. It’s the midwest, and there just isn’t a real market for it here.
I’d have to say that working on my plushies started about 5 years ago after the first workshop I had at Hallmark. I thought ‘I can do this’. From then on it’s been a constant development with each piece getting more and more complicated. I started out really simple. Most plush work I’d seen was relatively simple in construction and was super popular. I love a challenge and soon got bored with this. My plush soon became 3 dimensional versions of my illustrations. They became more and more detailed. And
most of the time there is a concept behind them. I have to work illustration and design concepts out every day on paper and it soon took over into my plush as well.

Read the whole interview here