PlushYou!: Penguin and Fish Interview and Plush Exclusive

As soon as I saw the application from Penguin and Fish for last year's Plush You! I knew I found a new favorite. Why had she gone under my radar all these years? Well who cares, we found her and we love her and that's all that should matter right? I am so excited to have her as Schmancy's latest plush exclusive. These adorable pieces will go up for sale the 23rd so be quick like a fox before they are all gone!

S- What was your inspiration behind this exclusive?

p&f- Foxes! I've always connected with the Aesop fable The Fox and the Grapes and have used that as a theme for several art pieces going all the way back to college. I've made a Fox and the Grapes mini screen printed book, handbag and ceramic tiles as well as a crocheted fox toy and embroidery pattern. It only seemed right to introduce little foxes as my newest plush character. I was so excited to start working on them. I always try to learn and experiment a little with each new plush design and for me the foxes were an experiment in adding a little more 3D-ness to my usually 2D faces. It seems like such a simple thing but it took me several tries to figure it out. You can see some of my first attempts on my blog.

S- What have you been up to since our last interview?

p&f- Man, it seems like a million and a half things. I moved into my first house! I love it so much. I have a whole room to myself for my studio and I also pretty much claimed most of the basement as Penguin & Fish headquarters. While I work I get to look out at my cute little yard and watch all the crazy bunnies running around. I have a feeling that after the fox plushes there may be some rabbit ones not too far behind. I also just exhibited in my first trade show: The International Quilt Market. There I got to show my embroidery patterns and kits to potential buyers. It took a serious amount of prep work, but what an amazing experience. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to sell wholesale items. I got to meet so many wonderful people, including several of my Twitter and blog peeps! It was tons fun and can't wait do participate in another one.

S- How has your book been going? Any plans for another one?

p&f- No Monster Here is going well. It'll be up on Amazon.com soon so it can be purchased there as well as the nomonsterhere.com website. I created an embroidery pattern to accompany it and I'm hoping to get that up on the website soon as well. We're in the writing stage of the next book in the series...I can't wait to start illustrating it!

S- Any summer plans?

p&f- Besides working? Not really. Pretty pathetic huh. Although, the hubs and I are planning on having an outdoor movie night where we can invite all our friends over to the house, and they can bring their lawn chairs and blankets, then we'll project movies on the side of our garage. I'm pretty excited about that!