Featured Member Tails32x

This week's Featured Member is Tails32x

Q.  Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop.

A.  I’m a high school English teacher working on his second masters at SUNY New Paltz. I’m the youngest teacher on the staff and at New Paltz I am considered an up and coming with several poems and articles published. I’ve taken my needlepoint and started applying it to video games a little over a year ago, and then branched out and attempted to view other mediums of needlecrafting. From exploring other mediums I learned I should be the best at what I do because needlepoint is what I truly adore. My Etsy shop came into existence after selling on SomethingAwful and EBAY. I liked the idea of creating video game and cartoon characters; furthermore, people really seemed to enjoy a product that was not made out of beads, but out of yarn. This is my second attempt at a shop here on Etsy, but I’ve made a strong commitment to adding at least six new products a week and I’ve seen a positive response.

Q.  What or Who inspires you?

A.  A lot of my inspiration clearly comes from video game, cartoon and comic books. To create items I general find sprites from a video game and then zoom in and simply start stitching. A lot of my inspiration comes from what perler beaders are doing as well. I’m always on the look out to see what new creations they’re coming up with, and I’ve recently started exploring Wall Art and 3D design. But I’m also inspired by documentaries which show a passion for art (origami, pop art, street art, painting, etc). Seeing people become masters of their specific craft really makes me strive to push myself to new limits.

Q.  When you're not doing things for your shop can we find you around the internet?

A.   lurk around the internet a lot. Some of my items have been featured on SomethingAwful, SpriteStitch and other blogs. While I’m not selling anywhere else, I am an active poster on the Pixelgasm forums (www.pixelgasm-forum.com/) in the stitching section. There you will see some of my more avante garde designs (such as stitching through beads) and I’m also known to post tutorials and my own personal designs. My goal for July is to start a facebook fan page and really offer some unique promotions.

Q.  What tool could you not live without?

A.  My needle of course. I mean, how could I ever get anything done without it? I have been using my lucky needle for the better part of six months.

Q.  How did you learn to stitch?

A.  In the summer my parents used to send me to Puerto Rico to live with my great Aunt Mercedes. I wasn't really a rough and tough guy, and so she taught me how to needlepoint tissue boxes. I always enjoyed it. About two years ago I picked it back up and it was like riding a bike. I then applied the needlepoint idea to sprites, and you can now see the products that I sell today.

~Bekah