Etsy Team Shoutout - Etsy Vintage

I am excited to begin a new feature here where we highlight another Etsy Team who is doing cool things. For those who are not that familiar, the Etsy Teams are groups of organized Etsy members, like B.E.S.T., who network, share skills, and promote their shops and Etsy together and there seem to be great new ones starting every day! One team that I like to keep my eye on is the Etsy Vintage Street Team. Their blog is an excellent resource to learn more about this team .They do a great job at keeping the blog updated regularly and with some of the great objects their members have in shop. The site features a helpful member directory to easily see a sampling of items from each shop. They are a great source for tracking down vintage supplies, clothes and even toys. Here are three cool things I found, click on the image to visit the listing.

If you find something cool from this team, please post it in a comment!

It Happened Kinda Like This...

I'm one of those saps who believes that everything happens for a reason. I know it's not the intellectual thing to think, but it's something I have to do if I'm gonna get through this life. The choices I've made along the way have helped, too. I know. But some people are meant to be your friends and some things are just meant to be.


BEST was a glimmer that none of us could put our fingers on. The organization it would take to form a street team was daunting and the timing was bad. I'm not quite sure if any of us were prepared to work even harder, to have our families wonder if our marbles hadn't gotten stuck in the floorboards somewhere. But we were drawn to each other. We had to do it.

I wrote this in my blog just before Christmas of last year, before any of us had met or imagined what we would work together to achieve...

I love fabric of different prints and textures layered and stitched together. This petite brooch from The Littlest Bean is so feminine without being frilly. It would look VERY sweet affixed to a baby girl's soft knit cap. Hmmmm. Maybe one day it will be! Find this brooch and a ton more at jenmenkhaus.etsy.com

A set of note cards from JennyJen 42 is the perfect gift for ANYONE. Really, we use up our coolest stationary fast in this house. Besides, it's just nice to get something in the mail that's not a bill or a forest's worth of junk. Hey, when you think about it, a gift of cards sends cheer all over the place! jennyjen42.etsy.com

And then came Leah. The tenacious CuriousZoo. Leah was not going to give up. Bad timing, be damned! This street team is forming! And we did. JenMenkhaus got us all in line. Her management and organizational skills were essential in our creation, and she still keeps us going strong. And growing. We have all worked so hard. And now, again, it's time to work even harder so we can live up to our Best of Baltimore title.


Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the collaboration between The Littlest Bean and Sweet Pepita turned out great! It's like these hats were meant to be.

Sweet Pepita!

So, hi! I’m Shannon from Sweet Pepita. I sew kids’ t-shirts and hats from organic cotton and recycled fabrics. Pepita is one of my baby girl’s many names. For real. My husband and I couldn’t choose just one. And if it weren’t for the birth of my daughter, I’d probably still have a jewelry studio in my house instead of a sewing machine parked in the dining room. So it was only fitting, I think, to name my business after her.

















I think my Sir Isaac Newton realization of the importance of art came in the kitchen as a child. Unable (or unwilling) to control my impulses, I grabbed my mama’s carved wooden bunny from off the windowsill. It was 6 or 7” tall, maybe 3” thick, and deceivingly light. Its color was a nearly perfect match to our cupboards, a kind of sickly yellow-brown. With a healthy pink eraser, I removed bunny’s penciled-in eyes, and held bunny, now a smooth, monochromatic woodland creature in my hands.

My mom was crazy mad.
“No, No, No. No. You do not do that. Why did you do that?” She grabbed the pencil and scribbled bunny’s eyes right on back. “That’s how the artist wanted it.”

Except now it is so obviously Mom’s scribble.

Nearly twenty years later, I graduated college with a degree in Spanish. While working towards that degree, I studied jewelry fabrication and design at MICA and began working for Barbie Levy, a jeweler based in Owings Mills, MD. From Barbie I learned so much about jewelry production and the craft world.

A friend taught me how to knit. I baked vegan cakes. A lot of vegan cakes. I did a little bit of everything. And then came Pepita. After the colic subsided I drew design after design for a line of infant clothing I just couldn’t get out of my brain. I knew I wanted to create a green product. And it had to be super-cool and unique. Finally, in late August of last year, my ideas were realized in fabric.

I sew because my mom taught me how to when I was still small. And I think it’s in my blood. Working with my hands has always been the most satisfying way to make a living. I can feel that I’m doing something and I can see my style and my touch in what I do. I know that with love and skill and care, our craft and our art is our history. And that’s how I want it.

Jill Popowich Designs

It is kind of funny that all of our stories start out “when I was a little girl...”. I’m no exception. So here goes.

When I was a little girl, I was always into drawing and painting––just creating in general. I lived for art class. l loved learning about different media, how they worked and what you could do to push their limits. Math and science REALLY were not my thing. I even liked shop class (that’s right, electric, wood and metal shop) because it gave me the opportunity to work in media that wasn’t considered “art”. I think this is were I get my interest in the technical aspects of what I do.

Being the good Jersey girl that I am, I also had a HUGE interest in jewelry. When I was twelve I had a paper route and I would save my money so that I could buy myself something sparkley from Fortunoff’s. God I loved that store. At twelve I already knew my stones , cuts and which carat weights of gold meant what. I remind you this was BEFORE internet. I learned it all from a Service Merchandise catalog.

When I was fifteen we moved to Maryland. I left my beloved Fortunoff’s behind. Living in Montgomery County, I had the opportunity to be a part of a magnet art program where I spent half of my day in a focused art program. At this point I knew I was destined for a career in an art field. Math and science... still not my thing.

In that magnet program, I prepared a portfolio that would get me into the Maryland Institute College of Art. Being practical and knowing I would someday need to support myself and pay back that HUGE student loan, I entered the Visual Communications Department where I received my BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration graduating in 1994.

While in school I interned for James Yang, an amazing illustrator, who gave me his AIGA directory when I graduated. I sent out about 100 resumes to all the art directors in the Baltimore area in that book as well as Illustration samples to various publication across the States. Not too may nibbles as I was up against all of my classmates doing the same. I did get one call back. Ann Dudrow from RTKL called and ask me to send samples. This was my break. She too was trained as an illustrator. RTKL didn’t do traditional print so it was never on the radar screen of my peers. They do however do something even more intriguing. Environmental Graphic Design. I had no idea what it was, but I needed a job so I took it.

Thirteen plus years later, I’m still at RTKL doing environmental graphics, which as it turns out is a mix of signage design, sculpture and interior design as it pertains to architecture. Who knew. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to travel the world and see places I would never have seen before if it wasn’t them.

It is this large scale 3-D work with RTKL that re-sparked my interest in jewelry design and the opportunity to build something that can be interacted with on a personal scale. Elisa Shere (also a member of B.E.S.T. and the first person to befriend me for life when I moved to Maryland), introduced me to the idea of jewelry/metal smithing. I started taking classes and really enjoyed being able to fabricate my own designs and work with the materials myself rather than turning it over to a sign fabricator... plus, I get to play with a torch which is really cool.

It’s kind of funny but I truly believe that all we experience in life influences what we do. I feel like I am coming full circle to where I started. My love of art has translated into an exciting career where I get to travel to exotic places and design things that get built (by the way, this is were those shop classes came in handy). Now I get to make jewelry, my long time childhood obsession. Luckily, my husband (Steve) has been very supportive of my new hobby, he even tolerates me being in "the man cave".

All that I have seen and experienced on my travels has effected the way I see the world and incorporate those experiences into my designs. I look forward to the challenges of making that next piece which is a step beyond the last. Always moving forward learning new techniques and ways to manipulate the materials pushing them a little further each time... in some cases making some really horrible mistakes that you’ll never see but I’ll learn from.

I’m really excited about being a part of B.E.S.T. and all the amazing crafts women that are coming together to make it happen. More experiences to add to the creativity pot.

www.JillPopowichDesigns.ETSY.com