While She Naps

Artist: Abby Glassenberg
Web site link: While She Naps (blog)
Where are you located? We live in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

What do you create?
I make dolls and soft toys for babies, children and adults from new and vintage materials.

How did you come up with your business name?
My husband, Charlie, and I were out one rainy evening about a year and a half ago when I was seriously thinking about starting a weblog. We were sitting at Starbucks and I was brainstorming names. I was thinking out loud about what the blog would encompass and I said I wanted to write about and photograph everything I was working on while my daughter, Roxanne, was napping during the day. My first idea was to call the blog, "While She's Napping" but when I wrote it out it looked like "While She Snapping" so I made it "While She Naps." At first my blog included more photos and stories about baking and gardening as well as crafting, but over time as my sewing skills developed it became more and more about soft toy making and parenting. Then I got an Etsy shop and started selling toys online and in local shops, and doing some craft shows and it has just taken off from there.

When and why did you decide to start your business?
While She Naps started as a blog that I began when my first child, Roxanne, was 9 months old. I had been a sixth grade teacher before she was born and then became a stay-at-home mom. I knew I didn't want to go back to work outside the home, but I needed something more to do to feed my creative side. At first I was baking cakes. Lots and lots of cakes. My husband begged me to stop because it was just not healthy for us to be eating so much cake. Then I found a LiveJournal site called Craftgrrl and started sewing a bit. The first soft toy I made was a monster for Loobylu's Month of Softies. The day after I finished it I made a stuffed elephant. The day after that I made a second elephant and that was it. I have been making soft toys ever since. There are periods of time in which I make a toy every day. So I needed to start selling them or we were going to need a bigger house.



How do you get the word out about your business?
My online store is an Etsy shop and I think a lot of my customers find me by searching Etsy or else they find me through my blog. In my local area I have gotten some publicity by donating baskets of toys to local charity auctions, by doing some craft fairs, and by selling soft toys in local shops. Currently I have some toys for sale at Magpie in Davis Square in Somerville. I also participated in two soft toy group shows, Plush You II and in Morphe II, this year which was really exciting and a lot of fun. The reality is, though, that I can't advertise too much because let's face it, nap time is only so long and I am a one woman show here.

Where do you see your business in 5 years?
I love the think about where While She Naps will be in 5 years. I hope that I will still be making original dolls and soft toys and I hope that they will be even more finely made with that added five years of sewing experience behind me. I have my first solo show coming up in March at the Wellesley Free Library and I would love to do more gallery shows in the years to come. And I am teaching a soft toy making class this winter at the local recreation center. I am hoping that in five years I will be teaching toy making classes on a regular basis, perhaps at a facility that is set up for sewing classes. And, of course, I hope that my blog is still alive and well.

What has been most important lesson you've learned about owning a business?
Do your own thing. I have gone through periods in which I have tried to create toys because I thought they would sell well and this just doesn't work for me. I find it best to make things that please me and just bet on them pleasing other people, too.

Where do you get inspiration for your projects?
I often will take a commercially manufactured soft toy and examine how it is made, where the seams are and where the darts are, and try to incorporate aspects of its construction into my own toys. I also clip images of toys from magazines and catalogues and tape them into my journal. I like to flip through the pages and use the images as jumping off points for sketches of new toys. And often times fabric will serve as inspiration for me. I will get a hold of a piece of fabric that suggests something to me - a lizard or a giraffe or even a doll dress - and start sketching right away.



Which of the tools you use is your favorite?
My favorite tool is my surgical forceps. I have three sets of forceps - a big 8" one for stuffing large body parts, a small straight one and a small curved one for stuffing limbs. I use my forceps so much that I have a callus on the middle finger of my right hand where they rub up against my skin. Forceps are great for turning tiny body parts, for clamping seams together while I sew, for pulling out basting stitches. I couldn't do what I do half as well without them.

What keeps you motivated?
Reading other crafty blogs is a huge help. Whenever I feel unmotivated I sit down and scroll through the blogs of all those fantastic women out there who sew soft toys and right away I feel renewed to get back into the studio and come up with something new. People often ask me how I find the time to make toys with two babies at home. I find the time by making time to sew every day because if I didn't I would go crazy. I need to sew and draw and create in order to keep my mind going and to give me something to think about during the day. It is like an escape for me.

What advice would you give to someone starting a creative business?
Number one - get a blog. The blog for me is like school. I always always did my homework when I was in school and the blog serves the same function. It makes me accountable to myself and it motivates me to finish projects that I start even if I'm not sure I will like the finished product. It helps me so much to write about my projects and to reflect on them and, of course, to get feedback from readers.

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Little Extras

Can you recommend a good book or great music?
Right now I'm reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Generally, I can't recommend much to you because I am totally and completely out of touch with pop culture.

Who is your favorite indie designer/artist?
I have a lot of favorites, but I think Lisa Congdon is perhaps my favorite. Lisa has a great spirit and a wonderful attitude toward living a creative life and doing your own thing. I love to read her web log and I love her work. I have one of her mod birds and it is a prized possession.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
When I was 13 I received some money as gifts for my Bat Mitzvah and bought a sewing machine, my Bernette 330, which I still use. She has been repaired just once and has held up incredibly well (even when I moved 9 times in 9 years!).

What’s your definition of a perfect day?
Great food with no dishes to clean. Sleeping late (I haven't slept past 6:45 am in two and a half years). Sewing without interruption. Spending time with each of my family members individually with nothing competing for our attention. Warm sunshine - it is seriously too cold for me here in New England.

Thank you Abby!!