Etsy Around the World: Zebracakes

This week we take a trip to Steel City to meet a talented artist and her cat.

Who are you (actual name and/or shop name)? My name is Joyce and I have an Etsy store named after my cat, Zebracakes.

Where are you located? I live in Pittsburgh, PA.

What do you create? Mostly girly, Dolly-tastic jewelry, some showy fascinators too.
Dolly is sort of my own phrase, or rather I gave it my own meaning.

What is Dolly-tastic? To me, Dolly means dressing like a cute, fancy, pretty, doll. Dolls always have the best clothes and accessories. I think a lot of females secretly wish that they could have all the accoutrements that dolls have. I'm a big fan of the lolita style but I don't want to limit my creations to that. Besides, dressing lolita after 30 is frowned upon, unless you start dressing EGL (elegant gothic lolita). I totally disagree with that mind set. If you want to dress frilly and fancy and you are 50, well then so be it!
I want dressing Dolly to be something that any female can do, no matter what age, from 5 to 105, if you want to dress as pretty and as adorable as a doll, well then by all means you are a Dolly! :)

Have you ever visited North Carolina (if so, what was your favorite part of that trip)? I have not yet and would love to! I have family living in Charlotte.

What is your favorite place to visit in your hometown (and why)? Well, Pittsburgh is not *really* my hometown, but one of my favorite places to be in Pittsburgh is the Church Brew Works. I love good beer and the CBW is quite unique.

What inspires you? People, animals, plants, minerals, objects, and places that are cute, sweet, and/or extravagant.

Where do you create? I create in the spare bedroom mostly, sometimes at our cramped café table in the kitchen. I try to keep everything organized, but it’s hard.

What is the most time consuming part of your craft/art? Probably the whole photo taking, description making, listing process. I much prefer to crank out the jewelry. That other stuff is boring and stressful for me.

How do you envision your creations being used by your customers? Well I hope they, or the gift recipient, actually wear the stuff! I’d hate for something to be sitting in a dark corner, all alone, shivering.

How do you find the time to create and still take care of your family? I guess you can call it luck. I work full time and am taking a couple classes this fall. Fortunately, my family is small; husband and cat, and they are both low maintenance, bless their little hearts. My husband plays lead guitar in a rawk (misspelling intended) band, so he has his own thing, while I’ve got mine. The cat always does his own thing regardless. It works out pretty well.

What do you do when you are not creating? I try to clean up after the cat mostly. The husband is pretty clean, the cat, not so much. I love watching movies and drinking good beer (not necessarily together or in that order). I am also trying to learn Japanese (the husband is Japanese) with limited success and am inadvertently generating further evidence for the critical age period theory in language acquisition: adults have a hell of a time picking up another language! Boo-hiss!