Local Featured Seller: ShoreDebris

Who are you?

Hi, I'm Vicky Brown and have just opened Shore Debris on etsy. I run the online portion of a family crafting affair... my mom (Deenie), my aunt (Lori), and my Grandmother (Rita) are the other crafters.

Where are you located?

I live in Sanford (well, my address is Sanford, but I'm actually closer to Spring Lake), and I do all of my crafting/etsy work out of my home.

What do you create?

Right now, Jewelry, Wall Decor, and Note cards from sea shells and other beach-oriented themes. We are always finding new and interesting projects, so next year it will be jewelry and something else (we love jewelry and that will probably never totally go away).

What is your favorite place to visit in the "triangle"?

My favorite place nearby is the town of Cameron. My neighbor and I go there as often as possible. We'll park a car on NC-27 closest to where we live, start down the right side of the street and hit every shop... stop for lunch at the end in a little tea house (can't remember the name right now) and come back down the other side of the street. I find looking at antiques gets the juices flowing for reclaimed/recycled ideas for creating crafts and decorating my house.

When did you start creating?

I have always been around crafters and artists (although my Aunt Lori is the only one that went to college for an actual art degree). Paintings in our home, the roman shades, the pottery, our jewelry, our clothes, the comforter on the bed, the lampshades, the Christmas ornaments, the baskets, the wreaths, etc, etc, were handmade.

What is your most cherished handmade item?

The doll house my dad made for me when I was little. He spent about 14 months in my mom's dining room carefully cutting little pieces of wood, painting them perfectly, wallpapering the inside of the rooms, and every other minute detail. He even wired some Christmas lights to it like light bulbs so that I could light up the house and peek in the front windows. I have taken this with me everywhere through all my moves as an adult. In my very first apartment (it was actually a town home, but I'm not sure a smaller town home exists) and nothing but a bed fit in my bedroom, so the doll house was actually in my kitchen.

Why did you choose your medium?

I believe I sort of fell into it because I was surrounded by shells. My grandmother has a garage and has shells floor to ceiling sorted by type and color, etc. My mom has a shell shed (most people have a shed for their gardening and lawn care stuff... my mom has an entire shed full of shells and nothing but shells). I went to a few craft shows and a few stores that sell handmade only, and was trying to figure out something that no one else does.... That's when I got the idea of the wire-wrapped sea shell pendants. I thought I was pretty cool because nobody does these.. well, after I found etsy, I found out that many people makes these. I really like the pendants though, so I'll probably do them for a while.

What inspires you?

The beach - in the early morning when it's still slightly cool and maybe a bit foggy. The only 2 other people you see out is one runner off in the distance and one old, weather-beaten man fishing. It's so quiet and meditative with the waves pounding and no tourists or kids up yet, so you can feel isolated from the rest of the world. When I'm having trouble getting an idea, I like to think of a picture like that and it normally calms my mind down and lets it get creative again.

Where do you create?

Everywhere in the house. I'm supposed to be confined to my "office" but I have expanded to the coffee table in the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the entire space above the garage. I'm hoping that in a few weeks I can stuff it all back into my "office" without it bouncing back out so fast.

Why did you choose your company name?

Our original name was She'll Shell (my grandmother came up with that and it was sort of the idea that "She will shell, and she will continue to shell until she can't"), but when we tried to do our own ecommerce site (I didn't know about etsy at that time), we found out that Shell Gas owns all names that even remotely look like Shell so after another brainstorming session earlier this year, my grandmother came up with Shore Debris... since that's technically what shells are anyway, right?

What are your goals?

I just stopped working full time on 1 April this year and am hoping that I can make crafting my full-time job. Long-term goal would be to do enough craft shows and sales on-line that I never have to get a job again.

What do you do when you are not creating?

I play with my dog, expand my garden, and do minor construction projects around my house - just finished the fence and now I'm off to either put a roof over my deck or build a shed (still deciding on the next project).

--If you'd like to find out more about this group of ladies, check out their blog.