Poosac is a brand of handcrafted dolls, stationary, and gifts run by Kim Smith. It’s been around since 2000 and today has over 55k followers on Instagram with the number is growing every day.
Kim lives in Edinburgh and sells her toys on Etsy. “I’ve always had a serious love of all things quirky, dog-eared and a little bit ‘wrong’ looking,” she shares. We can’t help but share that love with her — the characters she makes are just so adorable!
Check them out below and visit her online tore if you want one for yourself!
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#marchmeetthemaker Day 2 – 'How you started' Technically I've been a maker from my very earliest childhood days. As so many of you fellow creatives will no doubt relate to, the urge to draw, paint, stitch, sculpt, make and create is quite simply a fundamental part of my soul. • I guess the first 'seeds' of Poosac began in 2000 when I started making sock dolls as gifts for friends and family. This led on to friends commissioning me to make custom dolls, illustrations and greeting cards for their loved ones, which in turn led me to open my Etsy shop. • At the time I was working as office manager for a game development studio – GREAT colleagues to work with but very unrewarding job from a creative point of view. As my Etsy orders slowly gathered traction I finally decided that 'life is too short' and so decided to take the plunge, quit my office job and commit to Poosac full time 🙌 • My early Poosacs took the form of weird and wonderful, quirky sock creatures. Each doll was one-of-a-kind and had its own unique name. The little duo pictured here is Big Ol' Bear & Monkey Cakes. I haven't seen these little faces in a long time so it was lovely looking back through files of old work and rediscovering them! • As you'll no doubt see from my more recent portfolio of work, I abandoned the sock dolls some time ago in favour of working with linens and cotton as I find them a much better blank canvas from which to start creating. • Who knows what forms my work may take in the future – I'm looking forward to finding out! ✂️
A post shared by Poosac by Kim Smith (@poosac) on Mar 2, 2019 at 12:20am PST
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Day 8 – Product range My Poosac product range currently includes greeting cards, illustrations and tiny pillows however the core element is my hand-painted, hand-embroidered art dolls. Some human dolls do pop up from time to time however the bulk of my work is currently animal based. To date I've only scratched the very tip of the proverbial animal kingdom iceberg so am excited to see what other creatures/ideas I will bring to life in plush Poosac form over the coming months and years. I'm a big fan of Scandi minimalism and a monochrome palette so a lot of my work is created using pared down, rationalised designs and subtle, neutral tones. That said, I do sometimes mix things up with a sudden POP of colour (e.g. my foxes and lions), just to keep things interesting! Last year I decided to take on an increasing number of pet portrait commissions – these were a challenge and an utter joy to make so I intend continuing that as one channel of my creative work. I'm also keen to keep expanding my Poosac range to include homewares, accessories, printed goods, make-your-own sewing kits and would love to publish a book at some point. Basically (as I'm sure most of you creatives can relate to), there's a never ending stream of ideas bubbling away inside me and not enough hours in the day! #marchmeetthemaker
A post shared by Poosac by Kim Smith (@poosac) on Mar 7, 2019 at 10:36pm PST
