The Origin of Shady Creations
Once upon a time, I had never heard of amigurumi, and I had never crocheted anything that wasn't a square. Then in 2008 I happened upon the book Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute, by Elisabeth Doherty.
I was newly obsessed with the musical Rent, and most of the things I did or worked on at the time could be traced back to that (Sims 4 Rent, anyone?). When I saw the bunny in the knit cap on the cover of the book, I immediately thought of Collins and set out to see if I could make a doll that looked like him.
After much trial and error, studying other patterns and techniques, and deciding that I wanted to work on a smaller scale so I could finish him faster, I had my very first completed doll. It felt like magic - I'd never dreamed that I could crochet something three-dimensional, let alone something I designed myself. Now the possibilities were endless, and my next goal was to make the entire cast of Rent.
Meanwhile, in the process of learning about amigurumi, I also discovered Etsy. Before I'd even finished my first doll, I was already daydreaming of selling others like it, and maybe the patterns... and the rest is history. I opened my shop in November of 2008, and have been working on new designs ever since, although my brain is usually a million miles ahead of what my hands and my schedule can handle.