Featured Artist: Nicki Schleckman

Tell us your name, your Etsy shop name, and what city you live in.
My name is Nicki Schleckman, and my etsy shop is HandMade.etsy.com. When I picked the user name HandMade I thought it was pretty clever and all encompassing, and was surprised that no one had already taken it. Later I realized it just makes it harder to find me since the word handmade is all over the Etsy site! I currently live on the west side of Cleveland and I really have to say I prefer it to the east side. Sorry east siders!

What is your first memory of your craft? Did someone teach you, or did you learn on your own?
I started getting really interested in art when I was in junior high school. My teacher had us weave these wall hangings with different textured yarns and make clay pots and all kinds of fun things, and I fell in love with creating things with my hands. Even now, I just really enjoy the satisfaction of holding something I made in my hands. That being said, I am a mostly self-taught artist. I usually decide I want to be able to do something and then figure out how to do it. I taught myself to knit last winter using YouTube videos, so I guess it’s equal parts determination and resourcefulness.

What is it that draws you to your craft material?
My craft materials change depending on what I feel like creating, so I guess my mood has something to do with it, as well as the random things that pop into my head influenced by what I subconsciously or consciously see. For example, I was going through my old take-out menus one day and thought, “I should really do something with all of the usable paper.” An hour later I made my first recycled paper MatchBook NotePad.

How would you describe the style of your work? Does it reflect your personal style?
I’d describe the style of my work as colorful and eclectic. It absolutely reflects my personal style and my personality in general. I love bright, bold colors and anything a little funky, unique, or weird. I get distracted or bored by monotony, so I like to keep it fresh.  That’s just how I roll.

What are your inspirations? How do are they expressed in your work?
My inspirations? I guess my cats initially inspired me to make my cat toys. I wanted something durable, colorful, and fun for them to play with, so I made toys from the catnip I was growing for them. I continued to grow and dry my own catnip, and made toys for friends and family as gifts. Many of them suggested I sell them somewhere, and when I found Etsy, I thought, “this is perfect!”

Do you have an all-time favorite creation? What about it makes it your favorite?
Some of the t-shirts I’ve printed had some really great color combos; so great, in fact, that I almost kept them for myself!

Describe your workspace.
It changes depending on what I am working on, but it usually involves several piles of works in progress across my dining room table with a typewriter, paper cutter, stapler, glue sticks, random colored paper scraps, Ziploc bags full of yarn, my sewing tin full of needles and thread, my huge jar of catnip, a ridiculously large and colorful pile of felt, my grandma’s old sewing machine, and my laptop playing college radio or a random movie while I work.

What is your favorite task related to your work? Your least favorite?
My favorite task would be screen printing t-shirts.  I love figuring out which color ink I’m going to mix for what color t-shirt and seeing the results. My least favorite would involve stabbing my fingers while trying to sew my plush toys closed.

Do you have artistic talents in other areas?
I’ve always been pretty creatively inclined. I freelance as a graphic artist, have worked as a photographer, and can play a few musical instruments.

Tell us something about you that we might be surprised to hear.
I went to Space Camp when I was a kid. I used to think I wanted to be an astronaut, but never had the desire to get the military training required to pilot a Space Shuttle.

Where can we find your work?
Currently, my work is sold exclusively through my etsy shop – handmade.etsy.com. My cat toys were available at Coventry Cats in Cleveland Heights, and my zines were sold at the Bent Crayon in Cleveland, but I think they’ve all since sold out. My zines were also carried by several distros around the country and overseas, but that was  years ago, and I don’t know how many of them are still around.