Earth And Sun Folk: ***Featured Artists Infinitecosmos***

hello folks! i decided to feature one of my favorite sellers that i have had the pleasure of doing business with. they are marlena and todd a husband/wife team who make beautifully crafted goods! i asked marlena to tell us a bit about themselves and their work and here is what she had to say.....

"Where to begin....we are a family run business of artists (Todd, the glass blower and Marlena, the computer/packing/shipping goddess and part time seamstress/designer ) with our lovely daughter Leona Fern and our many animals (2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 pygmy goats, 7 chickens, 2 alpacas and 2 sheep). We live out in the country and enjoy the simple pleasures in life such as gardening, tending to our many animals, seeing live music every once in a while, and hiking in the woods. So, in short, we're mellow, easy going, obsessively creative and ALWAYS looking for new ways to improve our business and crafts.

I started sewing when i was about 15. Before that i felt kinda lost and like i didn't have a purpose or talent but once i found sewing it was like a light went on in the creative part of my brain and all of a sudden you couldn't pry me away from my sewing machine with the jaws of life! Needless to say, my grades suffered but I felt like I had finally found my calling and there was no turning back!I became inspired to make my own patchwork clothing when i started going to Phish shows. I saw all these gorgeous mamas in their colorful clothing, selling arm loads of twirly dresses and apron tops in the parking lots and I was just like "oh my goddess, i want to be just like you!!" I remember being in awe of these mamas who would spend all winter and spring sewing away and when summer tour came around they would be able to support themselves by selling their wares. I eventually became one of the stitchin' patchwork dready goddesses that i had so envied in my early teenage years. I spent a couple years on the road making just enough money to get by on my sewing. My stitching style has evolved so much over the years. I first started using bright colored cotton calico fabric to make intricate patchwork apron dresses and such and slowly gravitated towards more sustainable fabrics such as hemp, bamboo and organic cottons. Nowadays, i enjoy incorporating recycled materials such as discarded feedbags to make purses and things like that. Shortly after I moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2001, I met my husband Todd and we joined forces and became Infinite Cosmos. He was the hot, dready (and single!!) glassblowing dude from the Eugene Saturday Market and I was the ragged, just-off-phish-tour sassy stitchin' mama: a match made in hippie heaven! Todd started blowing glass in 1999. He was lucky enough to have a roommate show him some simple techniques and with many MANY hours of practice, he soon became more comfortable behind the torch and developed and perfected many new techniques all on his own. Even though Todd has had a couple lessons early on in his glassblowing days, he really is the ultimate do-it-yourselfer and is 99% self taught! one of the keys to his success (besides his obvious talent!) is the fact that he has a really magnetic and charismatic personality without being obnoxious and overbearing. He has been selling at the Eugene Saturday Market for almost 13 years so he has all but perfected the art of in-person customer service. He has so many loyal return customers who come back to his booth at least a couple times a year (you can't imagine how many times a season i hear people say "you're my favorite booth here at the market! i buy something from you every time i'm in eugene!") and for that we are extremely thankful! Todd and I make a really great team because he is awesome at all the in person transactions at the market (and of course making all the glass!) and I am the "computer genius" (as he likes to call me!) who deals with all the online transactions/emails/shipping/etsy stuff.

These days, I have mostly been sewing for fun rather than profit and have mostly been helping todd sell his glass on our etsy shop. I am slowly getting my sewn items together and have been thinking about opening a separate etsy shop of my own. That is still just an idea but I have so much creative energy and would like to share my new styles with the etsy community!! We'll see how things go i guess....Over the years, we've grown our business more and more every year and the ideas on how to improve are always flowing through us. I'm so proud that we can make a comfortable living doing what we love because it really doesn't feel like work but rather profitable fun."