What is Plushka and why tiny stitches?

I thought I shall start the “Plushka’s story” series with the story behind the brand name. Choosing the name for the shop is probably one of the hardest things I've done when I started. It took me ages to commit to one.  

I already had a Plushka’s Craft blog back then but, for some strange reason, I wanted to give my shops a different name. I didn’t know back then that the first rule of branding  your business is  keeping all shops, blog, Facebook/Twitter pages and emails under the same name. I am so glad Mr.Plushkin talked me into changing the name later on.

Thus, before I was talked into using Plushka as a brand name for my business, I opened a store on Etsy and then Madeit called "La vie quotidienne" (everyday life in French as I love everything french and used to speak this beautiful language, about 7 years ago...). I had an idea to make one-off things  or a limited edition creations only and do it as hobby rather then full time creative business. That was my banner and, as you can see, I stuck to the same colours scheme from that moment on as I love a warm feeling it gives.

 Madeit shop was the one where I made my first sale in November 2009. It was an owl brooch that slowly, in about a year, evolved into "I heart owls brooch" collection. 

More about my first creations and what I used to make when I started later on the series. 

For about a few months after opening my shop, I talked and talked to Mr. Plushkin about my concerns and uncertainty about the shop name (I wasn’t sure people will actually remember long French shop name!), he said to me that Plushka sounds lovely, warm  and more importantly is part of my Russian heritage so why not call the shop Plushka?!  

Plushka was the first thing I baked for my husband when we just started dating and he loves it ever since. 

So, what is Plushka? It is a traditional Russian yeast pastry filled with poppy seeds or just sprinkled with castor sugar. In my family, they were only made on holidays (my Grandma used to wake up at 4am just to make a dough and let it rise properly) so you might say baking is in my genes. Since I was a little girl, Plushka was my favorite type of pastry as it had a pretty heart shape, and was handmade with love by my grandma. It’s now even more then that, it’s a symbol of my love for everything made by hands. 
 It’s a very lucky coincidence or (maybe a“destiny”?) that later on when I started making toys, a lot of people thought that Plushka comes from Plush toys - Plush-ka making my brand easier to remember. 

Why my logo says "in tiny stitches"?  

(logo was created much later on, in June 2011)

One of my first creative projects was decorating a simple linen skirt with a ribbon. I didn't have a sewing machine back then so I stitched  it on by hand. It wasn't a big deal for me, just a natural instinct as my mum used to decorate my cloths all the time. I would never have noticed it, if not for my dear friend. She complemented me on my tiny and even stitches, saying how cute the hand sewing looks and suggested that tiny stitches should be my "signature",  since I was determined to stitch all my creations by hand anyway. 

I also thought that cross-stitch creations will be the main product line in my shop as I've been cross-stitching since I was 12. However, something exciting happened in mid 2010 that changed my creative direction completely.....

Stay tuned for the next post next week with "How it all started"! 

P.S. Although the shape is a little different to what my granny used to make, here is a nice Plushka recipe.