Stellar Seller---11/2---ExecuteMe

Etsy Buy Handmade Executeme

Our Stellar Seller this week is none other than Maria of executeme, who was one of the founding four Owls. She has since left us, and we miss her terribly!!! Maria's shop is full of awesome photography and some of the most unique earrings on Etsy. Her interview follows.

Tell us all about you, & as much as you'd like to share with the Etsy world:

I have a very long name. Whenever I have to sign something with my full name, people always start tapping their fingers on the desk and let out a sigh. It doesn't get any easier when I have to sign multiple documents and my hand starts cramping up.

My name is Maria Eugenia Euphrosyne af Rolén and I have lived in Sweden all my life. I only moved to the States about a year ago after meeting some guy in New York City. Together we adopted a puppy from a kill shelter. She was locked up in a small cage with a bunch of other dogs when we found her. And they had all been pooping on her. Her fur was full of it, and she was rather smelly, but awfully cute. So we took her home, gave her a bath, and named her Poopy. Since then I've been stuck here. In a small town on the border of WestVirginia that I had never heard of prior to moving here.

Let's hear about your shop & how you got started:

It started out as a place for me to sell some of my photography. Photography is what I do for a living, and it's what I studied for 5 years in Sweden. The last two of those years was at a private school run by cynical evil artists that on average made us work 7 days a week from 7 in the morning until 3 at night. It was quite intense, to say the least. And there were periods of time where we didn't get to sleep for 5 days straight. The few hours of sleep we did get was usually on the floor of a photo studio, wrapped up in muslin backgrounds to keep us warm. It was two very emotionally draining years. They broke us down, and then built us up only to break us down again. But it was the best time of my life.

But ironically, I have yet to sell one single print on Etsy. Instead I started stumbling across all these beads. I'm not sure how it started, but it became a passion that soon turned into what can only be described as an addiction. I felt the need to rescue all the vintage beads I could possibly find out there, no matter how old or dusty, to give them a new chance in life. The result can be seen in the earrings that I'm now selling in my shop.

What inspires you to create?

The voices in my head.

And puppies. I now donate 10% of all my proceeds to a local animal rescue for abandoned and abused animals. It's a no kill shelter that provides dogs and cats with food and shelter until they are adopted into new loving homes.

Describe yourself in one word:

I guess it would be eclectic. I'm kind of all over the place. I get bored very easily and find myself trying out new things all the time. Be it wreck diving or spelunking, I'm always striving to find new things to fill my life with. Or rather, things that will fill me with life.

What's your favorite...

Book:

This question gets me every time. I read so much that it would be impossible to pick just one book. But I can say that I enjoy psychological thrillers. Things that make me use my noodle.

Movie:

Patch Adams

Song:

It all depends what mood I'm in. So I'm going to cheat again, and just name a few of my favorite bands and musicians; Elliott Smith, Moby, Dire Straits, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Cowboy Junkies, Tegan andSara, Lisa Ekdahl, Cornelis Vreeswijk, Sonic Youth, and finally The Clash.