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If you’re a canner (is that a word?) or if you know someone who loves canning, you can check out the tags and stickers in my Etsy shop here. They will also be available on my regular site soon with some customizable options.

Here’s to this paper nerd proudly turning into a canning nerd.

MN Week was born out of the discovery of people I admired online. If I dug them enough, I would click on the About and find a Minnesotan. A few of these discoveries happened in quick succession and I didn’t have to be hit with a snowball to see a pattern.

One thing to note: these profiles are not journalistic, but more personal. I’ll leave the professional writing to the, uh, professionals. Enjoy discovering these talented people living in a place that celebrates music, food and creativity…

Jessica Puckett makes plushie art and not in your typical teddy bear kind of way. Her creatures are mythical, fantastic and some are just a tiny bit ewwww. The kind of ewwww that we love to love. Some of the plushies available in Jessica’s Etsy shop, Plushroom Soup, are listed below clockwise from top left: Blue Owl; Octozombie; Purple Rain Unicorn; Frog Trio. You can click on any image to check out each in more detail. My favorites are the owls with their large, soulful eyes, but I also dig her Yetis and Sea Creatures.

I’m lucky to know Jessica enough to ask her some interview-type questions:

How did you first become interested in plushie-making?
It started in roughly summer of 2006. I was on the hunt for a cute plush alpaca (as a reminder of my long-term goal of becoming a fiber farmer), and couldn’t find one anywhere. Around the same time, I started collecting Japanese craft books, and inspiration just hit: why don’t I make a plush alpaca myself? So I used some of the knowledge I had gained about softie construction from browsing the Japanese books, and I did what I usually do: jumped in feet-first. That first alpaca I made was a funny looking thing, but it opened a floodgate for me, and I kept refining the design and making new critters.

How do you decide what kind of creature to make?
There’s no typical process. At first, I’d get requests for particular critters, so I’d make those. But even then my goal was to create mythological/fantasy characters too, once I expanded my skill set. I’ve always been and avid reader, fascinated by mythology, fairy tales, and fantasy (I actually studied these in college). So I kind of started with a backlog already of my favorite creatures, most of which I have yet to make.

Making a new critter pattern is very time consuming for me, involving lots of trial and error, so I don’t make “new” creatures very often. When I have time to make something new, I just pick whatever creature is most on my brain at that moment. Sometimes I’ll be out and about and an idea will just strike, so I keep a notebook handy to jot down thoughts and sketches. I turn to these notebooks whenever I need a jolt of inspiration. Other times, a particular fabric dictates what I make. I’ll be at the fabric store and something will just scream “yeti” or “octopus” to me.

Share your thoughts on the plushie community.
The plushie community is AWESOME! No, seriously. I have made so many wonderful new friends in the last few years. Many of these contacts started online but have since turned into real-life friendships. I love how open the community is. It can be really difficult to be heard over the din these days, but all the plush artists I’ve met are so willing to share tips and provide support, plus they’re just so dang talented. Meeting some of my plush heroes at the Plush You show in Seattle in fall 2008 was some of the most fun I’ve had in recent memory.

Name your 3 favorite foods to eat in MN.
I’m going to break this into two categories, if I may: State Fair, and non-State Fair. Because no matter how delicious a food may be, you haven’t really eaten it until you’ve tasted it on a stick. The State Fair does almost all food bigger and better (and on the aforementioned stick). I thought the State Fair was so boring when I was younger because the only things to do there were stuff yourself to bursting and pet animals. Now every year I can hardly wait to eat myself exhausted and learn about livestock care.

So, in the former category: pronto pups, cheese curds, and mini donuts. Dear god, why is the State Fair 183 days away?!

In the latter category: cheddarwürst from The Bulldog, mini corn dogs from Elsie’s, and the farmer’s omelet at Key’s downtown. Yes, I’m a gourmand. Don’t judge!

First rock concert you ever saw: who? where? and why?
I’d really love to say something cool like the Talking Heads at First Avenue when I was 12, but that would be a lie. I was so uncool when I was 12. How uncool? My first concert was Nelson (the pseudo-glam rock long-haired rocker twins that looked like girls), and I went with my mom. It was at either the State or the Orpheum here in Minneapolis. I blame my mom entirely for my glam rock phase (but on the flipside, she also gets credit for instilling in me a deep love of music; I’d say at least 50 percent of each day is accompanied by a soundtrack). I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I was so excited about the concert that I still remember what I wore. It was 1990 (or maybe 1991), so the 80s fashions were very much still in style. I wore acid-wash jeans with a large hole in the left knee (I may have even bleached the jeans myself) and an over-sized white boatneck top with black horizontal stripes that barely grazed my waist. And I had enormous mall bangs, while the rest of my hair, teased out on the sides, fell well past my shoulder. My eyeshadow was likely purple, or some other obnoxious color. Hot, I know.