Teen Artist Natalie Krause and Her Hirsute Creatures

In the upstairs attic room she's designated as her studio, Natalie Krause is hard at work. Her sewing machine whirs frantically as she feeds a length of fabric beneath the needle—she has orders to fill before classes start again this fall.

"I've kind of just taken it over with my stuff," Krause said as she looked around the room. "Normally the floor is totally covered [in fabric samples] over there."

Krause, 14, is about to enter her first year of high school at this fall. While most of her friends have been babysitting for their summer funds, Krause has raised hers by building a collector base and selling her art locally.

Whether it's fabricating new creations for her line of Hirsute Creatures, jazzing up an old pair of Converse All Star Hi-Tops or creating her own clothes—this is a teen that loves to sew.

"I started with just a bunch of fabric and a hot glue gun," Krause smiled as she recalled a time not too long ago. "I've gotten a lot better with all the practice."

Krause recently held her first solo artist meet-and-greet at  in conjunction with the La Grange Craft Fair.

"When I saw her stuff I was like, 'Are you kidding? These are incredible,'" Jack Baldus, owner and curator at Blue-Eyed Jack said of his first meeting with Krause. "I just had to shake her hand."

Family history

Krause got her start sewing with a little help from her family. Her aunt was the first one to teach her to knit, which led to an interest in sewing. Her grandma bought Natalie her first a sewing machine. Several books about sewing and many, many gift cards to Michaels and JoAnn Fabric later, Krause was nearly in business.

She started taking a summer sewing camp at LTHS with a few friends in fifth grade and has stuck with it ever since. For her first creations, Krause said she began to make sock puppets for fun.

"The first thing I made was this little cat doll," Krause said as she held it up for examination.

She began making regular trips to fabric stores to pick up supplies, and quickly, her creations began to add up. Earlier this year, she began making a newly inspired line of particularly hairy looking creations, which she simply named "Hirsute Creatures."

"I thought, that's a cool word," Krause said. "I was going through a lot of different names for those guys, and it just stuck."

Krause moved to selling her pieces soon after. Her mother was shopping at Blue-Eyed Jack one day and struck up a conversation with Baldus about the incredible work her daughter was doing at home. 

"I'm open to seeing anything," Baldus said as he recalled the conversation, "and I told her mom to bring some in."

A few days later, Krause popped into the store with a collection of her work and Baldus was floored.

"They're so charming," Baldus said of Krause's work. "It's interesting, and it really shows she has this gift for patterns and colors, but what really got me was that she had made these handmade, individualized tags for each one. Lots of adults don't think about little stuff like that."

Baldus told her he'd love to put some of her items on display and see if they sold—and sell they did. 

Bustling business

Since putting her pieces on display around the time of the La Grange Craft show in July, Krause has already sold 30. Her Hirsute Creatures sell for between $25-30; her dog-shaped pillows range from $40-80; and her "old-timey" portrait pillows—the inspiration for which was some doodles in her math book—sell for $48-60. Krause keeps 60 percent of the sale and Baldus take a 40 percent cut as the curator.

"It's pretty cool to be making money," Krause said nonchalantly, making it obvious that that's not the reason she does it. "Most of my friends are babysitting [she makes a face], so that's cool."

In the future, Krause would like to expand into making clothes and possibly making jewelry—she's enrolled in a metalsmithing class at LT this fall. 

"I'd really like to start making my own patterns," Krause said excitedly. "I'll get there one of these days—I'm only 14."

But as far as Baldus is concerned, age doesn't really matter in these situations.

"Age is immaterial," Baldus said. "If I'm into it, I'm into it. I don't push her or anything. She has school to focus on, but I've told her that at this point, if she makes it, I'll put it in the shop. I trust her [design] sense completely."

Krause has already begun to develop her own following. Baldus said there's a particular collector who comes in to check if there's new work available and has already purchased several of the Hirsute Creatures and a portrait pillow.

Krause said she'll be adding some more pieces to the store soon and is planning to expand her sales opportunities to the site Etsy.com, an online retailer that's similar to Amazon for handmade and vintage items. Soon, she'll begin work on a special line of creatures for Halloween at Blue-Eyed Jack as well.

"I'm so excited for her," Baldus beamed like a proud papa. "I tell people all the time I think she's someone to watch."