Way back in 2005, when Etsy was a brand new baby website, there were a handful of Etsy staff members and just thousands (not millions) of sellers. One of those staff members was Anda Corrie. I met her in the Etsy forums because she was in charge of Seller programs and I was a new and enthusiastic seller. Occasionally, you will still see an error message on the Etsy site that pops up with Anda’s hand drawn art work on it.

Anda passed away this week. Stupid cancer.

Anda and I crossed paths dozens of times over the years, but it took more than a decade for us to meet in person. We knew each other from Etsy, back when you actually recognized people and the forums were a real community. We worked on some seller education things together. I recruited her to be a juror for a grant program I coordinated at the art center where I worked. When I was working on the Spoonflower Handbook, one of our editors messaged the team and said we’ve hired someone to do the sewing diagrams for the book. That someone was Anda. We featured some of her designs in the book samples, too.

Just after the Handbook was published, I was part of a Etsy Seller’s Advisory Board and they flew a group of us out to Etsy HQ in Brooklyn. As we went around the room to introduce ourselves, I said my name and heard a shout from the back of the room; it was Anda. We had to explain to the group that we’d worked on a book together but never actually met in person. We went to dinner that night.

A few years later, Anda was asked to write the Spoonflower Quick Sew Project Book. That’s her photo from the book cover up above. It was Spoonflower’s second book and focused on sewing projects instead of fabric design. I wrote on my blog about making one of the projects. On the day that the book was released, I sent Anda a silly message full of fireworks gifs or something equally cheesy. I told her I know how hard it is to do a book and how much energy you pour into it and that should be celebrated. It always makes me sad that no one did that for me on the day my book was released so I wanted to make sure someone celebrated with her. We joked about being members of a very selective club (The Spoonflower Book Authors).

from Anda’s Spoonflower shop

I loved her whimsy and sense of humor. Her illustrations nearly always had a little cheeky smile. I didn’t know her well, but we crossed paths enough times to make her my friend and I will miss her and her art.