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 No fancy designer story here!
I'm just one of the locals taught to sew
by my mother and lucky enough to inherit
her good looks and flare for design.
Myakka City is located in Manatee County which is perched along the west coast of Florida. This county enjoys everything from the rich soils of the farmers and ranch owners to our white sandy beaches. Nestled in with the farms and ranches, Myakka City is a scenic and peaceful part of the county lit by fireflies at night. And, it's a long, long drive to civilization! Which means... I've got a lot of time on my hands! So I decided to do what I love most. Create! With help from my mother, my handsome hubby and some good friends, we design and sew an eclectic mix of pillow covers meant to enliven your home in a very personal and unique way. So sit back, relax and have fun today while you look over some of our favorite creations. We're hoping you'll find something you absolutely love at Myakka City Pillow!
Bradenton Herald article - June 30, 2007 Myakka City woman has a flair for fluff By MAURA POSSLEY Carol Kaminski, of Myakka City Pillows recently made over 200 pillows
for Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas. MYAKKA CITY -- In the sea of black and gold that is Las Vegas' Caesars Palace is a piece of small-town rural Manatee County. Hundreds of accent pillows that decorate and dot the Sin City hotel were sewn by seamstress Carol Kaminski, whose pillow popularity has expanded from the West Coast down to Puerto Rico since she created her Myakka City Pillow business. It was an otherwise ordinary day when Kaminski got the call from Caesars. The hotel had spotted the pillows on her Web site and inquired about an order. "I was thinking, 'Of course I'll do the order. I will do whatever to get the order done,' " Kaminski said. "Just the fact that they called me . . . someday, somebody else is going to do business with me. I was honored." In three weeks, the seamstress created the Roman-inspired pillows and shipped them west, with the help of family and friends. "I called all my cards in and got all my people here and we busted our tails," she said. The deal fared so well, Kaminski said, that she was offered a chance to bid on a second pillow that will adorn Caesars benches. She is expecting to get word in the coming weeks on her proposed pillow designs, which highlight the Roman theme of the hotel. The success of Kaminski's business, she says, is attributed to her Web site, which draws in one to two orders per week. She also sells pillows at Robyn's Nest in Bradenton, where the products' popularity has slowly increased, said owner Robyn Golabek. "I'd like to see them (pillows) do a little bit better," she said. "I don't think people are aware of them, that we have such a beautiful seamstress in town." Golabek plans to feature Kaminski's pillows along with works of other artists at a party Aug. 25 at her shop. The party is from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. "I'm hoping that we have a really good turnout, and we can show off Carol's pillows and make it an event that celebrates her successes." Kaminski still keeps up her bill-paying service that she has run for years from her home off State Road 64. Nationwide, orders continue to arrive at the Web site. Just this week, an order came from Puerto Rico. Also recently, a Massachusetts woman who was featured in From House to Home magazine chose to adorn her couches with Kaminski's pillows for the photographs. Sarasota Herald Article, August 17, 2006 Plenty of Free Time, Plenty of Pillows BY KAREN HAMLIN CORRESPONDENT  MYAKKA CITY -- After deciding a few years ago to leave west Bradenton, Carol and Dave Kaminski bought five acres of pasture and built a modest home.
Their back yard serves as a crossing for a farmer's cows and pigs, their neighbor has horses, and deer are welcomed. At night, lightning bugs dance in the sky and cows moo. "We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area," said Carol Kaminski, who lived in Bradenton for 45 years. She soon found, however, that unlike her hometown, "there's not much to do, and shopping and entertainment is far away." Although Kaminski continued her bookkeeping business, The Bill Paying Service, she needed something that tapped into her creative side. She considered and discarded several ideas until one day last year she was engrossed in a pillow-making demonstration on "Crafters Coast to Coast" on TV. "Hey, I could do that," she thought, and Myakka City Pillow was conceived. "My mother taught me to sew. In fact, I used to make all my own clothes for many, many years," she said. Pillows fit her criteria: quick, easy and "you don't get bored using so many different fabrics." Kaminski selects high-quality fabric to create designs in categories that include elegant/fancy, bright/bold, western/camouflage, floral/tropical and contemporary. The pillows, which come in an assortment of shapes and sizes, are stuffed with polyester fiberfill or feathers and down. Pillow covers are removable for easy care. The pillows are made-to-order and although they are not one-of-a-kind, the production of each design is limited to a handful.  Kaminski keeps the fun in her work by constantly creating new designs. Her pillows can be playful, rich, vivid, kaleidoscopic or serious to compliment a buyer's personality.
Pencilmania Studios creator Dan McKinley of Bradenton teamed up with Kaminski to create pillows with his clever prints. He's currently working on a country-western theme. McKinley's design company creates custom logos, note cards and a variety of watercolor prints. One of his favorite prints is the cat in a birdbath titled "Who's Fooling Who?" Owner of two cats himself, McKinley said, "I was laughing the whole time I was creating that one." Kaminski described herself as no fancy designer, just a local woman with plenty of time on her hands. As the pillow business grows, she expects to ask her mother to give her a hand and probably will need to employ a few seamstresses. "Out here in the country, I'm sure there are a lot of women who sew," she said. |
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