About Us
The journey from decorating my first pillow in 1987 to now has been a long hard and triumphant road
When I decorated my first pillow I did not know anything about airbrushing. I started airbrushing in June of 1990. So this is how it all got started. I was selling peanuts on 67th street in Chicago IL. for a church that I was a member of. Bro Wilbur was selling peanuts across the street from me. A lady (Ms.Coleman) dropped off 4 heart shaped pillows with large Valentine’s Day cards in the bags with them. I asked him where did you get the pillows and he said a lady asked him to see if he could sell them. My mind was working. I asked him to ask the lady if she would sell me a plain pillow and she said yes. Now I had to figure out how to decorate these pillows to sell.
In the fourth grade I would make pictures out of coloring paper so I remember this mylar balloon that had “You’re So Special” on it with a picture of a rose. So I went to Walmart bought some felt material in different colors cut out the letters you’re so special made a rose with the stem glued it on the pillow. Sold it the next day brought 3 more sold them brought more sold them.
In 1987 that Christmas I sold enough Pillows to buy my first leather jacket. I had found something that I could make and enjoyed doing it and made money doing it. Jack Pot baby.
I saw a guy airbrushing T-shirts in 1989 at Evergreen Plaza 95th street in Chicago I was amazed.I asked him” how did you learn to
do that” he asked me can you draw I said “yes he said buy a airbrush and practice.That summer I sold Bart Simpson T-shirt “It’s The Shoes Dude'' with the Bulls Logo and Nike Logo on them. Made enough money to buy my first airbrush Badger 150 Airbrush color blue. I Practiced for 3 months opening my first store”Stuff & Things. I added Airbrush to that name a little later.
Soon after I was wondering if I could airbrush the pillows. I tried one” yes I can”. I came on the name Sweetheart Pillows in 2002, I was communicating with a business partner and said “I need a name for my Pillow business I wish I could get “Sweetheart Pillows “ then he said that's a good name so I checked to see if I could get the domain name it was taken. I would check every month to see if it was still taken. One day I checked it was available. I jumped on it and brought it. The guy that made the pillows passed away in 2003.In 2005 I decided to try to find a company to make the pillows for me.I tried companies in America and China.American companies didn’t have the style I wanted.
The China company didn't have the quality I needed.So I decided to make them myself.We found all the material we needed hired a sewing contractor.I bought a sewing machine to sew up the pillows once I stuffed them.Then we decorate and sell.Now we will share our beautiful creation with the world through “Sweetheart Pillows”.
Sweetheart Pillows monthly newsletters will consist of (Dog Lovers picture) a picture of our very popular “I Love my Dog pillow” with the dog owner holding their pillow and their dog. New pillow designs coming ,Discount sales, Gift pillow news,our 3 pillow collectable series coming and festival we will be attending. All my children who work with the company will be interviewed on their job and how they will be contributing to the company.