Queen Bee Creations Staff
Click the persons photo to learn more about them.
Rebecca Pearcy
Founder, Designer, President
Rebecca founded Queen Bee back in 1996 from a corner in her bedroom. She is thrilled & amazed that her little project has turned into a thriving company involving the skills and contributions of so many talented people. When she’s not at Queen Bee, Rebecca enjoys sewing clothing, cooking soup, singing sad songs, and going out dancing.
Kim Sakkara
Production Assistant
By day, Kim assists in the production room; meticulously setting snaps and laying out all of those appliqué pieces that make us so unique. She’s been working at QB in some capacity for years. One holiday season, she came into work in the middle of the night to sew Wonder Wallets… and like magic, there would be a shelf full of perfect wallets in the morning. When Kim’s not sharing her expertise with QB, she has her own amazing business designing and sewing a line of clothing for belly dancers: Kim Sakkara Clothing. Her passion and talent inspires us, and we feel fortunate to have her at the Hive.
Heidi Hopfer
Customer Relations, Administrative Assistant
Heidi began at Queen Bee as a volunteer which rolled into a proper job in 2002. She has tried on different pants at the hive and now happily wears her own, chatting it up with our brilliant customers. Take a minute to meet Little-Who, her line of handcrafted greeting cards that keep her busy. In early 2007 Heidi also became a Mom and has been living in snapshots of disbelief. She is breathing in & ready to use her heart as a projector.
Karen Thurman
Bookkeeper
We think that if that Duck Tales had not been a bad 1980’s cartoon based on Scrooge McDuck’s obsession with money, it would have featured Karen swimming in a sea of felted wool polka dots. She loves wool THAT much. Most days in the summer, she’s wearing a handmade wool sweater, and in the winter, she’s always rocking one of her amazing felted wool scarves. In fact, when she’s not managing QB’s books better than Scrooge McDuck, she’s busy with her own handfelted wool business. it's amazing. Check it out – Karen Thurman Design.
Luis Quiles
Sewing Lead
Martha Stewart has met her man-match. We’re not even surprised anymore when Luis comes in to work and tells us what he did yesterday. "I redecorated my bedroom". And when he says re-decorated, he means that he re-designed the room; built new furniture, painted walls, sewed new curtains and a bedspread with matching pillows. In a day. And then he comes to work and cranks out QB products the same way Martha would – fast and furious, creating efficiencies without shortcuts, refusing to sacrifice quality for quantity (he’ll have both, thank you very much). We may not be surprised, but we are constantly amazed.
Holly Stinson
Production Seamstress
Holly’s a rare duck. We’d like to clone her. We tried… didn’t work. Just made a mess of the kitchen. We’ll just have to take what we can get. She came to work for us as a temporary sewer to help us through the 2008 holiday season. We met her and knew she’d fit right in. She can crank out Truckettes like nobody’s business, so she was the obvious choice when we were looking for permanent part time help. Honestly, we can’t decide which is more charming: her incredible sewing skills or her Old Prospector imitation. If you meet her, ask about the coyotes. You’ll be on the floor.
Kierstin Oliver
Production Lead, Design Support
Kierstin is the go-to-girl for all new production tasks and spends her time buzzing about from cutting table to snap setter, from prep station to the sewing room and back again. If you should find her still, she’ll be surrounded in a spray of colorful bits as she sketches ideas and lays out prototypes for detail in the upcoming line. Be prepared for her to randomly burst into song or laughter and sometimes both at once. A Jill-of-many-trades, Kierstin has her fingers in a myriad of pots. Literally! Outside the hive she is a potter, a painter, and mosaic artist always dabbling in color and texture. Keep your eyes peeled for her work on the gallery scene in Portland or see what she’s up to on Etsy.
Dana Hinger
Operations & Business Manager
If you were to pick anyone in the world to be your tour guide on a harrowing adventure (especially one involving snarling dogs, terrible weather and over-weighted bicycles going uphill both ways), you would pick Dana. You just would. She’d stay mildly nice the whole time (even if she got a flat tire and was bit by a dog), she’d have great ideas to get you out of the worst kinds of trouble, she would get you there in one piece, and you’d actually have fun doing it.
Sara Tunstall
Production Manager
We feel like ‘Master Food Preserver’ is a good qualification to manage QB’s incredible whirlwind of production. She knows how to get a lot done, and quick. In the dark of night, she heads off to school; filling her brain with all the bits of information that will soon amount to a Masters in Business Administration. She’s equally likely to wax poetic about our production team as she is a home-grown tomato. And that, my friends, is saying a lot.
Jessica Comfort
Production Seamstress
She looks nice, right? Half sugar, totally awesome- Jessica’s always serving up a healthy dose of sass with her Cupcake Wonder Wallets. Around here, she’s pretty much the Master of Re-wool. If you have an Edith tote, you can bet that Jessica made it, and that at some point during its construction, Jessica remarked on how she was going to ‘tame that furry beast if it’s the last thing I do’. Outside QB, Jessica teaches gardening to her cat Creakers ("As in: one who Creaks. And she does.") and runs a shop called My Thursday Morning where she peddles her signature vintage and handmade wares.
