Shop Calli’s wonders on our website: cargoinc.com

If you’ve ever visited Cargo, chances are good you’ve had a brush with Calli. She might have helped you find that perfect birthday present, tallied up your purchases, or gift wrapped your purchase in a style that mesmerized you & wowed the recipient!  If so, you know her wide, welcoming smile and signature round glasses. If not, you recognize her from the artwork on the Cargo calendar you picked up, the clever surprise dolls you admired, the kids’ arts and crafts tables at events—or a lot more. 

“Working at Cargo, I’ve had the chance to do so much. Wild things. Patty, Brigid [Cargo’s owners], and Aimee inspire me with their projects throughout the store. They start an idea for a display, for instance, and they encourage me to run with it. I can decide that I want to dress a Santo with a special necklace made of sticks, crepe paper dress, or felted hat, and that is encouraged & considered work in our community at Cargo.  How lucky am I?”

Calli’s fans return time and time again for her surprise dolls, which have taken the form of kokeshi dolls, Halloween pumpkins, fruit, and even our store cat, Calla Lily. Each surprise doll is a work of art with ten or more prizes wound inside it. “About seven years ago, Patty showed me an article about surprise dolls. I was given carte blanche to create my own for the store. My goal is to make a surprise doll that’s beautiful to look at, but not so intimidating that you won’t unwind it for its prizes.”

Calli also makes the killer selection of stamps we sell—stamps so intriguing that a rock band in California uses them for its publicity. “It started with a box of paper goods purchased at auction in Japan that yielded an amazing collection of Japanese ephemera, everything from medical books to clothing patterns to children’s books and catalogs. The images were so strange and beautiful. I wanted to share them somehow, and I was given free artistic license to collaborate with my co-workers to find the best images & we made Cargo’s own unique rubber stamps.”

With a world of images & inspiration to draw from, the images Calli has chosen are often sweet yet eccentric. One rubber stamp features a Japanese diagram on how to tie a scarf. Another is a Mexican sacred heart. Others feature the Chinese zodiac animals, a Japanese motorcycle, and girls holding hands and dancing.

In looking for a way to further display these images, Calli struck on the idea of creating banners. The banners fascinate customers, who buy them to loop over home altars and decorate office cubicles. Plus, Patty’s jaw-dropping cigarette card collection (“I’ve never seen such incredible images,” Calli says) inspired her to make full-color sticker reproductions for sale in packages of ten.

Calli’s aesthetic embraces what we love at Cargo. It focuses on the personal, the handmade. It shares the offbeat and beautiful of myriad cultures. Best of all, it is accessible to every one of us. Come down to Cargo to say to Calli and share a bit of her wondrous take on the world, she’s always encourages people to create & often shares craft tips! 

Look for workshops with Stamp Gurl in spring of 2020 at Cargo.

Follow Calli on Instagram @stampgurlz