Sonja‘s mother gifted her with a pair of scissors at the age of three. In elementary school, at a parent teacher conference, the teacher informed her mother she was lacking in only one area, her scissor skills. "In fact Sonja completely refuses to cut things out in class, maybe you could practice with her at home?" Her mother recalled how the house was constantly covered in confetti from her art projects, and asked the teacher to try cutting something out with the terrible school scissors given to the children. The teacher could not. Sonja was allowed to bring her own scissors to class. Except for a moment of rebellion in Kindergarten, when her best friend begged her to give her bangs, Sonja has tried to use her talents for good. Since then she has cut out everything from paper dolls, to paper patterns, to costuming.
She often sat at her mothers feet, when the sewing machine came off of its shelf. She gathered all the scraps of fabric and would try and design her own doll clothes, from a very early age. Halloween was her favorite holiday, and still is.
Sonja always loved researching clothing and textiles of the past. But it wasn't until college that a Theatre Professor, named Tommy Macon, took her under his wing and pushed her to use these talents that others thought were endearing quirks. After her first semester working for him, in the Costume Shop, he gave her a show to design. She loved it! Since it turned out well and on budget, Sonja helped not only build, but design either costume, hair, or make-up for every performance her university put on until her graduation. Sonja also become the "go to" person for all student projects, and helping the music department with their Operas and Medieval Madrigal Performances.
During the school breaks her Professors found her work at the Utah Shakespeare Festival doing Hair and Make up as well as helping with the Millinery Department. Then she worked as the Hair, Make-up and Crafts Designer for the Utah Musical Theatre for two summers.
Her senior project was designing Costume, Hair, and Make-up for Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Her mother said it must be in her blood since this was the very show her great grandmother designed during the Great Depression.
Being a complete "Theatre Nerd", she swore she'd never work in Film... or live in Utah. She learned to “never say never’ since God had other plans. Transitioning to Film was rough. In Theatre everything was planned and thought out and you had multiple fittings for each cast member. Film in comparison was chaos, ever changing, scrambling and most actors show up an hour before they are due to set... making fittings on the fly. But Sonja realized she was a really good problem solver, who could generally stay calm and collected. Able to roll with the punches, and be able to smile even on the hard days.
She loves to create, and research. Her best work is in period historical productions. At any given time her phone is filled with more images of costumes, museum art work, or continuity photos than her family and friends.
Sonja has worked on tiny shoe string budgets where you have to be very creative, and for large companies with amazing budgets and resources. She enjoys the constant change in time, place and culture of the arts. Being able to create characters, mood, and a sense of style is one of her joys in life.
She has also found her Costume hoarding has become helpful. Her mother used to worry about this child who wanted to keep everything. But her Wardrobe collection has become a wonderful resource to many a Film, Commercial, Opera, Artist, and Halloween Lover that has needed something in a pinch.
Sonja is a mom of two very busy and creative boys! They love to ‘help” mom sew, and try on more than she’d like them to. Can’t make it to a fitting… they would gladly do it for you… results may vary.