04.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized, fun, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews, bath and body, clothing, handbags at 4:09 pm by KellyM
Meet Yvette Estime, Owner of www.bellepourlavie.com.
Where are you located? Coral Springs, FL.
What do you design? Handbags, jewelry, shoes, bath products.
Where/How did you learn this? I am a self taught crafter. I mostly read books on the subject.
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Dali. All my work has double meanings and very symbolic.
Where does your inspiration come from? I love the ocean so most of my work has an aquatic theme. I also love astrology. My twin sister and creative parnter also inspires me.
What do you do to combat creative block? I read. Also, I am a watercolorist, so I sometimes paint.
Where do you design your creations? In my bedroom, everything is piled in a corner. I really need more space. LOL
What does your work space look like right now? Sewing machine in one corner, 3 containers of fabric, a 3 drawer stand full of beads and another full with essential oils.
How does your family feel about what you do? My mom thinks it’s a fascinating hobby and my sister (also my parnter) wants to turn it into a more successful business.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? Try not to be discouraged if no one takes to your work right away. It’s a process.
Best advice you received when starting your business venture? Well, I think the best advice was stay away from craft shows. Always try to consign or wholesale. If you must sell, try trade shows.
Favorite part of owning your own business? Doing what I love and getting paid for it.
Least favorite? More than 8 hour work periods.
How do you realx? Music.
Favorite color? Purple.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? In the form of Amethyst.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Making more handbags! They take the most time to create.
A sample of Belle Pour la Vie products. For all products, please visit Yvettes website.
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03.16.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, fun, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews, crochet, knitting, Stained Glass at 3:29 pm by KellyM
Please meet D’arcy, Owner of www.littlesalem.com
Where are you located? St. Paul, MN.
What do you design? Stained glass (panels, lamps, pendants, jewelry boxes). Various knitted and crocheted items (chokers, halfmits, soap satchels)
Where/How did you learn this? I returned to college when I was 42, and spent most of my time in the Fine Arts Dept. There, I learned sculpture, watercolor, graphic design, but mostly fell in love with all aspects of glass, from stained glass and fusing to glass blowing. I learned how to crochet from my grandma when I was very little.
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Oh, there are so many! I love John Waterhouse. There are so many people in my life who are artistic though, and they inspire me.
Where does your inspiration come from? Life and dreams. Sometimes I can see art in the mundane, and I dream so much when I sleep it’s like I’m just visiting another, more colorful place. That’s given me a lot of ideas in my waking hours.
What do you do to combat creative block? I have so many different things I like to do that I don’t even have the time to get to all the ideas I have now.
Where do you design your creations? I have a workspace in my basement that I use for doing my glass. Soon, I will be setting up space to include pewter casting and silver metal clay. (I just got a new torch and I can’t wait to fire it up!)
Upstairs I have a little room where I do my sewing and beading, and I crochet and knit when I’m watching tv at night.
What does your work space look like right now? Very cluttered! I’m always working on at least a couple of things at the same time!
How does your family feel about what you do? My whole family is very supportive! My partner in life is a very talented artist, so he is not only supportive, but he “gets it”. My kids are following a creative path also, so there’s always plenty of creative energy in this house!
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? For any method, follow what drives you. Learn what you can, and get your hands dirty and try it. If you’re passionate about it, you’ll succeed.
Favorite part of owning your own business? The hours. I can work around family, appointments, etc. I just need to remember to stop sometimes.
Least favorite? The actual business end. I’m still learning that, and I feel like it takes so much time away from what I love to do.
How do you realx? A bonfire in the back yard after my guy BBQs a great steak!
Favortie color? Hmmmm. Lately, I’m liking reds. Overall, black and purple.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? Oh yes, lots of black.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Learning to play my harp, and playing my guitar more.If there were more hours in the day, what would you
A sample of Little Salem products. For all products, please visit Darcy’s website.
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03.13.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, fun, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews at 6:54 pm by KellyM
Please meet Kelly Warren, Owner of www.happyshackdesigns.com
Where are you located? Jacksonville, FL.
What do you design? Jewelry and accessories.
Where/How did you learn this? I’m self taught!
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Oh my… too many to count…currently, it’s my good friend Wyanne Thompson.
Where does your inspiration come from? Color, color and more color…and my children.
What do you do to combat creative block? Read an art magazine and then TRY to go to sleep…Most of my designs come to me when I’m laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep.
Where do you design your creations? My hubby built me a wonderful little studio on the ground floor of our home.
What does your work space look like right now? Today, it’s actually clean. Yesterday morning it was a disaster because I just finished preparing and returning from an arts festival in Bartow. When I’m in the week prior to a show, I tend to make quite a mess because I’m just constantly creating and not really cleaning up. I took the day off yesterday to recover from the weekend and clean up.
How does your family feel about what you do? Very supportive. Couldn’t do it without my husband who graciously takes care of our girls when I’m traveling to festivals. And my girls are learning to create right next to me so I think that’s a wonderful thing.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? Don’t be afraid to just try something new. I’m fairly skilled in jewelry design but I’ve been trying new things in other art forms. Best advice I ever got (from Wyanne) was just to do it. I had the “Oh, I just need one more little bit of supplies” syndrome. But I just had to realize that I had everything I needed right there. I just needed to quit coming up with excuses and just play. I think “playing” is the key. That way you have to let go of being too hard on yourself.
Best advice you received when starting your business venture? Price your items correctly! Which I’m still not following very well. I think my larger pieces are probably a bit under priced (so snag them while you can! 
)
Favorite part of owning your own business? Being able to send a little piece of me out there into the world for someone else to enjoy.
Least favorite? Photographing my work! I love taking pictures in general, but dislike photographing my work simply because jewelry is so hard to capture well on camera.
How do you relax? A good magazine and a big bubble bath.
Favorite color? Blue
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? Yes, yes, and yes.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Creating more. I work full time in addition to my Happy Shack and also have twin 4 1/2 year old girls, so my days are jam packed. In a perfect world, I would win the lottery so I could stay home with my girls and create new things all the time.
A sample of Happy Shack Designs products. For all products, please visit Kelly’s website.
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03.11.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, fun, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews at 3:35 pm by KellyM
Please meet Jodie, Owner of www.blinkingmouse.etsy.com
Where are you located? In the West Midlands in England
What do you design? I mostly make jewellery for women where I use buttons, beads, Fimo, etc. I’m obsessed with buttons at the moment and everyone seems to love the results. I really like to use materials that people say can’t be used to create sophisticated “grown up” pieces and use them to create jewellery any adult woman would feel beautiful wearing. This weekend I went on an earring spree so I might turn my attention to a different form soon. I also have lots of paper craft stuff lying around waiting to be busted out and I’d quite like to start making cards again soon. I also love to customise t-shirts.
Where/How did you learn this? I started by making elastic bracelets with plastic beads when I was 16 and in my angry creative girl phase, which thankfully I’ve never fully shaken off. As I got more interested in “proper” jewellery making, I started buying bead magazines and hanging out at Craftster (www.craftster.org) for tips. I’m a pretty DIY kind of learner, but I do love part-works and I think they’re great for learning specific techniques.
Favorite Artist who inspires you? I wouldn’t say artists inspire my crafting but I do have a couple of favourite artists. I’m pretty mainstream and like Dali and Picasso but I’m not so much into names when it comes to painters. If I see something and I like it I might explore that painters work, but so much of my love of art is made up of glimpses of isolated painting in galleries. I also recently met a great artist who sells on etsy called Paula Koran, and you can see an interview with her at my blog http://prettylittleloveobjects.blogspot.com
What do you do to combat creative block? I try to leave it alone. If you try to force inspiration to work for you it will run away, but inspiration is clever-it doesn’t want you to come looking for it so it leaves a crude animated dummy in its place. You think you’re still cooking with inspiration, drawing with inspiration, laughing at a dumb joke with inspiration but really, it’s hackery you’re joshing with. In a few days when you look back at a project you’ve created by trying to push inspriation on you’ll realise that.
Inspriation sometimes just needs a little space-stop crowding it and it will come back.
Where do you design your creations? I moved back to my parents house after university. When I wasn’t working full time I used to create downstairs while they were out and then tidy up quickly, but now I work during the day so I create everything in my room. It’s a bit cramped and super messy but I have a box for storing finished crafts in so it’s not too hazardous. Sometimes I do get wire stuck in my foot though.
What does your work space look like right now? There’s a ton of earrings and a button necklace lying over a Lakeland catalogue and all my projects in process are laid out beside that. The new craft supplies I bought last week are sitting in their jiffy envelopes to the right of this space and behind all this are the two space saver boxes I store my finished crafts in.
Best advice you received when starting your own business venture? Promote everywhere but do it for free! Everyday is full of opportunities to get your face out there for nothing and you need to make sure you’re not missing them.
Favorite part of owning your own business? I love that Etsy lets me feel like I’m running my own little shop, standing behind my own counter chatting with cutsomers.
Least favorite? Having people constantly ask you how your shop is doing and then trying to be sympathetic if you haven’t made hundreds of sales that day. Rome-built in a day-I think not.
How do you relax? I like to read and this year I’m concetrating on the classics, although I still have a massive love of contemporary fiction. When I have money, I love to shop. I’m also a drinker like any good British lass should be and I like to pretend that I can both dance and sing when I’ve had a few. I used to find pilates really relaxing but had to give up my regular class because of work commitments. I would love to be able to start that up again. Finally, I like to go to my weights class to burn off any extra tension and re-energise myself.
Favorite color? Green-I look so good in it and it has hundreds of shades.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? A fair bit as you can see from my button necklace. One of my favourite colour combinations is green and pink, which I think works really well together in a range of shades.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? So many things! I’d be writing the many book ideas crowding my head, learning how to make shoes, bead stitch properly and bind books, learning to ride, taking foreign language classes, completing my first knitted project (a two colour scarf), scrapbooking, more crafting for sale, reading tons and tons of books, exercising more, actually working on my marketing project for evening classes (yeah right), promoting even more, writing columns for Estellas Revenge (http://estellasbooks.blogspot.com) and other places-the list literally is endless. Of course watching less TV might help.
A sample of Blinking Mouse products. For all products, please visit Jodie’s website.
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03.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, fun, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews at 8:22 am by KellyM
Please meet Monica Sargeant, Owner of www.deliasdelightjewelry.com.
Where are you located? Northwest IL, but I’m really a city girl!
What do you design? I create artisan jewelry but also teach jewelry classes based on techniques I learn.
Where/How did you learn this? I am mostly self taught, but I have taken quite a few wire wrapping classes to learn techniques and then I adapt them to my own taste.
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Even thought I create a lot of wire work, William Spratling is my favorite artist. He really opened the doors for a lot of Native Mexican Goldsmiths and Silversmiths.
Where does your inspiration come from? My inspiration comes from many things, nature, music, colors, family etc. Sometimes I see a bead or gem and I can see it adapted into a piece of jewelry. I also get inspired from my jewelry students. I love seeing where they take the techniques I teach them. I am always open to learn new ideas!
What do you do to combat creative block? I read and listen to music a lot so it kind of gives me a diversion, but I always feel creative afterwords.
Where do you design your creations? Everywhere! Seriously, my husband built this wonderful workspace for me in the basement. But if I’m doing laundry, helping with homework, or even watching TV, I will bring a project with me to work on just about anywhere!
What does your work space look like right now? Right now it is a tidy mess.
How does your family feel about what you do? My husband is very supportive and my kids love the freebies! Obviously the women in my family (and my brother) love Christmas or bithdays!
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? Just play with it! Buy some practice wire or copper and just play with it! It’s just wire and if you don’t like it, start over.
Best advice you received when starting your business venture? Don’t be afraid to market yourself! If you love what you do and you do your best, people will appreciate it.
Favorite part of owning your own business? I can work around my family schedule.
Least favorite? Working around my housework schedule bites into my creative time, especially when I’m on a roll.
How do you relax? I love to read, listen to music, laugh with my husband and kids, socialize with my neighbors…
Favorite color? Hmmm…Silver, Blue, Black.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? Well, I work with silver and I just can’t seem to get away from turquoise or black.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Making more jewelry or teaching others to make jewelry!
A sample of Delias Delight Jewelry products. For all products, please visit Monica’s website.
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