04.13.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, hand crafted jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews at 11:04 am by KellyM
Please meet Gail Harding, Owner of http://polkadotandpersian.etsy.com.
Where are you located? Edinburgh, UK
What do you design? Jewellery
Where/How did you learn this? Edinburgh College of Art
Favorite Artist who inspires you? There is lots of art that I like, but not all of it directly inspires me. However, I love: Andy Goldsworthy, Charles Rennie Mackintosh watercolours, Gustav Klimt, Cynthia Cousins, Maurice Sendak, Arthur Rackham among many, many others.
Where does your inspiration come from? I always find this a strange question for me…I don’t get inspired to make something in particular, like I don’t look at a tree and go “ooo, I’m gonna make a necklace about that”, it’s more that I get inspired to make and create in general. I get inspired to be creative in my own way by many different things. People who are excited about what they do and are honest and truthful about it inspires me a lot.
Where do you design your creations? I have a room in the flat which is the “studio”.
What does your work space look like right now? I share this tiny room with my boyfriend who is a musician, so my end of it is tidy in a maximalist kind of way, but the rest of the room is a mass of guitars and cables. I have lots of stuff in a small space so there are piles of little boxes containing various things and lots of bottles and tubes and tools. I have just put up a new pin board as a mood board and am slowly filling it. My large jewellery work bench takes up most of the space.
How does your family feel about what you do? I think they think it’s great. I’ve never asked them specifically, but they are all very supportive and enthusiastic.
Best advice you received when starting your business venture? Keep records! Write things down so you don’t forget how you made something and take pictures of all your work - even the things that you think aren’t worth selling.
Favorite part of owning your own business? The feeling that I am not working for ‘the man’.
Least favorite? No money.
How do you relax? Sleep, bed, wine, friends, reading, music, and cleaning. Really, giving a bit of my flat a good tidy is a calming thing for me.
Favorite color? Turquoise.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? No, well occasionally if I use ribbon, but generally not.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? I’d make more jewellery. I’d also read more, I have a huge list of books that I want to read but never seem to have enough time for.
A sample of Polka Dot and Persian products. For all products, please visit Gail’s website.
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04.10.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, fun, hand crafted jewelry, site promotion, interviews, Lampwork beads at 9:01 pm by KellyM
Meet Wilma Travis, Owner of http://www.wilmas-whimseys.com/
Where are you located? Crystal, MN
What do you design? Lampwork beads, and jewelry from my beads.
Where/How did you learn this? Self taught with guidence from a forum I belong to. Then after doing this for a couple of months, I found a local shop that offered lampwork lessons to hone my self taught abilities!
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Oh I have many favorite artists, Leah Fairbanks; “Tink and John” Michelle Boukowski.
Where does your inspritaion come from? Actually, my inspiration comes when I sit down at my torch and look at the colors I have and try to put together a scheme that will go well. Also, I get inspiration from paintings (colors) and fellow lampwork artists.
What do you do to combat creative block? When I reach a block, I send out a help signal on my favorite forum that my “muse” is missing and will anyone who finds it vacationing at their house, please chase it home. I then get a link to the gallery for some inspiration and the tutorial sessions on how-to’s.
Where do you design your creations? I have an area set up in the family room which I really took over. I ripped up the old rug so that no flying hot glass would start a fire. For my jewelry design, I took over the dining room! We now eat in the living room while watching t.v.!
What does your work space look like right now? The torching area is the biggest mess I have seen in a long time! My jewelry making area is really clean and well organized and that’s because I made the mistake of leaving the catnip bag on my beading/jewelry table and my cat had a blast rolling around in it. Beads and catnip everywhere. That resulted in cleaning the whole table off and reorganizing eveything.
How does your family feel about what you do? My family is very supportive and behind me 100%. My daughter acts as my PR when she can…
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? It is the most wonderful stress reliever. You get great satisfaction when you have created something and it sells!
Favorite part of owning your own business? Satisfaction when your items sell to repeated buyers.
Least favorite? Not enough time to do all that I want to do.
How do you relax? Making jewelry.
Favorite color? Ahhh, my favorite colors are wedgewood blue and purple together.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? Not as often as I would like. People look for the colors of the season, so the purples are lighter and so are the blues, but I try to sneak as many as I can into my beads and jewelry.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Torching and making jewelry!
A sample of Wilma’s Whimseys products. For all products, please visit Wilma’s site.
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04.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized, jewelry, shopping, site promotion, interviews, paper crafts, clothing at 8:02 pm by KellyM
Please meet Annie Weihrauch, Founder and Designer of www.modern-material.com
Where are you located? Online, based out of Columbus, Ohio.
What do you design? Paper, Apparel and Accessories.
Where/How did you learn this? I landed a job right out of college as a packaging and accessory designer for Bath & Body Works where I learned a lot about retail and fashion accessory design. I have taken my experiences and translated them into my own vision.
Favorite Artist who inspires you? Gwen Stefani. She has defined our generation as a style icon.
Where does your inspiration come from? Rock & roll, fashion magazines, and other designers.
What do you do to combat creative block? I’ll give myself a few days to catch up on things I neglect such as cleaning and organizing, and then I can’t wait to get back to what I do best.
Where do you design your creations? Living room, studio, hallway, kitchen, bedroom, basement….every inch of my house is covered with something I’m working on! It drives my husband crazy!
What does your work space look like right now? A disaster.
How does your family feel about what you do? They are very supportive.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own creations using this method? Start small and dream big.
Best advice you received when starting your business venture? Networking. I’ve met so many great people with great connections along the way.
Favorite part of owning your own business? Actually doing something with my designs instead of archiving them in a folder titled “old” becasue they weren’t chosen to move forward.
Least favorite? No free evenings or weekends!
How do you relax? Taking a trip to Hawaii will be the first time I’ve had to relax in months.
Favorite color? Depends on what it is going on. Black or white if it’s on me. Aqua if it’s on my walls or my umbrella.
Does this color show up in a lot of your work? Absolutely. It’s the foundation of my brand.
If there were more hours in the day, what would you be doing? Designing more.
A sample of Modern Material products. For all products, please visit Annie’s 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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