[find these pretty products at Caldrea]

I just think that when it comes time to clean the house it would be a happier process with pretty (and all natural – no harsh chemical smells!) packaging.

Then again…maybe that’s just me!

What do you think?

[click through any image to see in shop. all images property of joanna's photography]

Today I’m interviewing the Red Bracelet. She creates wonderfully unique bracelets. As for the artist, her favorite color is red, and on the weekend you’ll find her eating peanut butter, coffee and salad for breakfast followed by many hours of making jewelry. Her dream vacation is to be at home relaxing or to travel to Thailand, LA, NYC or Canada.

She works on a lean table from wood with high chair and lots of colored and clear plastic boxes to organize all small components inside and craft tools and materials. The room has lots of windows and air. She states “I think that what make it easy for me to sit for hours and work. I have a place in the corner of my table for a laptop, but I try not to touch it with dirty hands.”

She is a mother for 2 children: Shelly (11.5) and Alon (6). They live in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is 38 and well educated with a MA is in political sciences and communication. She is also a co-manager in PR firm. Her  husband works in a family business now, after 10 years of managing in Adidas Israel.

ART BACKGROUND QUESTIONS
What started you in your art/craft?
As all good things in life are accidental, I designed and created a unique turquoise hamsa-hand necklaces. One pair, for myself. For years I think that turquoise is a vital color, I have design lots of jewelery from metal and sometimes combined turquoise components. My love to this color is mostly in the jewelery field, not connected to folklore believes, but to fashion taste. I think this powerful color is well with almost every color. I had all materials [already] because I needed to add some products in a shop [to] get to a certain sum for [a] credit card transaction. I took calcium, polymer clay etc. I had some stones I bought 3 years ago during a vacation abroad and used only few of them since. Crafting tools I had already. It all combined together to a wonderful strong and unique look.

Many people were asking me to make for them. I was use to such requests since I craft[ed] jewelery as a hobby for over 10 years. But this was different. It looks like no other thing…I decided to respond and accept the orders. After few month of marketing to shops I started to get the interest of on-line marketing. This format was really cool because it suits my life-style as a career PR woman.

What are your favorite materials/tools?
I LOVE TO KNIT!

Who’s your biggest inspiration?
When I got married my grand mother, which came long-long time ago from Bulgria to Israel, put in side my bra, at the morning of the wedding day, a [clove of] GARLIC! She said that it will protect me from evil-eye and will assure that only good energies are around me. That strong memory was on my top of mind when I first created this turquoise-turquoise… which is another belief of my grandmother. This family tradition gives the concept a real meaning.

Who has been your closest supporter?
My DH… my husband helps whenever he is able and willing to fill my requests for buying materials or send something when I cant. My kids are wonderful too and tells me all the time how talented I am and how they adore my collections. Since my daughter is a trend setter&leader at school – all the girls bought necklaces.

How long have you being producing your work/How did you get started in it?
[I have been crafting jewelery for 10 years], but the LuckXury collection for more than a year. It is a unique developement of usual jewelery I use to make.
A fashion design[er] look and a marketing concept – An interesting combination between something an eye haven’t seen, believe, spirituality, fashion, material and design innovation and true wishes.

Where do you hope your art will take you in the next year?
Etsy front page 
Developing continuity for LuckXury collection… The main idea is running in my head but I need some time for creating it.

Is there anything you want people to get/take away from your work?
Yes, optimistic, believing in the good, hoping for the best, feeling the
Joy of color and remembering good energies each time the eyes looks on LuckXury jewellery

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
To find a category and have friends connected to it
To be real lightened and friendly
To be a giving person – customers will be back!!
Oh, and Good pictures

Check out Red Bracelet on Etsy, through her website, and facebook page!

The downside is in order to vote, you must register first, but it just means using an email and creating a password (do what I do and have a specified junk email address to use, just in case). We’d greatly appreciate the help – thanks!

Click the image below to get to the voting page:

[photography by Debbie Meador Photograpy]

Today’s featured artist is the owner of Mew Mew Shoppe, a fun, cheerful and inexpensive jewelry shop on Etsy. She creates one of a kind jewelry with lots of semi-precious stones. I asked her some of the usual questions about herself, so we all have a little insight to her as a person. Her favorite color is black: “I can’t stop myself from buying black. I don’t know why.” On the weekends you’ll find her eating a breakfast of eggs – her favorite food that she could eat 24 hours a day. In the afternoons she loves going for a run or a hike “…or shopping, haha. [She's] incredibly happy in all of those situations.” If she could go anywhere in the world she says “I’d love to do a tour of Europe… I’ve never been, so I always thought it would be incredible to go! I have a 3 week tour across Europe I have all planned out in my head…. someday!!!!!!”

Here is what she has to say about her work and jewelry:

What started you in your art/craft?
I love jewelry but it’s just out of my price range most of the time. I’m not cheap, but I’m frugal… and spending $80 on a pair of earrings isn’t always in my budget. So, I started making the ones I thought I could make myself, and just got started from there! :)

What are your favorite materials/tools?
I love everything I work with, honestly!! It’s hard to pin down one thing! I do love photography, though I’m not very good at it. This hobby gives me a great excuse to pull out my camera and try to get creative, practice and tweak to my heart’s content tho. You can never take too many good pictures of jewelry!! :)

Who’s your biggest inspiration?
I’m not so inspired by one person in general… but I’m very inspired by where I live, Vancouver, BC. Not only is it a stunning city, and everywhere I look, I find something new and interesting! It’s really easy to be inspired in a city that’s so beautiful!!

How long have you being producing your work/How did you get started in it?
I’ve actually only been creating since last April and I opened the shop in May. I was unemployed at the time and desperate for a hobby for it worked well!! :)

Where do you hope your art will take you in the next year?
Honestly, I LOVE my current job, so I have no hopes for my jewelry outside of it being an Etsy shop I entertain at night. I would love to sell a few more items, maybe be featured a bit more, but I’m very happy with the current state of my shop and the feedback I’ve received so far!!

Is there anything you want people to get/take away from your work?
I just want people to feel special! Ever piece of jewelry should be special or it shouldn’t be purchased or bought in the first place. If you don’t feel special wearing it, then it’s not good enough for you… and I want all my jewelry to feel special to whoever buys it! And want them to feel special waring it!

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Don’t give up. Don’t get frustrated. Don’t think less of yourself if things don’t go as planned. There is always a very special market out there who will be interested in exactly what you have to sell. You just need to find them and reach out to them… but they’re there, so don’t give up!

Make sure to check out her amazing work!

Please, take a moment and check it out if you’re interested :)

(And also, if you’re wondering about where the name “My Grandmother’s Lace” comes from, it’s because I’m using a lot of my great-grandmothers lace (very old stuff!) for my wedding – it’ll be amazing, and a fun connection to my family, even though I never met her)

- and please bear with me, I’m still trying to find a template and design that works! -

Today I’m interviewing Amy from My Saturnalia, a shop on Etsy selling photographs. She’s been selling on Etsy since May of 2009 and is a member of the “POE Team” (Photographers of Etsy Street Team). “Believe it or not,” Amy’s favorite colors are earth tones, especially brown. Her favorite breakfast food is “something homemade with love,” and her favorite weekend past time is spending time with her family and friends by a bonfire at the beach with “sparklers, marshmallows and kids running around everywhere.” If she wasn’t doing that, she’d be at a love show from her favorite band. Her dream vacation is to see “every and any art museum around Europe.”

Here is what she has to say about her art:

What started you in your art/craft?
Photography has always been a constant in my life, ever since I received my first camera, a Kodak Disc, at age 9. I remember lining up all of my stuffed animals trying to get the perfect shot. I took darkroom photography in high school and when I was 18 years old I built a portfolio and took off for art school and the rest is history!!

What are your favorite materials/tools?
First thing that comes to mind is nature and my surroundings. I just cant get enough of the ocean, trees, flowers, sunsets, there is always something beautiful to photograph. My Nikon camera of course, my computer and now my Argus 75 to create my TtV images. Can’t live without them!!

Who’s your biggest inspiration?
Well there is nothing like your first right? My first inspiration in photography was Edward Weston. I love the way he captured light against ordinary objects, it mesmerizes me still.

How long have you being producing your work/How did you get started in it?
I’ve had people tell me for years that I should sell my art. I finally took them seriously and it has been just within this past year that I am now selling my work online. It was the best move I’ve ever made for myself!! The idea of my work being displayed across the country and across the world is thrilling to me!!

Where do you hope your art will take you in the next year?
In the next year I want to branch out to more galleries here on Cape Cod. My work is currently on display and for sale at The Black Crow Gallery in Sandwich, MA. Also more online exposure, the ETSY front page would be amazing!

Is there anything you want people to get/take away from your work?
To inspire someone is my ultimate goal. Is it cliche for a photographer to say they want someone to make a connection with their work? I strive for that along with warm, happy, peaceful feelings.

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?
Enjoy the ride, just when you think you get it, there is still so much to learn. So have fun!

Here’s some of Amy’s work:

[all images are property of My Saturnalia]

Be sure to also find Amy through Twitter and Facebook!

Sorry, I’ve been a bit behind in the blogging world – life was a bit crazy from the holidays (and the fact that my fiance’s family has a gazillion birthdays in December and January). I’ve still be recovering a bit and realized that I’m behind on my blogging – so my apologies!

This artist interview is a bit belated, but I still wanted to give Wendy of Cathartic Slant her feature!

Here’s what Wendy had to say about her shop:

“I create collages and stationery products using a variety of materials. I love paper, and Hollander’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan is one of my happiest places! But I also love to recycle and incorporate re-purposing into much of my work as well. The mailbox has become such a dreary place, filled with junk and bills. I create cards that I hope will be a pleasure for people to receive, and brighten their day. I also create other stationery products that bring just a little luxury to one’s day. These little luxuries do not have to be at extreme cost. The goal of Cathartic Slant is to provide skillfully crafted and lovely (and sometimes humorous) products at a reasonable price that also keeps in mind what is good for the earth.”

Her work is a adorable and resourceful! Be sure to check out her fun items!

Congratulations, Trisha!

On a side note, I’m wanting to start up a blog to show everyone all the craftiness that’s going into my wedding, but I can’t for the life of me think of a name for it. Everything I think of has been taken!  Any suggestions?