Friday’s Featured Artist – PiecesOfMePendants!

Ok, first of all, I sincerely apologize for missing last weeks feature.  Vacation was way crazier than I anticipated!  As was the week leading up to it…  I’m back in the swing of things now though   Finals are over and I can catch up on the rest of life again!

This weeks artist – PiecesOfMePendants – is a shop I stumbled upon one day while browsing etsy.  I instantly fell in love with her scrabble tile pendants!  It was the first time I had encountered them and I just HAD to have some!  I quickly sent her a conversation asking if she would mind if I featured some of her pendants in my jewelry – and she agreed!  I was so excited!  I’ve had a lot of fun creating the necklaces to go with the pendants and I thought it would only be appropriate for me to interview this wonderful lady as one of my featured artists.  I hope you enjoy meeting Lisa as much as I have

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your story! What’s your real name, where did come up with your shop name, where are you located?

Where to begin, what to say? My name is Lisa and I live in London, Ontario, Canada, which is located about 2 hours from Detroit. For the past 10 years I’ve been doing accounting, which usually is among the least creative things one can do (unless one worked for Enron) and decided I wanted a change.

I’ve been doing a variety of crafts just for fun since I was a little girl and have always enjoyed the creativity involved so when a friend told me about Etsy I thought I’d try selling some of my creations online and it’s been a bigger success than I ever could have initially imagined.

2. What first got you started working with making scrabble pendants?

A bit of creative inspiration got me working with scrabble tile pendants. They’re easier to work with than dichroic/fused glass and allow for a wider range of design and expression.

3. Do you do any other crafts?

Over the years I’ve done a variety of crafts and creative things. Every Christmas for a number of years I’d make up elegant Christmas wreaths for friends and family and every once in a while would have people ask me to make one for them.

I love painting, mostly with oils, though I also do acrylic and watercolour painting as well. My favourite artists are Turner, Macke, Cezeanne, and other impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Sisley, etc.

4. Where do you find your inspiration?

This is perhaps one of the most difficult question for any artist to answer. I find creative energy in many of the things around me. Some of my pendants use high quality chiyogami and other art papers and I simply see a finished design in my head when I’m out looking for new supplies.

Others are my own designs. These designs are mostly experimentation; I start out with a rough idea and play with it until I have something I like. Often they’re simply a result of how I’m feeling at the time. I often listen to music while creating and I think I frequently draw inspiration from the lyrics and melody of song, which influences the design.

5. What are some of your favorite pieces you have up on etsy right now?

I tend to like the simpler, cleaner, more minimalist designs that I have. Among my favourites right now are Charmed, Green, Red Daisy, and Blue Tree but I also like the owl pendants as well; actually almost everyone does.

Charmed

Green

Red Daisy

Blue Tree

6. Where do you do your work?

I have a home studio that I work out of .

7. Tell the readers one random, fun, thing about yourself

I once had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ingong hills … oh wait that’s not my story but I kind of wish it was. Actually I love old movies and vintage/antique things. I like the history of things, knowing that they had a history before me and wonder who owned them and what they’re story is. I love that my pendants are part of that now. I’ve sold pendants all over the planet and love the idea that someone in Australia or Russia or Sweden, or Idaho is wearing one of my creations.

Here’s a few of my favorite pendants that she currently has for sale.  It was hard to pick – I wanted to start shopping!

This one is in honor of one of my best friends who said she LOVES it!

Believe it or not – I actually learned to type on a typewriter!

And this last one is in honor of another of my best friends who loves giraffes!

Ok – now a fun extra bit for this interview   Remember how I said that I made some jewelry using Lisa’s pendants?  Well – here they are!

Sorry – this one’s not for sale – It’s all MINE.

The story behind this is that my Grandfather is an immigrant from Cuba.

Lisa has a listing where she offers to make a pendant with a specific location.

Of course I had to pounce on it!

I’ve always been fascinated by other languages – so I thought it would be a lot of fun to use Chinese characters in some of my jewelry!  This one says “Wisdom.”

And this one says “Hope.”  I love the bright cats eyes beads I found for this one!

Remember those owl pendants mentioned earlier?  I loved them too!

In fact – I rather had to buy this one, my first business dealt with Owls.

Of course I couldn’t resist doing a purple necklace

And last but not least – who can resist Tinkerbell?

Friday Featured Artist – Om Shanti Handcrafts

Every Friday I feature a different etsy artist here in my blog.  If your trying to remember the name of a particular artist that’s been featured here, just check the side bar!  I have a section reserved just for the shops of previously featured artists.  And now, without further adieu, today’s interview with Kate of Om Shanti Handcrafts!

1. Tell us your story…what first got you working with jewelry and
all-natural herbal bath & body products?

The jewelry — I’d been buying pretty pretty beads for something like
the last ten years, with no idea what I was going to do with them.
Then I wound up working for a friend of mine last summer. She owns a
jewelry shop and had the tools…and I didn’t have a whole lot else to
do after I’d polished the jewelry…so I started making things. Had a
really fun time with it.

Eventually I ran out of beads and space, so I started selling it. More
space! And money for beads! What’s not to love?

As for the bath stuff — someone gave me some bath salts a couple of
years ago. I didn’t take a lot of baths then — who’s got the time? –
but eventually I made time. And they were wonderful! So soothing, and
they smelled great too. It was a year or two after that that I thought
to make my own, but I had a friend who owned an herbal supply shop at
the time and once I got started I just kept buying supplies from her.
To support her, y’know.

Again, I got to the point where I was running out of stuff and space
to keep it — so I decided to start selling it.

I can identify with that one!  You can only wear so much jewelry personally…if your a true addict to a craft you have to start giving it away or selling it at some point!

2. Can you tell us a little bit about what goes into creating one of your
products (with out giving away any secrets of course!)?

Usually the jewelry come to me when I’m listening to music. It won’t
spring full-formed into my head, no, but I’ll start getting an idea of
colours and shapes. Then it’s time to go pull the beads out and see
what happens.

If I’m doing a custom piece for someone, I think about them. I’ve got
a picture of them up in front of me if I have one.

And sometimes it happens when I’m pulling out new beads to show
someone. I’ll put one strand next to another that I haven’t seen
together before and wham, there it is.

I’ve got a number of herb books and several well-regarded websites
that I consult for the herbal things. I’ll get an idea — I got bit by
a mosquito a couple weeks ago, as an example, and while I was
scratching away I thought ‘bug spray’ and ’something to make the bite
not itch’. So I go looking to see what’ll do the trick. I try to work
with the herbs I already have but I won’t hesitate to go and get more
if that’s what I need.

Sometimes there’s a little voice in the back of my head that says ‘put
the raspberry leaf into the Spring Cleaning Tea’ and suchlike. I’m not
crazy, I swear! Well, maybe I am, but it nearly always works, so I
don’t worry about it.

For the lip balms and bath salts I mostly just put together things
that smell good. I’ll dig out a couple of bottles of essential oils
and smell them together. I still wind up with surprises, though — the
Tangerine Vanilla lip balm smelled good, but it wasn’t until I’d
poured both oils in and the balm had cooled did I realized that I’d
reinvented the Orange Julius.

3. How did you come up with your name?

I had a cat for a while named Shanti. I found her in a field near
where I used to work, skinny and matted and crying. So of course I
took her home.

After almost a year, I had to give her up to the Humane Society. My
other cats (horrible creatures, all) would not leave her alone, and
keeping her in my bedroom all the time was making her crazy. She
needed more room. I took her for walks (on a leash, no less) but it
wasn’t enough for her.

She found a new home quickly. It’s their policy that they won’t tell
me where and I’m fine with that, but I imagine she’s living on a farm
now, somewhere she can chase mice in the barn during the day and curl
up by the fireplace at night.

I suppose I named it in her honour though I wasn’t entirely thinking
about it that way at the time. The fact that ‘Shanti’ means ‘peace’ in
Sanskrit is a nice side benefit.

4. What are some of your favorite things you have up on etsy right now?

The Minty Footy Spray is a real favourite right now — I cheat and
spray it all over. I just love the scent.

Four Color Love (bracelet and earrings set) is bright and has lapis in
it. I love lapis. Note: Kate’s fully aware that there are actually only three colors in this set, but it’s based of a song…go check out the listening and see why!

And the Wintry Mix lip balm is always a favourite of mine. It tastes
so good half the time I forget and lick it off.

5. Where do you do your work…and do you watch or listen to anything while
you work?

The herbal stuff is all in my kitchen. Mostly if I’m listening to
anything it’s the kitten playing around my feet. (Unnerving when I’m
pouring molten salves into jars…) I actually do most of my jewelry
at a friend’s house so it’s whatever they have on.

When I’m really listening to music is when I’m working at my computer.
I’ve got a rotation of all kinds of things — Dar Williams and the
Indigo Girls, a bunch of world music (Brent Lewis, Insingizi and
Krisna Das among others) and a lot of filk. Lately I’ve been addicted
to Seanan McGuire who writes and sings truly lovely filk.

I just had to follow up that question with another…what on EARTH is filk?  I’d never heard of it before and I wouldn’t be surprised if you, dear readers, hadn’t either!

*laughs*

Filk is, generally, music done in the fantasy and science fiction
fandom tradition — sometimes to the tune of other songs, sometimes
original. Sometimes it’s based on a particular book (or movie or TV
show), sometimes it’s not, but just follows the themes.

Here are a couple of relevant websites:

http://filkarchive.scrumpy.org/

http://www.kayshapero.net/filkfaq.htm

On another follow up note…I’ve been listening to some of this filk this morning, I thought it fitting as I formatted the interview, and while some of it is, um, rather roughly put together, a lot of it is really good!  I’m listening to the artist she recommended (Seanan McGuire) right now and it’s really good!  On with the interview…

6. Tell us one fun, random thing about yourself!

I’m the only female in the apartment — living with four cats and four
rats, all boys. Fortunately they don’t care about gender so I don’t
feel too outnumbered.

She has pictures in her blog of her various companions, including the newest, an adorable kitten!

And now for a couple of my favorite products of Kate’s!  I honestly haven’t gotten to try any of these yet…but the one’s I think look the most tantalizing are:

Tangerine Vanilla Lip Balm

Roses, Roses, and Roses Soap

Long Day Working Bath Salts

Have a great day and don’t forget to check out Kate’s shop and blog!