The Self Portrait of Lauren Alexander

This week's featured artist is Lauren Alexander of Overland Park, KS. Lauren's Etsy shop has been open since May 2006.

Walk You Home - original ACEO

Lauren says, "I am a watercolor painter and I have always been one even as a little kid with a box of Prang watercolors. I just love the way water makes the colors come alive. The first painting I ever sold was a large watercolor portrait to my high school library."

Sweet Tree

Pick one item you have created and provide link either from your shop or flickr. What inspired the “birth” of this item?

I painted this picture of a tree with hearts a little over a year ago. I was just beginning to find my voice with my work and needed a piece in my collection that would really say what I’m about. This painting came from my head – I remember just deciding to put all the different colors together in each heart and fruit…adding all the little details and specks of color within it. It felt right to me and from then on I have kept a little bit of Sweet Tree in almost everything I paint.

Does this item have any personal significance to you?

This image is symbolic to me. Hearts have always been special– a symbol of love of course but also a reminder of heart disease – something that has touched me and my family very closely in the last couple years. I see hearts as a reminder to love one another along with one’s self. Take care of your hearts!

What is your favorite part of the process of creating your item?

I remember painting in all the bright colors and just knowing that it was going to be a winner! I remember having it out on my work desk and just going back to it throughout the evening to look at it.

Please briefly describe a workday in your “studio” and how you created this item.

My “studio” is my dining room table, adjacent to my living room. I paint there in the evenings when I come home from my day job (working with special needs students and teaching art). I generally like to sketch right on my watercolor paper. I like to dive right in. I usually watch tv or listen to music while I paint. Sometimes I cook dinner at the same time!

Lauren Alexander Magnets - Set of 10

If this item is part of a special line that you do, has there been an evolution in your process? For example, if we were to compare the first one you made to this one, what differences would there be, if any?

This item sparked a whole new trend for me of painting trees in a sort of colorful, whimsical way. I have since started putting creatures in the tress, birds, owls, and such. I enjoy creating environments and little creatures to inhabit them. I love to play with color and try new combinations. I love finding new ways to make people wonder how I did that with watercolor. It is exciting and keeps me going and going.

Visit Lauren Alexander's shop on Etsy to see more of her colorful work!

Friday Favorites!

Here you will see some lovely items made by members of the ACE team. Just click on the photos to visit each seller's Etsy shop. This week's favs were chosen by Valerie of Valerie's Essentials.

Flutter by Zellbell

A beautiful beaded keychain with contrasting beads of light and dark colors. I like butterflies (dangle bead on the bottom left), which she uses in a lot of her work. She also has butterflies in her ID holders that she made for Breast Cancer Awareness in October for members of her family.

Rainy Day Boots Glass Pendant by DenimNotes

Reminiscent of a little girl wearing boots and jumping in rain puddles. Or instead of a little girl, maybe it's me doing the jumping! A very fun and unique piece!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Handpainted Art Pendant by AlloverArt

This piece just makes me proud to be here in North Carolina! I love the bold Carolina blue sky background. I can just imagine myself at the beach down below the lighthouse looking out at the ocean and listening to Jimmy Buffett's A Pirate Looks at Forty...
"Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call,
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall,
You've seen it all, you've seen it all ..."

The World Is My Studio

This week we meet Christy from The World Is My Studio based in Pennsylvania. Christy is a freelance photographer and artist.

sustenance

How long has your shop been open?
I just opened my shop two months ago, in January. I spent the first month getting acquainted with etsy. Then I started posting my photography in February.

How did you choose your shop name? What is your specialty and what drew you to it?
"The World Is My Studio"... is the way I see the world. Art as with beauty is subjective but it is always full of soul. I've been taking photographs in my mind all my life, capturing images, freezing moments in time. Now that I have tools and credentials, I can bring some of those moments in time to you. The world is my inspiration and my studio.

What inspired this photograph? Does this have personal significance to you?

cat's nap

Every one of my photographs is attached with a memory or a story. Therefore, every one of them means something to me. Of course my favorite photographs are of the ones that I love or my loved ones inspired. My Muses!

Please describe a workday in your “studio” and how you create.
Since I live in my studio, nothing is planned. I photograph spontaneously. For instance, I was walking about an old farm in NY, waiting for family to arrive. My camera and I uncovered "Untold Stories". The new series that I am currently working on. With unhurried moments and a camera... the possibilities are endless!!! You know those rare days when you have "time to kill". (I hate that expression!) I'm a born observer. I take that time and find the beauty around me and create something!

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I love learning new things. And my mind is always a buzz. My shop just opened which means, you will have to stop by often, say "Hi!" and see what I've got up my sleeve. Don't be shy! I want to know what you are all about. Do you have something you want photographed? Give me an idea and I'll run with it! I dare you!

I love watching the sun come up... it always makes me feel a sense of hope and wonder. A new chance. A new way to look at things. With all the ups and downs in life, the beauty and the ugliness, we get to choose how see things.

How do you see the world?

Introducing TBQ Designs - The Bead Queen

This week we had the opportunity to meet Lisa of TQB Designs based in Portland, OR. Lisa opened shop on Etsy in July, 2006.

Lisa says, "I first became interested in beads when I was 12 years old. My mother gave me a beaded rope necklace that she no longer wanted and I promptly started taking it apart. It has thousands of little beads in all kinds of colors and I found it utterly fascinating!"

"I have been making my beaded beads for over 10 years now. I am self-taught in the art of bead weaving and developed a system to create these textural rounds, ovals, squares, cylinders, and barrel shaped beads."

Feather Necklace, Pocket Full Of Posies

How did you choose your shop name?
Well actually, I came up with my studio name while in high school. I have always been rather exuberant and thought of myself and something special and came up with The Queen Bead - for my love of beads. Shortly after making my jewelry for re-sale in galleries years later, I realized that his was quite a popular name in all is forms. So, I shortened it up to just the initials (and it makes people chuckle when they realize it's not my initials)...

What is your specialty and what drew you to it?
My specialty is three-dimensional beaded spheres, ovals, squares and cylinders. I use the one of the smallest seed beads and hand weave them around wooded cores.

"Pin Dot Earring, faded denim"

What inspired the birth of this item?
I love bobby pins and bobby-pin like hair accessories. I was actually holding one up to put in my hair and realized that it would make a fantastic earring or pendant. I immediately went to my studio and worked up a couple of prototypes and developed the Pin Dot Earring along with a new ear wire that I call the "hair pin curl".

Does this item have any personal significance to you?
I love long earrings. I guess because I have large amounts of dark curly hair and unless the earrings are long and/or substantial, there is really no point in my wearing them. Also, they lend a lot of glamour to any outfit!

What is your favorite part of the process of creating your item?
I actually have two favorites, and I think that is appropriate since I consider the weaving to be a totally separate thing from the metal work; it's a different mind-set.

My first favorite part is actually weaving the beads. Now I know that this may sound tedious and it is, yes. But I actually now use it when I want to be calm and meditative after having a stressful or exciting day. It's my sedative.

My second favorite part is design development. I love coming up with new designs and often get side-tracked when up against deadlines for shows or wholesale order, unfortunately. There is something about the thrill of "figuring it out" -- that vision in your head that you've been carrying around for months. When I finally see if in real life I can hardly believe that it came from me.

Please briefly describe a workday in your studio and how you created this item:

So this is my "Spotted Dot Earring" - named after my handmade bead cap. With this one I start by first making the cap.

I hammer out, on my bench block, sterling sheet metal to give it texture with one of my beautiful specialty hammers (I have several that give the metal different textures). I usually do this in large pieces around 6"x 6". It's one of those processes that I don't actually enjoy since I have to wear earplugs and my arm feels like jello afterward.

Anyway, once the metal is hammered I use a series of cutters and punches to get the disc the appropriate size and punch center holes. I use then my dapping block to dome the discs to give them their cap-like shape. The final step is a bath in Liver-of-Sulfur and a ride in the tumbler for a finish and wash before I use them in any jewelry assembly.

The jewelry assembly is really straight-forward. I use a sterling head pin (also oxidized) and stack up one of my beaded rounds, head pin, and real cultured pearl. The bead cap has been "steel-wooled" in order to remove some of the LOS in order to view the "spotted" pattern. ...and fini!

I can have a studio day from anywhere between 2 hours of work to 20 hours of work, depending on deadlines on orders or shows. Much of my time, of course, is weaving beads while sitting with my lap desk covered in tubes of bead colors or standing at my work bench making ear wires.

If this item is part of a special line that you do, has there been an evolution in your process? For example, if we were to compare the first one you made to this one, what differences would there be, if any?
Oh my goodness, yes! If you were to view my work even 5 years ago, there was no way I was this into sterling silver. I was actually all over the place with the components and elements in my jewelry using many different kinds of pearls, gemstones, commercial components and I even had a gold-filled line. Four years ago, when I quit my full-time job as an Administrative Manager at a high-end gallery chain, I realized that I had so many more ideas about my jewelry and my style really started to develop after that.

I actually ran into a woman a few years ago and she was wearing a pair of my earrings from 1997! I couldn't believe the evolution of my work. But, there were no complaints from her - these were earrings she wore almost everyday she said! What's better than that!

An interview with Kingfishercrafts

This week's talented artists are Kathy and Alistair of Kingfishercrafts. They make gorgeous beaded jewelry. A treasure to wear and an awesome one-of-a-kind gift!
Is there a story behind your shop name?
We are named for the Belted Kingfisher that stalks our creek for minnows.

What made you decide to open your own shop?
We opened our shop because we moved to the deep woods of North Carolina to escape the New York Rat Race. We now commute to work in fuzzy slippers.

What is your favorite material to use?
We love beads. Kathy even had a dream a while back that she was eating beads for breakfast. Yum!

Talk briefly about your favorite item:
Our favorite item changes daily. But right now we love our Evergreen Chandelier Cluster Necklace.

What are your creative inspirations?
We draw inspiration largely from nature: Sticks, stones and bones.

Are you a crafter full time or part time? If full time, how did you make the leap?
We are full time crafters right now, trying to put into action the best principles of successful Etsy store owners. This means a daily schedule of operation: time creating, time shooting pictures, time blogging/networking, etc.

Who encourages you to create?
We are encouraged by each other first and foremost but next by the kind and supportive voices in our heads. "You're really good at this." "Wow, you should share this gift with the world." "If you don't get to work you will starve."

Do you have any advice for other shop owners?
Too soon probably for advice since we have only had a few sales so far. But since you asked, Taking good pictures. Since all we have on the internet are largely visual cues, taking good visually interesting product shots is vital.

Do you have a blog or website?
We are working on a blog write now as I continue to read and absorb Andy Wibbels great book - Blog Wild. http://kingfishercrafts.blogspot.com/
We recently launched another store selling Fairy Dolls that we are really excited about:
http://www.thefairyfrontier.etsy.com

Tell me any other interesting things about yourself you'd like for me to include in your article:
Although our stores focus on Jewelry and Dolls we love all things handmade. Kathy is an incredible puppet, mask and costume maker and I am a photographer/videographer and emerging media adventurer. Its an exciting time to be alive regardless of the world's current state of affairs and we have always believed in embracing the new. Feel free to reach out to us we can be a useful resource and we love to support others in their pursuit of happiness.