Creating Creating Creating!

I am crossing over into the real world!  Thus far, my creations have only been for sale on Etsy, but starting September 19,  I will have my goods for sale at a boutique here in Albuquerque!  That means I have to stock my spot in the store.  SO.  I took my 20 favorite things out of my Etsy shop, made a few more purses, and I'm ready!  Now I'm working to restock my Etsy shop.  Here are a few of the things I made this weekend...

Featured Creator- Beadsbysam

Today's featured creator is BeadsBySam.  She creates fresh colorful jewelry and has a great etsy shop at http://www.beadsbysam.etsy.com.  Check out her interview and her shop!

Your jewelry is very unique. I love how your creations seem organic- the beads to not seem so far removed from their natural state. Is nature an influence on your work? What are your inspirations?
Yes, nature definitely influences my work. I personally love the look and feel of natural materials. Last year I went to an amazing resort in Thailand where everything was made from natural material. It was a great inspiration. I have also tried to find a way to keep myself busy in my free time and be happy in what I am doing. I have found happiness in making bead jewellery.

Your work has beading, crochet, and delicate detail. How long have you been making jewelry and crafting?
The first time I did anything crafty was when I made 150 wedding gifts for my wedding 3 years ago!! I was not a crafty person but I did love craft products. Then I have started to make bead jewellery since January 2008. 

Would you like your hobby to eventually become a career? What is your day job? 
I would love to see my etsy business grow and become a reliable income. I have recently resigned from my full time job and now I am preparing to be a first time mum!! So my aim is to be a work-at-home mummy in the future. 


What made you open your etsy shop?
I started to make bead jewellery after being introduced to it by my friend who makes her own necklaces and rings. I have since found making bead jewellery a great therapy for stress relief and a great way to spend my free time after a hard day at work. I feel good when I wear my own necklaces and even better when people comment on how nice they look! Friends and family suggested that I start selling the jewellery once they found out that I made them myself. That’s how it all started. 


What is your creative environment like? Describe the sounds, thoughts, colors, or times.
My creative environment is my home. I make bead jewellery during the day when it is quiet.

Featured Creators- Notsobland

Here's my next featured creator!  Notsobland is a super creative mother-daughter team.  I was immediately drawn into their shop, and I know you will be too!  Check it out at http://www.notsobland.etsy.com.

You are a mother-daughter team. Who does what in your shop? Are any of your creations a team effort?
We both do a little bit of everything! Both of us create things, take the pictures, and put them on Etsy. It is a great way for us to be creative, have fun, and spend time together. We definitely need to do some collaborations for Etsy. We have done them before in classes or just on a whim, but haven’t sold any. We have very distinct styles, but they compliment each other well. A team project will be our next endeavor…

Your shop is full of wonderful visual art and the photographs of your jewelry are fantastic! Do either of you have formal training in any art form?
Mom (Lynn Bland) has a B.S. in Art Education from Florida State University. Her mother and father were both artists, so it was hard for her to get away from it (not that she wanted to!). She has also been published in “Somerset Studio” magazine, “Signatures,” “Material Visions,” “Gallery,” “Legacy,” and “Art Doll Quarterly.” She also writes technique based articles for the quarterly “Sew Somerset.”

I (Mari Bland - the daughter) have a B.S.C. in Visual Communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I took some photography classes, graphic design classes, and videography classes. All of these definitely came in handy when trying to take good pictures of our jewelry and artwork! I also won a few art awards in high school for some pieces that made it on the posters for the county art shows.

Do you create for a living, or do you have a "day job." If so, what is your day job?
Mom is an artist and a mom. J (and she does both beautifully) She has owned her own flower arranging shop, taught school, and worked on a boat with my dad. But, now, she gets to spend all of her free time creating things… and loves every minute of it.

I am a student… which I would consider a day AND night job! Hah. I just finished my undergrad at UT and now am starting the Walters State culinary program. I’ve gone from creating visual things with paint, computers, and cameras, to creating them with milk, sugar, and eggs! 

Your shop has a "look." All of the items have a similar style. Is that on purpose, or does it just happen? 
At first, it was an accident. We took pictures of everything that we had and put them on Etsy. Then we noticed that there was a common theme… nothing we can name, necessarily, but a theme nonetheless. Now we try to take pictures of our items with our “theme” in mind. But, I don’t think that either of us has ever created something with our Etsy shop in mind… we just make things as they come to us… and hope they fit within our Etsy store!

What inspires you?

Oh goodness… the question here should be what doesn’t inspire us! We live in the Great Smoky Mountains and have deer, hummingbirds, butterflies, and turtles in our yard every day. The mountains are always giving us ideas and inspiration. Mom loves to create artwork with leaves and birds as symbols, and we have both surrounding us all of the time. I love insects and flowers, which appear in my work very often, and I can go get ideas simply by walking outside. Other than our surroundings, some common themes in our work are rebirth, travel, nature, politics, and anything that forces us to create something in its wake.

Do you have a studio, or place that you work? If so, what is it like?
Mom has a studio that she graciously lets me use when I get a moment or two. She shares it with her friend, who is also an artist. I love it every time I go there because you can see where my mom’s stuff begins and her friend’s ends because of how messy it is! Don’t get me wrong, it’s creative and crazy messy, not bad messy. It is a totally free and creative space that neither of us feel inhibited in. How lucky to have a space that we can actually leave messy for the next time inspiration strikes?

What made you open your etsy shop?
We learned about the amazing thing called Etsy from a magazine article. As soon as we started browsing some shops (ok…. hundreds of shops….it’s addicting) we found ourselves saying, “We could do this!” And so, NotsoBland was born. We thought it would be a blast making things together and working on it together. We get along so well and have so much fun together, that we knew there would be no conflicts, so we went for it! We have been creating and enjoying each other and Etsy ever since. J 

New Necklaces and a new home!

I'm getting ready to move to a nice new apartment with my boyfriend on Tuesday!  We have been so busy all summer, painting and fixing our furniture, visiting family, etc!  Last week I took the time to make four new necklaces for my shop, and I had a great time doing it.  My creations are such an outlet for my stress and excess energies!  Enjoy!

The finished T-shirt Rug!

Here is my completed bathroom rug!  I made it with upcycled t-shirts from Goodwill.  Total price: $8.  Pride at 100%    I think I might know what some of my girlfriends will be getting for Christmas and birthdays!

Featured Creator- SpazSpun

Here is my next featured creator SpazSpun.  She creates yarns that are out of this world.  I loved that I had a lot of fun while looking through her shop.  I realized that she had to be my next feature!  Have fun reading her responses, and check out her shop at http://www.spazspun.etsy.com

How did you get into spinning yarn? Did you have a healthy crochet or knitting obsession beforehand?
I came to hand spinning through the back door, you might say. One day I was at the bookstore looking over the quilt books, and I saw a little tome about Hand spinning your dog’s hair. I thought it was interesting and glanced through it, set it back, and promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward a few years. It’s spring, my lab/chow mix is shedding her winter coat. I’m desperately trying to brush as much of it out as I can. And then, I remember that book. So now -I’m on a mission. I get on the internet, learn how to make a drop spindle with a CD and a dowel, and suddenly, I’m grossing out my kids with the dog’s hair in yarn form! After brushing the poor dog to near baldness, I set out on a quest to find the “normal” spinning fibers. I got involved with my local hand spinning guild where I met my fiber pimp. It was also there that I learned you should start spinning with wool, NOT dog hair, and then work your way up to other fibers. Really? Oh. Well. I’ve never done anything in a normal fashion before. Why start now? It was there at the spinning guild where I was christened “the Spaz” for my fearless attack on anything that had spinning potential. 

It was then that i realized i should learn how to knit.....


You get wool from sheep around your community. I think that makes your yarn special- you have a relationship with people around you, and that fuels your wool supply. How did this come about?
Most of my fiber “pimps” I met through the local spinning guild. There are actually quite a few people around here growing all kinds of different sheep fibers. I can get just about any fiber I want to locally. Others I’ve found just by being out and letting people know what I do. I was at dog school with my puppy earlier this spring, and my trainer mentioned that she had a friend with some sheep that needed to be sheared. A few emails later, I had 3 gorgeous fleeces in the trunk of my car. My therapist has alpaca.... I’m working on getting my grubby little hands on those fleeces...

Do you ever hear back from people telling you what they made with your yarns? Any specific memorable stories?
Sometimes I hear back, sometimes I don’t. It’s cool to follow up with other etsy sellers that have bought my yarn or rovings and see a finished product in their shops. I had a customer that would send me her dog’s hair (akita) every few months, and I would spin it up and send it back to her. She was making a shawl with it, and I like to think about that. One day, that dog will no longer be with her, but I had a hand in providing her with something that she will always remember him by, and something that she will always cherish.

What color of yarn sells the best?
All colors!! Not really one over the other. If I spun and dyed based on what I thought might sell, I’d never get anything made! I dye what I like, and hope that somebody else will like it as well. You never know what‘s going to grab a customer’s eye, so you just have to make what you love. At least, that’s what I do....

T-Shirt Yarn!

I am afraid I am opening a new pandora's box.  I came across some creations on etsy and I was inspired to make myself a rug for my bathroom with t-shirts.  I bought some at Goodwill, cut them up, and sewed them together.  Ta-Da!  T-Shirt Yarn!  I think I might make some patterns for the medium and put them in my shop.  Here are the colors that are going into my bathroom rug.  I'll post the finished product when it's all done!