NadiasKnits, Shop of the Week no.11

This week's winning treasury was chosen by the owner of shop of the week no. 10, Elizabeth from FairyFlowerDreams and was made by Nadia of NadiasKnits. Here is the winning treasury. 

These days, knitting is increasing in popularity again. This is possibly due to various worldwide economic problems, but I also feel it has as much to do with the beautiful variety of yarns available these days. I knit and crochet myself, though I don't sell my own work, but the fabulous yarns each time I go to the shop! It's amazing and I always want to buy all of them.

This week's shop of the week, NadiasKnits, does just what it says on the tin. It is fabulous knitwear, soft and warm, sumptuous colours, and on browsing, makes you want to wear them all there and then, and go out in the cold winter air knowing you'll be snug and warm. Let's find out about the creator of NadiasKnits...Nadia!

Tell us a little about yourself and your work

I started knitting when I was about 12 years old living overseas. I was inspired by my Grandmother and my Aunt. They made it look so peaceful. They slowly showed me the basics of knitting and I picked it up quickly. Within a couple of months, I was making sweaters. When I returned to the United States, I focussed on my education and then later on my career in Social Services. Although I enjoyed my career, something was always missing. I realised the missing part was my creative side. A friend was telling me about Etsy and encouraged me to open a shop. I started my shop in November 2012 with only one item, which by the way I just sold in December 2013. That was bittersweet.

What inspires your work?

I am inspired by creativity, originality and uniqueness. I’m always trying to come up with something different. Another inspiration for me is, I want the world to realise once again the importance of Handmade, the creative spirit. Many have forgotten the effort, thought and love behind truly handmade knits. When someone purchases an item from my shop, I feel like they are getting a piece of me. This is the best feeling ever! Someone loves something I created!

What are your favourite colours?

I can honestly say I love all colours, but if I were to choose, I would say reds and golds are just beautiful colours. To me the yarn is what I enjoy more than the colour. I love difficult yarns and fabrics, like fuzzy yarns or sari fabric. Also the feel of the yarn is important to me. My favourite yarn would be Cashmere. The feel of it in your hands when you are working with it is amazing!

What is your favourite holiday destination?

I would say my favourite holiday destination would be Jordan. It’s a simple and rustic land. Whenever I visit, I feel like I am part of something bigger. The land is barely touched by time and technology and to me that’s very deep. When I am there I feel like I am part of history. 

What other artists work to you admire and aspire to?

I love abstract art and am always amazed at the many talented painters on the All Handmade By Me Team. I dabble in painting a little but would love to me more like them. I also love the many knitters’ work out there. I know that they understand how much love and effort goes into the knitting process. 

What are you most proud of?

I would say that I am most proud of is how much I have grown over the past year. I feel like I have found who I truly am and want to continue to be, someone who creates one of a kind, beautiful handmade knits that people can use and wear all year round.

Ooooh! And I am working on a secret project right now!

Thank you Nadia for taking part. If you want to visit Nadia's shop, just click here and see for yourself!

FairyFlowerDreams, Shop of the Week no.10

I can't believe we have covered 10 shops already, and there is just so much amazing talent out there I can't wait to cover more as time goes by. This week I chose the winning treasury, made by Elizabeth Reed from FairyFlowerDreams. This is the winning treasury.

I feel like I'm wondering into some secret magical place when I look at this shop. The flowers, the colours, all make me feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. You can tell right away Elizabeth's work comes from the heart, and oodles of love is poured into every flower, every wing. Let's find out more...

Tell us a little about yourself and your work

Although I am technically a forty-year-old stay-at-home mother of two amazing children, I still feel like a kid inside myself. I express that inner child through art, and I have progressed through various mediums. I used to paint and sculpt with clay in my spare time. Then my kids came along and spare time became a thing of the past. Now, as the kids are getting a little older, I have a little time to create and express the child in me again, although usually at the expense of the housework!

My shop FairyFlowerDreams started as an effort to save money. My sweet daughter and I would see

beautiful dress-up items in the stores, but they were out of our price range. Then it occurred to me that I could make her flower crowns myself. I had never used a hot glue gun before, but I gave it a try. The results delighted my little girl, and I was soon making them for her friends as well.  I was having so much fun making the crowns that I took a table at a local winter fair to sell them. I priced them low so that children could but them themselves…I always hate seeing my kids disappointed by being unable to afford the things they want. Anyway, the show was a huge success and a friend suggested I open an Etsy shop, and here I am!

What inspires your work?

My work is inspired by what my daughter likes, what cloth flowers are on sale at the local craft store and the magic of fairies.

What are your favourite colours?

My favourite colours are purple and green, but pink is the colour I use most because so many little girls like it best.

What is your favourite medium/material?

My favourite material is milk jug. When I was little my mother used to make me fairy

wings out of construction paper. I loved them, but they never lasted long at all. I wanted to make my daughter wings that would last. I occurred to me to try cutting them out of milk jugs, and it worked! I like how the resulting wings are transparent and durable, and the materials are virtually free since we drink the milk either way…I only have to buy the elastic for straps. You can do a lot with milk jugs. I have worked pieces of them into many of my headbands. They also strengthen my hair ties, and they make excellent containers for blackberry picking!

What is your favourite holiday destination?

The summer before last my husband and two children and I flew to Thailand to visit my father who had moved there for retirement. We had never travelled beyond our own country before. The experience was amazing! We stayed almost a month on a small island in the Andaman Sea. The Thai people were so friendly, the water was so warm, and even the stars were different. There were so many new plants and animals to discover. Sadly, my father passed away a few months after our return but I feel so blessed that we got to spend that magical time with him.

What other artists work to you admire and aspire to?

I really admire Brian Froud. I have enjoyed his fairy art since I was a child.

What are you most proud of?

What I am most proud of in my life is my children. As far as my art, I feel the most proud when I see a child wearing one of my headbands or wings. It is a really good feeling. 

Thank you Elizabeth for taking part. I recommend you take a wander through this delightful shop and release your own inner child. Just click here. 

Creative Treasures, Shop of the Week no. 9

Every Saturday a new Shop Of The Week is chosen by the previous shop of the week from the numbers of treasuries made for them. This week that honour goes to Creative Treasures...yes me! This is the winning treasury. 

Yes, I was chosen as shop of the week this week, and I am amazed at how many beautiful treasuries were made featuring items from my shop, so thank you everyone.

I wasn’t going to write a piece about me, as this blog is full of me me me, but then I thought, well for the sake of continuity, and fairness, I’d answer the same questions I set everyone else. So here goes.

Tell us a little about yourself and your work

I am a self-taught jewellery-maker. I use lots of different media for making my jewellery, gemstones, glass beads,

wire, seed beads, polymer clay. I love it all. It all started when my partner decided he wanted a new hobby and bought himself a kit for making bead earrings, and a set of tools. I watched as he tried looping the headpins and though, hmm, that’s the same technique I used to use when I worked in electronics to loop a copper core cable. I resisted having a try myself for…ooo...three days, then I made several pairs of earrings. Not happy with that, I wire-wrapped a few beads and made more earrings, then a bracelet or two, and I was away.

Of course, it was all rubbish, but as I got better at it, I put a few photos on facebook, and sold them! Encouraged by this I made more, and sold them. Eventually I began selling on Folksy, then Etsy, and the rest is history.

Naturally I moved on from the simple bead-on-a-headpin earrings. I learned how to bead weave with tiny seed beads, I made beautiful strung gemstone necklaces and bracelets, and the one thing I absolutely love doing, bead embroidery. My partner bought me a starter kit for polymer clay, and I started messing around with that, and had great success with it all. I love the way you can blend and mix colours to produce some amazing effects.

What inspires your work?

I’m going to say what a lot of other people say, but it’s true; nature, the environment around me, textures, colours, all the things mother nature provides for us. I use leaves a lot.

What are your favourite colours?

Purple. When I was little it was always pink, but it’s progressed to purple because it will blend with so many other colours and still look fabulous.

What is your favourite medium/material?

Without a doubt, seed beads. I just love weaving those little critters into something intricate and beautiful.

What is your favourite holiday destination?

I’m not a well-travelled person, I’ve never left the UK except to go on a day trip to Dublin which I absolutely loved, and would love to go back there again some day, but one place I love to go which always feels like home is North Wales, Snowdonia in particular. There is a little town called Llanberis at the foot of Mount Snowdon, and a beautiful waterfall hidden away in a ravine. It’s a magical place, almost like a grotto, and I feel certain it would have been a sacred place in pre-Roman times.

What other artists work to you admire and aspire to?

First let me make it clear there is no way I could or would copy any of them, but I do try to make my work of the same standard. Zoya Gutina, a fantastic renowned beadworker, and all the Eastern European bead embroiderers. Their work is such a high standard of art and craftsmanship, I want to be as good as them.

What are you most proud of? 

There are many things in life I could be proud of, achieving the Queen’s Guide award at 15 as a Girl Guide, having two beautiful children, surviving life, owning my own business, but if we are talking about my work, then Iceni is my pride and joy. This is my first bead embroidered necklace, and one in which I wanted to encapsulate the feel of the ancient British Iceni tribe, and their warrior queen Boudicca in particular. I think I did that, I hope so anyway.

 

MaatSilk. Shop of the Week no. 8

Every Saturday, a new Shop of the Week is chosed by the previous shop of the week, from the numbers of treasuries made from them. This week that honour belongs to Maisie from MaatSilk. This is the winning treasury.

I fell in love with all the scarves and cushions when I first saw this shop. The colours are superb, and clearly so carefully thought out, the patterns are exquisite and remind me so much of a little kaleidoscope I had when I was little. Let's find out a little more about the artist behind MaatSilk, Maisie. 

Tell us a little about yourself and your work

My shop sells mostly hand painted silk scarves and cushions. At the moment my design style is the realm of patterns, swirls, lines, circles, and various shapes of all kinds. It all started when I was bought a set of silk paints for a birthday and, well, the rest just happened. It took many experiments and horrid looking scarves before I came up with one I was happy with. Now I have a system worked out. When I design a pattern for a scarf I usually plan a set of three colourways. I don’t know why but I like working in odd numbers. Then with each scarf I write a narrative piece of writing. Trying to explain this is harder, but I’ll give it a shot. For me, painting on silk and for that matter all my work, is art and more. It’s a thought, an idea, a feeling, and most importantly is a story.  Words accompany me as I design and paint the patterns. They are part of it all. The colours and design blend in my mind and an idea forms: of an image, a place, a time. Why? I’m not usre but the narrative writing that accompanies each scarf is as important to me as the colours themselves. It’s the setting and completes the scene.  So each set of scarves tells a story and the narratives fit really well into three. Every story had a beginning, a middle, and an end after all. Each scarf is a limited edition and I only make five of them. It can get a little complicated and I have to keep careful track which number I’m on.  I do sign and number each scarf so that helps. At the moment I am working on completing my scarf sets, most of the ones in the shop are lacking a third and I am also beginning to use my designs on paper, for gift cards, notebooks, writing sets and e-cards.

What inspires your work?

I am inspired by all forms of nature, plants, history and ancient art in particular. I only have to look at a book full of Minoan temples or Egyptian tombs and I am reaching for my sketch book. I have a set of scarfs based on Egytian designs for sale at the moment and I would like to do several more, a Celtic and Minoan are in the pipeline.

What are your favourite colours?

My favourite colour is yellow, just because it’s bright and happy, but I love to paint purple and blues. Grey is also a colour I use a lot, because it helps the darker shades stand out and helps to lighten the silk. Using just pure colours can make it very heavy, so a soft background colour makes all the difference.

What is your favourite medium/material?

Water based gutta, either white or gold. I use them on all of my scarves as an outliner. When I was first starting to paint silk, I bought so much gutta from the local shops that they all ran out and now I have to buy online!

What is your favourite holiday destination?

I’ve travelled quite a lot around Europe with my family. It would probably be Venice or Paris. I’ve been to both a couple of times, but would love to go again. Because I live in Spain, where it’s really hot in the summer, I like to go to cooler places. I am a museum person, so having lots to visit is top of my list, as well as going to see a ballet or show.

What other artists work to you admire and aspire to?

I admire artists from all sorts of different mediums. I particularly marvel at illustrators and painters, probably because I am hopeless at drawing people, animals or anything from real life. This is why I stick to patterns. That’s one of the things I enjoy about Etsy, I get to see and discover so many new artists.
As for someone I aspire to be like, well that’s easy and for me there is only one answer: my mother.

What are you most proud of?

This is a really hard question. I am proud of my shop and all my work, because I know that I always do my very best. 

Thank you Maisie for taking part. If you want to browse around Maisie's wonderful shop, just click here.