Interview with Etsy Artisan Jenoc13

One of the things I love most about the Etsy community is getting to know artisans from all around the world. I have recently joined the Etsy Twitter Team, and have met a whole new set of inspired and inspiring craftspeople. I got the chance to chat with Jen from Jenco13 about her shop and love of her craft and all things crocheted:

What inspires you to make your items/craft?

My mom and colors. My mom is a painter and has always brought crafts into my life.

Do you have a special place in your home that you work in??

My craft is movable so I normally work in front of the TV or outside on our porch. When putting my blankets together I use my kitchen table (card table). If I'm going away its one of the first things I pack.

What else do you do besides the crafts??

I teach during the school year. during the summers I love to watch baseball with my husband and spend time with my family.


If you could go any place in the world where would you go??

Rome!! I have always wanted to travel there for a honeymoon. when I got married my husband could only get 24 hours leave from the military so I never got a honeymoon. He then deployed overseas in our first year of marriage. Hopefully I will get a teaching job this year and go next summer!!


What is your favorite item to make in your shop? and why??

I love to everything. I couldn't pick one item!! The scarves are fun to make along with the cup cozies (the flowers are tricky and I love to be challenged!!)


Well, I love her cozies, too - what a fabulous way to make your morning coffee green! And cute, to boot! In addition to her crocheted creations, she also custom paints beautiful wedding champagne flutes. Check Jenoc13 out on Etsy, Twitter, and her blog

I'm so incredibly baaaaaaad!

Seriously...I've been away so long, I'm not sure I even remember how to do this. Jewelry and keeping up with all the lovelies out there has fallen off my radar as my "day job" as been totally consuming. But sanity is all about baaaaalance, so I'm dedicating this blog to sheepishly apologizing for my long absence.

So as I shake the woolies out of my head, and proceed to blog, let me tell you about how not to live your life. Don't wake up at 2 AM thinking about work. Don't consider investing your hard earned dollars in Glaxo-Smith Kline because you're eating your weight in Zantac, because it's generic and OTC now anyway, and GSK has gone on to bigger and better things for better living through chemistry. But for the record, ranitidine is a wonder drug. Just so you know.

So how to live your life? Believing in your gifts, and your integrity, and the wonderful experiences of every day with the people the good Lord places in your path for you to shine His reflection to. In the moment, not worrying about tomorrow.

Oh Lucky Day!

How did your day go today? It was a blessed day all around at our house - even though it was a pretty typical Saturday with chores and errands and whatnot....but we had our family together, and good spring weather, and I didn't have to cook dinner, which is ALWAYS a blessing. I feel very lucky to have the life that I do.

There's an Etsy artist who knows all about lucky days, and feeling lucky in life. So much so that she has created a shop dedicated to making every day a lucky day...Lucky Girl Trading. In her shop you'll find beautiful art glass, dichroic glass, and pieces of Kumihimo and Temari. Both are centuries-old crafts, and she feels that both give her a zen-like tranquility while working.



You can find jewelry full of sparkle or calm beauty. For boys, for girls, for anyone with a yen for her zen.

Her Temari balls are especially fascinating, intricate fabrications of an old stocking stuffed with rice hulls and padded with yarn reclaimed from an abandoned knitting project. This Temari ball has a rattle housed in bottle caps inside, so playing with it, Lucky Girl claims, can become addictive. I think it 's just beautiful to gaze upon.


So if you're feeling lucky, or maybe more importantly if you are not, drop on by Lucky Girl Trading to find out more about why she's feeling so lucky in her life, and see if you might be interested in procuring a bit of her lucky feelings for yourself. Try her blog, too, for more on a lucky life.

Bright, Fun and Affordable

A relative newcomer to Etsy, and one of the latest artists to join our 90/90 challenge (an Etsy blog challenge to do 90 artist features in 90 days -- oops, we've gone past that 90 days, but we'll keep at it 'til we get to that 90th blog! This is my 57th, if anyone is counting out there, and it's Day 91.), Shannon Saylor brings a fun eye to beaded jewelry, creating affordable earrings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and set combinations. She joined Etsy in September, and lives in the mountains of southwest Virginia with her husband, four cats and a dog. How idyllic that must be!



Her creations use the vast variety of colors and textures of glass beads, and she can custom create combinations based on your favorite colors. Regardless of whether you like earth tones, blues, greens, pinks, whatever, Shannon can make you a one-of-a-kind set for a very affordable price. So check out her SDS Designs shop for all her design expressions, and visit her blog to read about her featured pieces and her take on the 90/90 blog challenge.

Dundas Down Under

Etsy glass artist, Anne Dundas from Sydney, Australia discovered beading in 2004, and the discovery sparked her imagination and began a passion in her life. From beading she moved into the wonderfully colorful and magical world of lampworking, and now makes luminous glass creations to make you drool. As you may remember from my features on Ginger Black and Studio Marcy, I have nothing but awe and admiration for those who wield the torch on molten glass. How DO they DO that?!?!

When not creating lampwork beads or crafting jewelry ("jewellery" Down Under), she is the caregiver for her mother who has MS and designs business cards for other jewelry artists. She professes the view that beading and the beading community she has found since beginning her journey in 2004 to have truly enriched her life. I feel fortunate that I, too, have been introduced to Anne Dundas Handcrafted Jewellery and Lampwork Beads, and all the wonderful pretties that can found therein. Check out her shop for yourself, and take some time to visit her blog where she shares her creative process.

Pizazzzzz

I'm always excited when I come across another scientist that has also embraced the right side of their brain in creative pursuit. Not that science is not in fact very creative. To be a great scientist, one must constantly ask new, unasked questions in the pursuit of the next level of truth. That is a very creative process. (But it is an iterative process that can get bogged down in the left, analytical side. There's a reason a lot of people think science is "boring"!) And any study of nature will reveal unspeakable beauty if one just keeps their eyes open. For me, it is the microbial and molecular world. For Etsy artist Patricia Vener, her scientific call is to the stars. She holds a Masters Degree in Astrophysics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY, has worked as an astronomer and still teaches astronomy as an adjunct professor for University of Maryland University College. But she's more than an astronomer, she is also an artist. She has provided a painting illustration for an astronomy textook, and has illustrated a children's book, "Papa Cardinal Finds Breakfast" by Sandra Wellborn.
At her shop SilverDragon you can find exquisite jewelry creations of uncommon detail and color, inspired by Native American beadwork techniques. Drop by to see for yourself, and find out more on her Dragon's "Lair".

Little Treasures

Marcy Lamberson is an Etsy glass artist who self-proclaims that she loves making people smile through her whimsical beads and sculptures. I have no doubt that she's surrounded by a lot of smiling folks!

She has the wonderful work situation of a sunroom studio overlooking her garden and birds, squirrels, chipmunks and occasional wandering possums. To our enjoyment, she sometimes makes them into beads, too, complete with clothes and jewelry, and turns them into little fun glass treasures.

Glass artists always amaze me, working with a 2000 degree torch and creating colorful amalgams of seemingly delicate glass. Most of Marcy's glass, in fact, comes from Murano, Italy, the center of the beautiful glass world. But strength is important for creations that are meant to be worn like beads, and every piece from StudioMarcy is kiln annealed for durability.


You can find out more about Marcy on the Etsy Glass Artist website and her blog .

She adds new beads almost daily, so stop by StudioMarcy often. You, too, will be amazed at her whimsical art, and the incredible detail she works into each and every piece.

be-dee, be-dee, be-dee, that's all folks!