Meet The BOOMERS!

This week I would like to introduce to you Janine Maves from AltheaP and Talking Dog.

What is/are the name of your shop/s?

AltheaP and TalkingDog on Etsy, AltheaP on gozabo, AltheaPeregrine on the web, AltheaP on Trunkt

What kind of items do you sell?

Paintings on silk and canvas, wearable art, mixed media college. TalkingDog sells hand painted accessories, ACEOs and jewelry

How long have you been engaged in your art/craft?

Always. I’ve always had a crayon in my hand and doodles down the side of the notebook. I didn’t do all that well in high school chemistry, but I did paint a deer and a waterfall on my lab apron.

Do you consider yourself a hobbyist or a professional craftsperson?

Oh, I’m an artiste, lol.

What inspires you?

Beauty above, beauty east and west, beauty all around. Right now I’m haunted by a couple of the paintings on Brett’s latest video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j96iBqZYt_E

Please share with us what a typical day is like in your workshop or studio?

What I mean to do and what I end up doing are rarely related — there is no “typical.” I feel best when I check in with the early morning crowd on Boomers and am in the studio by 8am. Too many times I get lost in chat, email, treasuries, blogs and sit here until my ankles start to swell.

What keeps you company while you’re working on a project?

A lot of silence. Sometimes Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, sometimes Richard Thompson, sometimes I sing back-up for Aretha. I go through periods of listening to books on tape, but tend to space out a lot and realize I have no idea what’s going on.

What is your favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?

Stretching out a new piece of silk, gathering collage items, pulling out the paints . . . I love the possibilities in a new project.

What is your least favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?

Finding things that are “lost” somewhere in the studio. I get furious with myself. I’m a former neatnik and am astonished at the disorganization around me.

What are some of the venues you use to promote your shop/ware? (Do you blog?)

I’m afraid to do too much promotion on the forum, ‘cause I know Pat will throw things at me. I blog sporadically, post to Flickr, Squidoo, Indiepublic sporadically. I used to spend an awful lot of time on treasuries, but when I find I’m not in any, I get bummed out. I was a pink-collar worker for 30 years and now that I’m free, I resent spending so much time on the computer.

To which teams do you belong? Do you use other sites? Which ones? (etc.)

Too many teams. I’ve just joined the interior design team and am a little overwhelmed by the amount of email involved. Trunkt just started an Etsy team, so I’m in that. I had to quit my local team, ‘cause I didn’t pay it enough attention. I was excited about Gallery United when it started up, hoping it would do some actual marketing. My Freethinkers team collects dues and does some marketing and is filled with some really smart women. Boomers is my home, however, and I love chatting and laughing with all those women “of a certain age” (and Mike and Eric, of course).

I just became a member of Worldwide Women Artists Online and the Silk Painters’ Yahoo group and try to check in with them every couple of days. I’m still finding my way online, trying to figure out what’s best for me but, obviously, I’m spread a little thin.

Tell us about a funny, strange or unusual situation you found yourself in related to your craft.

Sitting in the hospital with a friend, another of her friends whom I’d never met came to visit. I introduced myself and she said, “Oh! The silk painter! I didn’t know you two knew each other.” I felt validated.

Tell us something about you that we wouldn’t necessarily know about you by talking to you in the forums.

I once sat next to Jane Goodall at a pot luck in Asheboro, NC, and across from Salman Rushdie on a ferry trip from Elephanta Island to Mumbai.

What’s your favorite book and why, favorite movie and why, favorite kind of music?

Oh dear, this is all passionate stuff that changes every few months. I guess I think of Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver as my all-time favorite book, ‘though another dozen just popped into my head as I typed that.

Favorite movies are Contact, Peter Weir’s The Last Wave, and an Indian movie "Such a Long Journey".

Music — is eclectic, but Richard Thompson is always at the top.

Would you care to share any 'words of wisdom' with other aspiring artists or crafters?

Listen to those friends who remind you that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing: making art.

Please leave comments on the blog for this versatile artist, she would love to hear from you!

Meet The BOOMERS!

This week I would like to introduce to you Renee, from FauveStudio!

1. What is/are the name(s) of your shop/s?
FauveStudio

2. What kind of items do you sell?
Original Painting, Custom paintings, some mixed media work, Aceo's, and smaller format prints.

3. How long have you been engaged in your art/craft?
Full time professionally for 10 years. I have painted thought out my life since a child, as my mother was an artist.

4. Do you consider yourself a hobbyist or a professional craftsperson?
I consider myself a professional artist.

5. What inspires you?
Music, dreams, memories a lot in the last few years. A lot of things inspire me and I find my emotions largely govern what I paint and why I consider myself an expressionist painter.

6. Please share with us what a typical day is like in your workshop or studio.
Typical day.. more like typical night. I usually stretch any canvases I need first, do the packaging for shipment the next day then start on my painting. I often paint until dawn.

I have an unusual schedule most of the time. I find I'm more creative and productive at night however.



7. What keeps you company while you’re working on a project?
Music...I usually listen to Joni Mitchell's and her Night Ride

Home Cd most often..I find it facilitates my paintings. as Joni said herself. “I am a lonely painter,,,I live in a box of paints."

8. What is your favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?
When I have stretched a new blank canvas. and begin to set up my palette for the painting I will be doing..I love laying out my colors and mixing paints. then when I put the first brush stroke to the canvas...well. it’s not a task..it's a joy!

9. What is your least favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?
Packing and shipping paintings. hands down..it's a lot of hard physical work to package the large ones.

10. What are some of the venues you use to promote your shop/ware?(Do you blog?)
I have two web sites, a blog, and I also supply work to a designer in Paris twice a year.

(To which teams do you belong? Do you use other sites? Which ones? etc.)
I belong to Boomers of course, also Interior Design Team and Gallery United Team.Also a juried member of WWAO (Worldwide Women Artists Online) and EBSQ+ I also sell on ArtByUS.com and ebay. and Overstock art auctions from time to time.



13. What’s your favorite book and why, favorite movie and why, favorite kind of music?
All Over But The Shoutin by Rick Bragg because it speaks the 'truth" about a world I knew growing up. Favorite Movie ... that changes every few years .. I love French foreign movies... So Big with Jane Wyman, I Remember Mama, Dr Zhivago, Amadeus, Moulin Rouge - quite a wide variety of genres really.

Music..all time favorite is Joni Mitchell. since I was a teenager and continues to this day. we have aged together. Also the Beatles, I still listen to all the old Beatles music. one of my daughters got me into the Red Hot Chili Peppers. go figure but I love to paint abstract to their music.

14. Would you care to share any 'words of wisdom' with other aspiring artists or crafters?
Work to find your own individual style, don't worry about what everyone else is doing(if you can help it) find your own unique voice and express it though your art or craft.

15. How did you find Etsy and Boomers?
I was just browsing the forums and saw Boomers and checked in.

Please leave comments on the blog for this artist!

Meet Our Boomers

This week's interview is with Sassa from SassaLynne

1. What is the name of your shop/s?
It is a bit of a misnomer to say that I have two shops at the moment. I am currently selling from ‘Sassa Lynne, but I hope to have ’Nuvo Felt’ up and running before too long.

2. What kind of items do you sell?
With a couple of exceptions the items I have been selling at on Etsy, are all hand dyed. Even those that weren’t directly hand-dyed had/have elements of my dyeing in them (a couple of ACEO’s and a postcard). The theory is that anything stitched will be sold at Nuvo Felt, but all dyed goods will be a feature of Sassa Lynne at Etsy.

3. How did you find Etsy and Boomers also?
I was introduced to both Etsy and Boomers by my friend Liz Plummer. We both have a passion for textiles and originally met through an online textile group. I’ve probably known Liz for about 10 years now.

4. How long have you been engaged in your art/craft?
That’s a good question. I have always dabbled in crafts, learning to knit and sew as quite a young child. My grandmother was a court dressmaker, and she passed on scraps of precious fabrics that I used to make little bags, purses etc. In the mid 1980’s I was taken to a City and Guilds Embroidery Exhibition, I was blown away by what I saw but due to family circumstances I was unable to enroll until 1989. I loved the course, and ended up sourcing all sorts of products which I sold first to my fellow students and then to the wider public. We called the business Winifred Cottage, named after our Victorian cottage which was built for a girl called Winifred. I used to dye a few threads to keep my stock turning over. We called the range Sassa Lynne after our daughter, but it became too much. A friend took over, using my original recipes, and expanded the range a little. She adopted the name Sassa (real name Sarah like our daughter) but had to give up when her husband became terminally ill. I took up the dye pot again about 10 years ago and have developed the techniques I use now. Of course, I don’t get as much time to stitch as I would like, which is why Nuvo Felt is a little slow getting off the ground.

5. Do you consider yourself a hobbyist or a professional craftsperson?
I am definitely a professional crafts person. Apart from dyeing and selling I also teach and give talks at least once or twice a month.

6. What inspires you?
I am definitely inspired by colour! I find that I am using more and more unusual combinations as they develop in the dye bath. I am also inspired by nature and the Impressionists.

7. Please share with us what a typical day is like in your workshop or studio?
It is often a long day. I will probably start twisting dyed threads into skeins while I drink my early morning tea. After that I will sometimes sneak a little time to do some design work before breakfast. It’s surprising how much can be done when under pressure. The design may stay unused for some time, but at least it is there waiting to be developed. After breakfast we begin to put orders together – either those that come from our conventional website where we list our named range of threads (www.sassalynne.com) and some of our other supplies (www.winifredcottage.co.uk) or that come via telephone or Etsy. Once these are done I’ll start the dyeing. Threads have to be wound into skeins or hanks, and then introduced to the dye. Once the fixer is added they just sit there for a minimum of 3 – 4 hours, so I can get on with packaging threads and fibres. After dinner in the evening is the time we tackle paperwork!

8. What keeps you company while you are working on a project?
Silence! I love the sound of silence. I love being alone with my own thoughts. Also, some of the techniques I use are quite complicated so I don’t want too many distractions.

9. What is your favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?
I have to say that it is mixing colours.

10. What is your least favorite 'task' related to your art/craft?
Paperwork! (Fortunately my husband helps with this so it isn’t all my responsibility)

11. Would you care to share any 'words of wisdom' with other aspiring artists or crafters?
Go for it! You won’t know if you don’t try. You won’t make a million, but you will have a great time creating.

Please leave a comment for the artist/crafts person on this blog as she is sure to want to know what you think and what you can relate to!