Meet my followers: Beth

Bunny bracelet

This week, I'd like to introduce you to Beth Murr.  I think she is a recent follower of my blog and I hadn't come across her work until today, when I came to write this post! But now that I have, I'm very glad.  She does lovely beadwork creating bugs, fish, bees, butterflies.... and needle cases and..

Here's Beth in 2008 at Acadia National Park

She's been working with beads for a long time now, initially beading on a tiny loom.  She is best known for her needle cases, and you can buy her patterns and see her videos on how to make them. Here is lovely collection of some of her needle case patterns:

Of course, the birdhouse one is my favorite of these

I love the honeybee one the best

White rabbit needle case pattern

Beth's website is "Until we bead again" and her blog is untilwebeadagain.blogspot.com

In addition to her needlecase patterns, more recently on her blog, you'll see some other beaded animals and insects made into jewelry:

Buzzy bee bracelet

I can just imagine the wings flapping on these beadwork butterflies. 

All her patterns are instant downloads, so you can get started straight away. She has many free videos too on how to do all the different stitches involved.

In addition to beadwork, Beth also works in clay. These remind me of gargoyles:

When Beth is not busy doing all this creative work, she is a nurse and she has just made the big decision go back to school and get her Master's degree! Good for you Beth.  I hope you still find time to create too! I know how time consuming school can get!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing Beth's work. I love the delicate bead work. I've never done beadwork before and I particularly like to see all the bugs and insects featured in Beth's work.

Chanticamp!

Sorry, too busy with my singing workshop - "Chanticamp" - this week to blog about one of my followers!  Will be back tomorrow with regular blog posts again.

That's me - far left at the front, waiting for rehearsal to start at Chanticamp

The concert is this afternoon.  Fingers crossed it all comes together!

Meet my followers: Coleen

Today I'd like to introduce you to Coleen who lives in Southern California. I see from my records that she first commented on my blog in 2008 and that was the start of many conversations between us!  I think since that time, she has always featured some of my work on her blog. Thank you for that Coleen.  You are a wonderful supporter.

She describes herself as a wannabe artist but  sadly I don't know what art she does. Maybe if she reads this she will tell us in the comments.

Coleen is someone who just loves to shop,  and so she created her blog "Something just to start" as a virtual art gallery filled with lots of different things.  Her blog banner makes you want to sit down with a cup of coffee,  relax and browse!

Coleen also loves cooking, chocolate, and baking. This means you'll find quite a few foodie things and recipes on her blog, as well as some other musings.  By reading her blog, you'll also find out when it is national donut day, and national apple pie month...... and many more such important national dates!!

She is a big fan of Snoopy/Peanuts and in fact all dogs, but especially labs.  I hope one day we will see some of her art, but in the meantime, it's great that she is a fun curator of other people's art, bringing together lots of artists on her site and supporting us all.  Thanks Coleen, it is much appreciated.

Meet my followers: Anna

Today I'd like to introduce you to Anna Hull, commonly known as "The Bunny Maker". I first "met" Anna when she joined the merry go round several years ago.  Then she got super busy and went onto other things. At that time, her business was called Half an acre and she made brightly colored wooden fun things. There were no bunnies then.

Widget

Fred the love bunny

Anna lives in West Sussex, UK, with her husband and three boys.  One of her boys loves bunnies and has 42 of them. One day she made a bunny for him out of a sock....and then made another....and then the other boys wanted one....and then their friends did...and then Widget and friends were born! Widget was one of the first bunnies she made and he got his very own blog to tell stories about his life living at The Warren, and all his friends.

Anna

Anna has her own website - Widget and Friends, a blog - The Bunny Maker and also a store on Folksy.

Bunnies going to a new home

The bunnies are well rounded animals and can frequently be seen pursuing various activities:

Cellist bunny

Baritone bunny

The individual bunnies come with some help for the new owners, for example, Loopy and Scoop the twins are not identical twins.  "Loopy likes Hula Hoops and Scoop likes Cheerios.  Neither food item is terribly good for the bunnies and the new owner should look to change their diet somewhat."

I hope Widget and his friends have cheered up your Sunday!   Nice to meet them all Anna.

Meet my followers: Joy

I'm really delighted to introduce you to Joy Funnell today - one of the followers of my blog.  I first "met" Joy at the beginning of 2010 when she purchased a couple of pairs of my early aluminum earrings. From then on, I started reading her blog and following her creations.  I remember one of the first blog posts that I read of hers. It was about her trip to Japan and how she made a necklace inspired by a drain cover!  Check out her "down the drain" post!

Spirito di Venezia by Joy

Joy is a metal clay artist and senior instructor living in Hastings in the UK. She runs many classes - either for certification in metal clay, or beginner or specific technique classes.  She is an instructor at the upcoming Metal Clay World conference this July.   Her work can be seen in many different publications.  Her blog is called "fired with imagination" and she sells her work, and metal clay, on her website.

She often combines wonderful enamel work with metal clay and has devised a clever method to make the "cells" for enamelling from silver wire.  Her work always looks so neat. Here is one of my favorite examples of her enamelling:

Something fishy by Joy

She joined my "bird a week" challenge so it's been great to see her creativity channeled to birds at least once a week.  Look at this wonderful example:

La Fenice by Joy

Through our correspondences, I find out that she's worked in many other media too, including wood carving, glass work and has recently taken classes in ceramics.

The back of Joy's pieces are a delight as well as the front. She takes real care with the reverse side, often adding stones and always her signature.   Here's a great example:

And I have to end with one of my other favorites - (I know - it's like all of her work is my favorites!). This brooch just makes me laugh! It is one of her bird a week pieces, and shows a wonderful group of little birdies' faces with their eyes looking in different directions!!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing Joy's work. There is such a happy spirit behind it all and I look forward every week to seeing her newest bird.  I'm hoping that we can meet face to face one of these days on one of my trips back to the UK.  Timing didn't work out this trip, but maybe in November???

Meet my followers: Suzanne

Today, in my "meet my followers" post, I want to introduce you to Suzanne Carpenter.  She is a follower of my blog but we've never been in touch so the information I'll share with you here is what I've learned from her websites.  I'm so glad I've found her - her work is so happy and cheery :-D

Suzanne is an illustrator who lives in Wales.  Apparently she loves to talk but does occasionally sit quietly drawing and doodling. She began doing collage.....moved through a sequin and bead phase, then back to collage and then one day found the computer and started creating digital pictures!

She still does some collage work and hasn't given up her glue stick but most of her work is now digital.

I think this is Suzanne below!:

I love how she uses her illustrations to guide you around her website - like birds to tell you what to do:

She creates picture books, portraits, patterns, all with these wonderful vibrant colours.

She also offers workshops for libraries and schools.

Here are some of the childrens' books she has illustrated that are available on Amazon:

Her work just makes me smile! Delightful illustrations to please both children and adults.  I'm so pleased I have started my "meet my followers" regular blog posts as it makes me find time to look at the fun creativity of others.  So glad to have found your happy world Suzanne.

Meet my followers : Julie

On Sundays, I like to introduce you to someone who has been a follower of my blog and show you their work.  I hope you enjoy meeting them. Today I want to introduce you to Julie Blanchette.  She has been a follower of my blog for quite a while now.  She told me that she first came across my work on Craftgawker. If you aren't familiar with craftgawker, you should take a look. It definitely is a good way to be seen by a lot of people.

Geeky maths gnomes by Julie - notice the maths symbols on each gnome

Anyhow, Julie asked to interview me in February 2010 for an article on Handmadespark - The Five Sparks interview.  We chatted back and forth via email, she did a lovely interview, and that was how I came to find her work!

Felted Bunnies by Julie

Julie is a French Canadian from Montreal and now lives in Sydney, Australia.  In between caring for  her three children, she makes animals and figures by needle felting. Needle felting is a process where you repeatedly stick a barbed needle in and out of wool roving so that it mats to make felt.  You then sculpt figures by adding more wool to certain places.  It's quite sore on the fingers when you accidentally miss the wool and stab yourself with a barbed needle!

Julie sells a tutorial in her Etsy store on how to needle felt, teaching you to make a little pocket gnome! I can just see her kids carrying these around in their pockets at school!

It's lovely to hear Julie describe her life in Australia with beauty all around.  She lives on the coast and does her needle felting sat on an old church pew in a room in her home, looking out over the water.

Mother and Child by Julie

I hope you've enjoyed meeting Julie and seeing her work. Hope all is well with you Julie.  Come back and see who I interview next week...it may be you!

Meet my followers: Riet

I'm starting a new regular Sunday post theme (- apart from those Sunday's once a month when my hubby John writes about the vineyard).  So the majority of Sundays will be a day when I introduce you to someone who follows my blog.

It's an opportunity for me to get to know my readers better - and also a chance to share their art with you too.  Each week I'll randomly choose someone....so maybe your turn will be next week???

Anyhow today let's meet Riet. 

That's Riet on the right (I think) with her friend Patty

Riet started following my blog a few months ago, after finding me through the Merry Go Round blog post.  She lives in Sittard in the Netherlands and her first language is Dutch. She is your perfect blog follower, as she so frequently writes comments! I always look forward to reading what she has to say - lovely positive, happy comments. I do so appreciate them Riet.

Riet does felting work making hats, scarves, wall hangings and occasionally other things too. Here are some of her hats:

For the scarves, she often uses the technique of nuno where you felt wool onto another fabric like linen or silk.  Here are some of her nuno scarves:

My favorite one is one that she did for part of the "bird a week" challenge".  Here it is - a lovely felted scarf with a little birdie and some flowers and on it. It's felt on linen:

Yes, she  decided to join my "Bird a week" challenge at the beginning of the year - even though she didn't know how to use Flickr and rarely creates birds. But since then, she's kept up creating a different bird each week and made some wonderful creations -and now seems like a dab hand on Flickr!!!

She blogs just about every day, like me.  Although her blog is in Dutch, there is a translate button so you can read it in whatever is your favourite language. The google translations aren't perfect, but you get the gist.  She also has some tutorials listed there in Dutch and English so if you want to know more about nuno, take a look.

She sells her wares at shows but I'm not sure if she sells online too.  Hopefully she will read this in fill in the missing info!!

Anyhow - you are a wonderful follower and friend Riet...and we learn something new about each other each week...like she has a Scottish husband too!  Thank you for your support. It really makes a difference. (Please correct anything I've got wrong!).