About Me
I am a multidisciplinary artist with a deep love for storytelling through color, movement, and materials. My creative path has included expressive painting, lampwork glass, knitting and jewelry making. Whether I'm capturing emotion on a canvas with paint or collage, knitting with intention, or sculpting with fire, my work is about connection, joy, and the everyday beauty of handmade things.
If it's art to brighten a space, a card to let someone know they matter, a tip to grow your knitting skills, or simply a little nudge to start a sketch book, I'm here to help you create the art of being you!Making and creating has always been part of my life and it has taken me down several artistic paths with knitting being a constant.
Here is my journey.
My life has been a creative journey. My mother was an amazing seamstress. She could sew just about anything. I was not very interested in sewing but always fascinated by the fabric. In the 1990's when scrapbooking became a thing, I wanted to make the paper that was used more than doing the actual scrapbooking but had no idea how or who did that sort of thing. I now know that is called Surface Pattern Design and I absolutely love making patterns that are cheerful and happy.
Jewelry making has been a major part of my creative journey. Many years ago, I took a two hour glass bead making class at my local stain glass store. The technique is called Lampworking or Torchworking. Basically a rod of colored glass is melted in a torch and formed into different shapes. I fell in love with the process and started melting glass whenever I could. Eventually I started making beads for other jewelry designers, bought a bigger torch and moved into my home studio, otherwise known as the garage! I also had jewelry pieces included in several publications, such as Bead Unique and Belle Armoire.
November 2012 I left my “day job” to become a full time jewelry artist, or so I thought! On my first day of self employment, a friend took me to lunch to celebrate. As we were talking, I told her about a project that I had in my head. My idea was to make glass fish and put them inside a glass container and make a no maintenance aquarium. She asked me to make one for her to put on her desk at her new job she was starting in two weeks. After several tries, I figured it out and it started an entirely different path for me. I started doing Art Shows and selling in local art galleries.
As I was trying to get this new found art business going, I joined a business group that had many knit and crochet designers, indie yarn dyers and fiber people. One of them asked if I could make a sheep stitch marker. Since I am a knitter myself, it was very important to me that they be snag-free, light and functional as well as cute! After many tries, I made my first stitch marker. So again, after a suggestion from a friend, things started shifting very quickly. Soon more and more people wanted them and eventually focused on stitch markers and progress keepers!
My dear husband passed suddenly and my world had turned upside down. The rhythm of the needles and moving the stitches has given me comfort as I navigate through my
grief. I know knitting has so many therapeutic benefits in addition to knowing how to create beautiful items. This is why I offer knitting tutorials and share tips and free patterns.
Now I am painting and I LOVE it! I feel so many things I have learned through my creative path have lead me here. My favorite tool is a palette knife and my favorite subject is flowers and nature. Painting from a reference is not something I like to do unless I am doing something like a pet portrait where I want to get all the details correct. Usually I paint from my memory and just let it flow. There is an abstract quality with some of my work and I will be diving deeper into that.
I am so glad you are along for the ride!
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