Member Artisan Profile: Metrychick (& Giveaway!)

Meet glass artist Celeste of Metrychick. Celeste has been creating all of her life and considers herself fortunate to make money doing something she loves.

Her connection to Louisiana runs deeply. She explains, “My family chose New Orleans and I think it was destiny. My grandpa came here on a buckboard from Picayune, Mississippi -- first generation Italian. My grandmother was born here, second generation Italian. My mother emigrated here from Cuba in '68. I was MEANT to be from here. People traveled to make SURE I would be here. I was born and raised here. Actually, about two miles from where I live and here I was raised to be independent, and a high thinker, and to always wonder and want to learn. I was lucky to have a lot of knowledgeable people in my life and I am blessed.”

In fact, it is her love for her hometown that inspires her art. Celeste says, “I look for what hasn't been done yet. I did that with the New Orleans NOstaLgiA and will keep going.” Her biggest challenge, she says is keeping her work “evolving and fresh, and new, while retaining the spirit of my love of New Orleans and Metry.”

While many artists etch glass, Celeste’s items are unique in that she cuts each piece by hand. “No stencils, no machines, just me, a pattern and my knife.“



Celeste’s favorite piece is a 45-inch diameter bowl (yes, 45 inches!). “I etched over 50 fleur de lis on it,” she says. “My customer told me when they bought it and put battery operated lights in it, the fleur de lis cast a shadow on every wall of the room. It was magical.”

When asked her favorite bit of advice for other artists/sellers, she offers the following: “Keep with it. Pick something you love and stick with it.”

What’s next for Celeste? Perhaps stained glass. “I would love to learn how to solder,” she says. “I have the stuff, but no one to teach me. I can just imagine the art I can make...”



On a personal note, Celeste works part time, home schools two daughters and is a proud military wife. “I love my life and my family. Part of that is loving me and my art,” she notes.

Celeste’s creations can be found on the following:

On Etsy: hvnlydesigns.etsy.com

On her blog: Metrychick.com

On Facebook: Metrychick


~*~*~ You can win a little Piece of Metry Chick! ~*~*~

You can win this beautiful etched candy dish bowl with a lovely jazz second line etched on it.

How do you win this awesome piece?

HOW TO WIN:

1. Visit Celeste's Shops at any of the above links. Come back and leave a comment on which item is your fave!

2. Visit one of these shops belonging to my fellow members. Come back and leave a comment on which of their items is your fave!

Flambeaux Design Company

Amelia Amos Soaps

BRKids

You must leave a link to the items and you must complete steps 1 AND 2 to be entered. You MUST leave a URL, email, or contact IN your comment for us to contact you when you win! We have to have some way to contact you, via your shop, blog, whatnot if you don't want to leave your email.

You have until February 23rd to get your comments in!

Extra entries:

1. Send an email to merry[at]handmadelouisiana[dot]com with your email address for our future mailing list.

2. Tweet, Facebook, or promote this contest. You MUST provide a URL where you promoted this so we can verify.

3. Join our Facebook Group.Please make sure your Facebook account is set so we can contact you, and include info about yourself (friend, buyer, seller, artist, etc) in your application.

If you would like to join Handmade Louisiana please email Merry at merry[at]handmadelouisiana[dot]com and she'll send you what you need to know! There is never any cost to join HML although we do have membership requirements.

Good luck!

Member Artisan Profile: Art on the Half Shell

I’m pleased to introduce Suzanne, artist/owner of Art on the Half-Shell. She has two unique lines of home accessories. First is A Dozen Oysters on the Half Shell, featuring beautifully, hand-crafted wall clocks featuring a dozen oyster shells, set like the hours, around a unique collection of dinner plates and platters. Each creation is accented with sea glass in rich hues of sapphire, emerald, ruby and gold.

Suzanne’s second is She Sells Seashells by the Seashore. Inspired by collecting shells on the beach, her wall clocks feature an oyster shell with a real pearl at the 12 o’clock hour and assorted seashells, set like the hours, around the plate rim. Smaller seashells line plate bottom like minutes.

Suzanne has been creating all her life, but says, “My work has changed over the years as one’s life changes. Originally I dabbled in fine arts, then hand-painted jewelry, frames and mirror frames. After I started a family, I began doing custom painted table and chair sets, stepstools and rocking chairs for children.”

Suzanne enjoys working with her hands whether it’s creating jewelry, painting or, she adds, “re-tiling the master bathroom in a travertine mosaic I designed and installed myself!”

When asked which is her favorite piece, she says, “Oh, that’s a hard one. I have many. One of my favorite pieces is the clock that looks like a dozen oysters on the half-shell served up on a bed of crushed ice. I’ve done a few pieces like this, but my favorite is a clock made from an over sized round platter, lined with quartz white sea glass and a hint of pale coral colored sea glass. The oyster shells are set like the hours around the platter. You can almost taste the cool salty oysters when you check the time!”

So just how did Suzanne start creating wall clocks? She explains:

“One cold evening last fall, my two daughters and I were throwing a tennis ball inside the house for our puppy. I left the room for just a moment and then heard a crash and breaking glass. Thinking the ball had hit the window, I ran into the kitchen to find my girls in tears and my FAVORITE oyster shell kitchen clock shatter I'd had the clock for almost 20 years. The old white plate and dusty oyster shells were in pieces scattered across the kitchen counter and the floor.

No one was hurt though so I said ‘Girls, we'll just have to find a new clock. No more tears.’ Well a few weeks later, we still had not been able to find a replacement, so I decided to reconstruct the broken clock. I bought a new plate, a rich sandy colored one, speckled like real beach sand. My husband drilled a hole through the center of it for the clock movement and clock hands, which had amazingly survived the crash. I glued the oyster shells back together piece by piece and re-assembled my clock complete with the Mardi Gras bead pearl at the 12 o'clock hour. It looked great, with just a few scars.

A few weeks later, my husband and I had oysters on the half-shell at one of our favorite restaurants and I brought the shells home. We cleaned them, sealed them and made another clock.

It was so much fun that we decided to make a few clocks to give to our family and friends for the holidays, which were coming up soon. We collected more oyster shells, bought new plates in different colors, shapes and sizes, and found a supplier for the clock parts. We got creative and added seashells, sea glass, real pearls, and even beach sand. After the holidays I started getting requests for more clocks and thus our little business began - ART ON THE HALF-SHELL! We've made and sold over 50 clocks now and are thrilled to be joining the artists at Handmade Louisiana!”


Suzanne’s favorite aspect is “finding and creating the personality in each clock. No two oyster shells are the same. They range in color, texture and size.”

The biggest obstacle to her art is safety when using the oyster shucking tool. As Suzanne puts it, “Oyster shucking can be a dangerous job.”

Suzanne’s advice for other sellers is, “love your work when it’s finished! If it’s not right yet, work on it some more. It shows in the end.”

Although, she’s not currently living in Louisiana, her connection runs deep: “I’m a New Orleans native and have only been gone from the city for four years now. My husband’s career has taken us temporarily away, but we go back several times a year to visit friends and family.”

What’s next for Art on the Half Shell? Suzanne explains, “since moving to Monterey County I have discovered Abalone Shells. They have beautiful iridescent mother of pearl insides and I am working on a new series of clocks using abalone shells from the local abalone farm in Monterey.”


Suzanne’s work can be found on Etsy -- http://www.sfweichert.etsy.com/ , on Artfire -- http://www.sfweichert.artfire.com/ , and on Ebay.

Member Artisan Profile: The Crafty Kind

Meet Kristin, artisan/owner of The Crafty Kind. After receiving a Murano glass pendant from Italy as a gift, she decided she wanted to learn to make them. She’s now been fusing glass for 8 years and specializes in jewelry-making supplies such as fused glass beads, cabochons, donuts and toggles.

Kristen is most inspired by color. She says, “I like making unusual color combinations that, in the end, make a great piece.”

When asked which is her favorite piece, Kristen replies, “Right now, my favorite is a focal bead set I made in Greens and Blues. Although, I am impartial and love them all! I won't sell anything I wouldn't buy myself."

Working with glass, Kristen explains, “is like working with a new material every time I make something new.” She elaborates, “if I make a design and expect it to look a certain way, it may take a totally different direction once it is fired in the kiln. Then again, I may throw something together in a minute and it looks fabulous. It's always a fun surprise.”

Her biggest challenges are the increased competition and increased material costs. “Fused glass has become so popular and there is a lot of competition to sell supplies. The price of raw fused glass has gone up, but I now sell for less, which is really sad,” she says.



She offers the following advice to other sellers: “Make things you love because if you're successful, you may be doing it for a while.” Creating your own unique look is important, too. Kristen says, “I try to make things that others don't, which is hard for a glass artist. I have signature pieces and develop new designs all of the time.”

What’s next for The Crafty Kind? “I have two daschunds and always wanted to make them sparkly accessories,” Kristen says. “I just got a metal lettering punch set, so I see that for a future project.”

Kristen recently moved to Louisiana from Florida. “I hope to develop an event production company to promote arts/crafts fairs and festivals with music,” she explains. “That is why I joined Handmade Louisiana. I recently put together a local craft club for crafters to hang out and swap techniques; we'll be meeting every month at different locations.”

She is not currently selling off-line, but hopes to have her items in a bead shop someday. In the meantime, visit her Etsy shop to view her beautiful work:

http://www.thecraftykind.etsy.com/

Member Artisan Profile: DebiDeaux

Meet DebiDeaux, creator of handmade flamework glass – beads, sculpture and wearable art. Her fascination with beads came at an early age when, as a child, she would catch glass beads at Mardi Gras parades and would restring them, explaining, “I just had to do something with all those pretty little baubles.”

DebiDeaux began creating with glass for years ago. Her favorite material – no surprise here – is glass. She uses dichroic, pure silver and cubic zirconium in her beads.

Where does she find inspiration? “My garden and the wonderful colors of nature are my biggest inspiration, “ Debi says, “but sometimes all it takes is just the right combination of colors in a magazine or book and off I go to put those colors in a bead.”

Confetti Necklace

Her favorite piece changes regularly, but she is partial to one called “Beached.” Featuring an ivory base with dichroic* and handmade murrini**, it looks like something that might have washed up on a beach.

Debi’s favorite part of the creative process “I can hardly wait to see how a piece comes out after waiting overnight for it to cool down.

DebiDeaux has a deep Louisiana connection. She lives in the New Orleans area. “I grew up in Mid City and now live in the Algiers Point neighborhood,” Debi says. “I traveled extensively in my younger years and never found another area to equal the fun, pleasure and cultural diversity that can be experienced in New Orleans, Louisiana.”DebiDeaux works from her home-based studio in Algiers Point neighborhood. In fact one of the biggest obstacles she faces as an artist is the incredible summer heat. “On excessively hot days my studio can get unbearably hot,” she explains.

Debi walks her dogs on the levee every day and often returns home full of fresh ideas for her studio. In addition, she’s looking forward to a very busy this fall with the local Arts Markets and Festivals.

Glass Rosebud Ring

Her advice for other sellers: “Hang in there! It can sometimes take a while to get started but with networking, a good product and a steady work ethic you can do it.”

What’s next for DebiDeaux? “I would love to learn glass fusing, which is a totally different discipline but when I look around at all the leftover glass from my beadmaking, it just seems like there should be a way to use it.”

DebiDeaux’s amazing glass pieces can be found:
On her personal website: http://www.debideaux.com/
On Artfire: http://www.debideaux.artfire.com/
On Etsy: http://www.debideaux.etsy.com/

To learn more about DebiDeaux:
Visit her blog: http://debideauxdesigns.blogspot.com/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1598865154&ref=name
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/debideaux

Finally, her show schedule is posted at http://www.debideaux.com/shows.htm

* Dichroic glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD. It features multiple micro-layers of metal oxides which provides optical properties.

** Murrini refers to pulled cane, when cut the cross section reveals either a picture or pattern. The multiple-step process, spread over several days begins by layering different colors of glass, once squared in shape, stretched vertically and placed into the annealler (a cool-down oven). Slowly cooling the cane through the annealing process allows the glassmaker to cut 1/4″ slices without the cane shattering. Slices are then arranged into a mosaic, heated and rolled onto the exterior of a crystal bubble.