When Heather asked me if I would be interested in completing Craft’s 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 questionnaire, I was very keen on the idea.  While I write every day about craft ideas and the physical process of creating things, it’s not all that often that I get a chance to talk in-depth about why I create and the emotional energy that goes into making stuff!

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of

1:  I love making miniature things, especially ones that look very realistic.  I think the best miniature I’ve ever done was a set of dollhouse horse head bookends made using toy horses and popsicle sticks.  Tiny things are just so much fun!

Two Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

1:  Touching partially-cured resin.  Okay, it wasn’t on purpose; I picked something up that I didn’t realize had resin drips on the bottom side.  I don’t recommend it to anyone, it was a huge pain in the butt to get it off of my skin!

2:  Dropping out of art school.  I jumped headlong into a really challenging and serious program, and 18-year-old me wasn’t ready for the pressure.  I always swore I would go back but I somehow never got around to it.  Instead, I have 106 credits at the local community college, with classes in just about every subject you can imagine.

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique

1:  I’m not afraid to experiment.  New materials and techniques are exciting to me, and I love trying things I’ve never done before.

2:  I have a strange, whimsical, geeky, twisted style and sense of humor, and I think that shows itself in a lot of my work.  (Basically…  I’m a weirdo.)

3:  Having a diverse background in many mediums, from oil painting to lampwork  glass to paper crafting and many other things in between, gives me a unique way of seeing materials.  I like combining techniques from different disciplines to come up with my own way of doing things.

Four Tools You Love to Use

1:  My binding machine.  I found a great deal on a twin loop wire binder a few years ago and used it to turn all of my cereal boxes into notebooks.   The machine paid for itself in a single craft show!

2:  My precision tip scissors.  They’re perfect for snipping in itty-bitty corners and nooks.

3:  My round-nose jewelry pliers.   I use wire in a lot of projects, and as far as I’m concerned there is no more essential tool for wire.

4:  Where oh where would I be without my hot glue gun?

Five Inspirations

1:  Nature.  I grew up in the country and am lucky enough to live right in the heart of some of the best hiking in the Midwest, so I’ve always enjoyed spending a lot of time outdoors.  I love working with materials like leaves and acorns that I find while I’m out in the woods.

2:  Architecture.  I’ve always enjoyed styles that are a little different, especially Gothic and Googie.   If you’ve never heard of Googie architecture, think buildings that look like they belong in The Jetsons.

3:  Being broke.  No, really!  Living a very frugal lifestyle makes you see things differently, and that view of the world nurtures and entirely different kind of creativity and inspiration.

4:  Geekery.  I’m an old-school nerd from way back.  I was coding HTML in Notepad in 1992.  I’ve seen every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.   I heart being a nerd,  and I enjoy bringing nerdy ideas and references into my work.

5:  Other artists and crafters.  I love seeing what other people are doing and how they are using materials.  I keep an eye out for innovative thinkers who do things I’ve never seen before, and often find the work of others to inspire me to try new materials or techniques.