Focus On: Melody Murray

Profile: Melody Murray

Shop: http://www.salamanderhouse.etsy.com/

Blogs: http://salamanderhouse.blogspot.com/
http://satyridae.livejournal.com/

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Melody is a fellow member of EBW Team on Etsy.com. As she shares her unique take on the world her work tends toward amazing intricacy and nature themes.

Tell us about yourself. What makes you, you?

I'm a felicitous combination of genetic accidents. Or so I keep telling myself. I'm in training to be a fierce, curmudgeonly old woman but so far have only achieved intermittent crankiness. I grew up in the armpit of the Midwest. When I first breathed the Oregon air, I knew that I was home, and I've lived out here for 14 glorious years. I read a lot, I garden some. I like to cook and draw and bead and write. I am the only female in my immediate environment and most days it feels like I live in a frat house, complete with live lizards, empty milk cartons, and towering piles of skateboarding shoes.

Do you see yourself as an artist or craftsman or both?

I think of myself an artist. I have brooded a fair bit on the division between craftsperson and artist, and it feels pretty arbitrary to me. I have drawn the conclusion, which works for me, that all artists are craftspersons but not all craftspersons are artists. What made you want to be an artist?I don't know that I ever wanted to be an artist, I've always felt like I was one. In much the same vein, I don't think I ever wanted to have brown hair, but here it is. In big staggering letters in my baby book, I wrote "writer and artist" on the Ambitions page. I think I was 4 or 5.

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Why beads?

I like the exquisitely small bursts of color, the mosaic-like possibilities. I also like making beads, and am having a lot of fun with lampworking. I hope to start listing handmade beads in my Etsy shop before too much longer! My flameworking studio is currently under construction in my garage. I like working with tiny pieces, and seed beads scratch that itch.

How do you see your style?

Chaotic, untrammeled, experimental and humorous.

What's the most wonderful thing you've made? The oddest?

I think Poseidon's Deep is pretty amazing now that it's been completed for a while. I can't usually tell what I think about a piece till well after it's finished. The oddest thing was a little olive oil pitcher which I covered in tangles of neon green and pink beads for a friend of mine.

What inspires you?

Mostly science, scientists and how everything changes and expands the further into it one delves. Quantum physics is fascinating to me, especially because all the rules change on the quantum level. I'm inspired by the submicroscopic and the super-macroscopic. Cosmology intrigues me, and everything biological. Oxidation, fluid dynamics, cell division. Spooky action at a distance. True love. Music and art and piles of baby lizards in the sun.

What scares you?

The breakdown of civilization. It feels to me lately to me like the spectre of famine riding the horse of social collapse is moving away from the just barely possible and edging toward the probable. Though it's exhilarating to think we might just be able to reinvent a better civilization, my innate cynicism says it'll only get worse. Artistically, nothing scares me.

Tell us about your creative process.

It differs from day to day, hour to hour. Sometimes I sketch out an idea, sometimes I make a pattern and try to stick to it, but mostly I start with a vague idea and a pile of beads and end up with something entirely different than the initial idea.

How did you get on Etsy and where else do you sell?

I read about it on the internet and was intrigued. I went to the site and fell in love with all the fabulous handmade beauty. I mostly sell by word of mouth, to friends and friends of friends.

Describe your shop.

A place to buy one of a kind creations that will make you smile.

Make a recommendation.

Read the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. This series, ostensibly for kids, is so well-written and timeless it deserves a wider audience.

Also- buy handmade & homegrown whenever you can, of course.

Tell us the answer to a question that we didn't ask, but should have. If you can't think of anything, tell us something random.

I have 24 modules on my iGoogle homepage.

Art Deco Project Update

I wanted to focus on the Egyptian revivalism part of the Art Deco movement.

I planned a pretty delicate bracelet, but have put the idea off because of the expense of metal beads. So I decided to try a bead embroidered cuff.

I have this huge scarab from my Egyptian expedition and lots of turquoise and red beads! I sketched a few motifs on the stiff stuff as a kind of guide.

I'm a painfully slow bead embroiderer though. Here's how far I've gotten.

Try Handmade-- You'll Love It

Well-- of course you will! I tell people that all the time. You may too.

One of the awesome things about the Internet is that it allows ever more people access to handmade and also encourages them to give it a try.

This afternoon I was featured on a shopping blog called Try Handmade. A big thank you for the mentions and the mission!

I try to give handmade, figuring if people try it they'll be hooked! It's also pretty obvious to my friends that I like to get handmade.

Etsy has been an awesome place for me personally to get my hands on fabulous handmade bath and body products, makeup, paper products, bags and best of all, beads!

I read recently about a gal that starts conversations about handmade in grocery store lines! What about you? Are you a handmade convert? How do you get the word out? Where do you buy handmade?

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Voting Up!

The EBW Team has been beading fingers to the bone to prepare an incredible selection of lovelies for your viewing pleasure! Please take a moment to pick your favorite! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

It is a really tough call this time! Lots a blues, greens and greys. Lots of magic and imagination woven out of thousands of bitty glass beads!

Voting will go one for one week! Stay tuned!

Also don't miss your chance at some awesome SandFibers beadwork!
Click here and leave a comment to win!

SandFibers Treasury

The other day I did my first in the a series of Etsy Treasurys that I plan to devote to fellow EBW Team members.

This one goes out to Carol Dean Sharpe of SandFibers.

Carol Dean loves triangles, circles, glass beads, and fiber.
I searched sand on Etsy and one of Shayla Maddox's beach sand paintings came up. They're so cool! They glow in the dark! This one has circular and triangular motifs!

Impurevessel's Concrete Geo Vase and coweja's Round Floor Cloth also showed up in the sand search. So now I had a color scheme.

Searching through my favorites revealed some yarn by Larime Loom, some fabulous gold and death free silkworm cocoons and a hat. I knew Carol loves Dreamwoven's magic hats. I found one that had gold triangles and circles on it!

A search for triangles revealed a subtle and stunning hammered bracelet by jewelscurnow and a nifty sculpture by marthacowden.

I had to include one of Carol's own fabulous cuffs and her signature Copper and Turquoise was a perfect fit!

A glance at my own favorites offered an angular crow by AnnE and Sagacious Sea Creatures by Mary Lou of Time2Cre8. MaryLou is a friend of Carol's so that was serendipitous!

Amieplante's Waterlily Ring came straight from Carol's own favorites list.

You can see the Treasury larger for a few days by clicking here.

Welcome To Georgia

I live near Savannah, which is a *huge* tourist destination. But this isn't a touristy post. This is a take a walk with me post.

One thing I love about my home is that it's *always* green. Not that each tree is. Many of them die off in the winter, but the pines and the live oaks are green year round. I can get homesick for pines and oaks.


This is a magnolia in a wooded area. Lot's of wooded areas and forests to wander through.

Visitors love the spanish moss that hangs from everything. Eh-- I'm not wild about it. It's pretty, but it eventually grows all over the tree and the sunlight can't reach the leaves. Not so great for the tree. Crape Myrtles. They're pretty and smell nice. And I used to climb all over them. I'd hang upside down from them and
do back flips and somersaults out of them. My mom hated it! But they were only thing around that was small enough to climb.
Mimosa trees are pretty and grow in a nearby ditch.

Pill bugs or rolypolys. I used to play with these all the time. Sandlions, caterpillers . . .

inchworms, lizards, toads, frogs, snakes . . .

but not spiders. Well, I was playing with one when it bit me and then I stopped playing with them. Except for daddylonglegs.
And we have a fig tree. Yum!

Focus On: Amber Middleton

Profile: Amber Middleton

Shop: http://www.amberleilani.etsy.com/

Blog: http://www.yellowflower.blogspot.com/

Amber is a fellow member of the EBW Team on Etsy.com. She has a colorful retro style. This is her avatar on Etsy, the Marveen Bracelet.

Tell us about yourself. What makes you, you?

Maybe my friends and family should answer that! :) Well, let’s see… I live in New Orleans and have for about 11 years. I have been beading for about 15 years, and I guess I got really serious about it last year. I started getting into a few galleries and then opened my Etsy store. Now I spend most of my free time sitting at my work table, trying to keep up! I need to get more exercise! I’m a big ole nerd, I talk too much, and I am actually really easily distracted. I would much rather just read or watch a movie about half the time, or hang out with my friends, but I keep pushing myself to make this jewelry business happen. I want to give up constantly and just sit back and take it easy. But, I keep pushing myself, for whatever reason – determination or insanity? I just want to be my own boss. Period. I have never played well with others and the older I get, the less patience I have for punching someone else’s time clock.

Do you see yourself as an artist or craftsman or both?

Definitely both. I think of myself as a bead artist. I think that the artist part is what drives the creativity, but pushing yourself to develop your craft is essential to becoming the best artist you can be. I try to keep both the creativity alive and push myself to make the best product that I can.

What made you want to be an artist/craftsman?

I have always been a very creative person. I have had several experiences that have shaped my pursuit of art. The first was in the third grade when I won 3rd place in a drawing contest. After that, whenever anyone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was always “I want to be an artist”. I really wanted to be a fashion designer when I was in high school, and I planned to go to art school, but that didn’t work out. We won’t rehash that can of worms, though. I just love making things with my hands. I HAVE to make things. I can’t stop.

Why beads?

I went to a pow wow near where I am from in Georgia when I was in college. I was mesmerized by the Native American beadwork there. After I graduated, I had the opportunity to move to Tucson, Arizona and I spent almost 3 years out there while in my mid 20’s. I really got into beadwork while living there. I love the idea of taking these little dots of color and building something from them. I always wanted to be a painter, but I don’t paint very well. Beads give me the opportunity to paint with little tiny dots of color – and they don’t turn all grey or brown on me like oil paint does! Also, beadwork is one of the oldest forms of personal adornment. I get so mad when I see people act like beadwork is second rate to metal work.

How do you see your style?

Very retro. I like bold colors, simple lines, and geometric patterns. I see myself working in that area for a while. I am very drawn to color and pattern. And I like big, bold jewelry designs. I am a very small person, so I like to wear big jewelry. I wear my own work pretty much all the time, so I basically design what I like to wear.

What's the most wonderful thing you've made? The oddest?

I really don’t know what I would consider the most wonderful thing that I’ve made. Any time someone likes my work enough to buy it, I think it’s wonderful! The oddest think I have ever made would probably be a Christmas tree ornament shaped like a New Orleans shotgun house which I donated to the Louisiana Animal Shelter’s annual auction about 10 years ago. It was pretty ugly, but it sold.

What inspires you?

Oh, so much!!! I am inspired by weird things. I never really take in everything I see as a whole. I think I take in bits and pieces of things and then I reconstruct them to look the way I want them to. I very much live in my own little design space. About a year ago, I discovered the quilts of Gee’s Bend. I have more designs inspired by those quilts than I will ever have time to make. I am also very inspired by the works of Gustav Klimt, Piet Mondrian, and Frederick Hammersley, I also really like retro fashion, textile designs, and advertising prints, and of course, other beaders. The EBW Team is a great inspiration to me. Whenever I am feeling like I just can’t work – the muse is not talking to me – I just go onto Etsy and look at the Team’s work, and I always get inspired.

What scares you?

Never being able to fulfill my dream of being a full time, self supportive artist.

Tell us about your creative process.

Hmm… I don’t know if I really have one. I do have several sketch books which I keep on me or at my work table all the time. I don’t use patterns for my bracelets, and only for a few of my pendants. I really just work from a sketch or sometimes just an idea in my head. I work in the hallway of the tiny apartment I share with my companion, Joseph. My work bench is an antique writing desk. It’s a small space. I have a huge CD changer right next to it with the largest, oldest speakers on the planet. I will put on music – I HAVE to have my music when I bead. I like Big Mama Thornton, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Gillian Welch, Loretta Lynn. That’s what I listen to when I bead. I usually just get my sketchbook out, find a design I like, choose my color scheme and start beading. Of course, when Joseph wants to get a snack from the kitchen, I have to stop and let him go by, so I guess I work fairly sporadically most of the time!

How did you get on Etsy and where else do you sell?

I found out about Etsy from a guy at work. It took my about year to get up my nerve to open a shop. I have my beadwoven work at High Gloss in Houston, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans and at Thomas Mann Gallery I/O in New Orleans. I also have 2 other lines that I make from gemstones and vintage components which are carried by Tomato and Ragin’ Daisy - both of which are in New Orleans.

Describe your shop.

In bad need of a banner! When I first started selling on Etsy, I was told by several people I knew who had shops on Etsy, to put the emphasis on my lower end, gemstone and vintage pieces. They told me my woven pieces were too high end and probably would not appeal to Etsy shoppers. Since opening up my shop in April of this year, I have all but discontinued the other two lines. No one looked at them. The woven pieces get the hits and the hearts. That makes me more than happy, because those are the pieces that I truly love making. I think that shows in my shop. I hope that when people visit my shop they can see that I love what I do. I feel that I need to add more work, on a more regular basis. But I think you definitely see my style in each and every piece I have there.

Make a recommendation.

Work hard. Follow your dreams. Try new things. Treat yourself to some handwoven beadwork!!

Tell us the answer to a question that we didn't ask, but should have. If you can't think of anything, tell us something random.

Most people ask me about my name. I am named after my late mother. My family is from Georgia but she was born on Honolulu during WWII because my grandfather was in the navy and was stationed there. My grandmother loved the name Leilani. She named my mother Carol Leilani . When I was born my mother named me Amber Leilani. I have red hair and pale skin. I am not Hawaiian. And it’s my middle name, not my last name. It confuses even people who know me pretty well.