This week, we interviewed Angela of Seawall Glen. Let's go!
Tell us a little about the items in your shop. What do you make?
I make what I broadly refer to as "folk art", starting with Ukrainian Easter eggs (pysanky), a tradition which goes back thousands of years, and ending with black velvet painting, which is usually dismissed as '70s kitsch but I find charming and really lovely if executed properly. :) I also paint on regular canvas, do the odd bit of jewelry, and play around with Sculpey when the mood strikes.
What is your creative process?
It can go either way. Sometimes an image catches my imagination (a bird, a face, or a feeling given shape) and I work on reducing to an abstract representation. Sometimes I'm in the art store and I see a new medium (like Kleerkast, most recently) and think to myself, "Oooh, y'know what would be really cool to embed in clear resin?..." I have a LOT of ideas that can float around for ages until one of these processes pins them down.
Which Etsy Teams do you belong to?
TeamBPAL!
When you are not creating things, what do you do?
Drinking tea, inventing new recipes, reading books or blogs, going to movies and endeavoring either to enjoy them or pick them apart (most of my uni coursework was in film theory).
Tell us two random, interesting things about you.
I have held a live hummingbird (it had stunned itself against a window, but a classmate and I rescued it).
I can twitch my ears independently of one another.
What has been your proudest moment since opening your Etsy shop?
My first sale! :D People always compliment my work, but going so far as to pay money for it, maybe I'm shallow, but it's validating.
What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
Promote yourself outside of Etsy. Keep adding new items. And join a team!
What handmade possession do you cherish?
I would have to say this mug I bought from a fellow TeamBPAL member. It's beautiful, one of a kind, and it holds 16 oz of tea---that's the sort of thing Finnish folk heroes sail across oceans to fight monsters for. :)
If you could have any item on Etsy regardless of price, what would it be?
Probably one of these taxidermy unicorns.
What other skill or talent do you wish you could possess, if you had not taken this creative path?
I would opt for more talent as a singer or an instrumentalist (piano, guitar or drums).
Where can we find you on the web?
www.twitter.com/seawall
Thanks for the interview, Angela! We'll return once again in two weeks with another interview.
Very nice. :) Your work is beautiful! Seems like a lot of us are drawn to music, lol.
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