Amanda Duncan

Name: Amanda Duncan

Age: 25

Location: Richmond, VA

Profession: Crafts/Material Studies Major, Senior

Craft(s) (s) of Choice: Metal/silversmithed jewelry, crochet, knitting, glass working, sewing/quilting

Blog: http://spin-me-a-yarn.blogspot.com

All I ever wanted to be was an artist, I only realize now that my idea of an ‘artist’ was a ‘crafter’. In 2006, I decided to go back and finish my degree, transferring to a school on the east coast with the intent to pursue a BFA in Fashion Design. Less than a semester in, I changed my mind. Time running out on a decision, my professor suggested perhaps Crafts was where I belonged. My response was keen surprise: “Crafts? There’s a major for Crafts?!” Who’d have thunk? Now, finally on the precipice of graduating, I’m in love, completely obsessed. I wake up in the morning with crafting on my mind and I go to sleep with new ideas brewing just waiting to take shape in my dreams. My main focus is metalsmithed jewelry, but I’ve recently acquired an unparalleled obsession (for me) for crochet and have rediscovered my adoration for fabrics and quilting. Being able to create means the world to me.

Andrea Stern

Name: Andrea Stern

Age: 45

Location: Chauncey OH USA

Profession: Artist

Craft(s) of Choice: Art quilting, beadwork, knitting, and plush

Blog: http://andibeads.blogspot.com

My Gran taught me to crochet when I was seven. I remember being so proud that I learned to make a basic chain. It was all I did for weeks. One day I took my crochet to show and tell, and the chain reached to the back of the classroom and back. My teacher was surprised and asked “Is that all you did?” I was so proud and said “Yes!” I vaguely remember her being a little disconcerted that I was so happy with just a simple chain. Since then I have learned to do a lot more. I taught myself to knit after my Gran died in 2000, and I always think of how proud she’d be to see how far I’d come since that initial first chain.

Cheryl

Name: Cheryl

Age: 38

Location: Las Vegas

Profession: Artist & mom

Craft(s) of Choice: Art Quilts, mixed media, collage

Blog: http://urbancrafter.typepad.com

I love to be create and I love even more to share what I know with others. Teaching and creating are my passions!

Christina Carr

Name: Christina Carr

Age: 36

Location: Escondido, CA

Profession: Special education teacher

Craft(s) of Choice: scrapbooking, cards, quilts

Blog: http://christinascreation.weebly.com

I’ve been making crafts forever. I’ve made so many crafts for Mother’s Day gifts and Christmas Gifts. I made most of the items that we used at my wedding. I also helped most of my friends with their weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, and birthday parties. I started scrapbooking in the early 90′s and my style has evolved over the years. This past summer I decided to step out of my comfort zone and see if I could sell my crafts. It’s been awesome to meet new people, to learn new craft techniques, and to even design my own website and open up my own online business.

Claudia Dunitz

Name: Claudia Dunitz

Age: 55

Location: Santa Fe, NM

Profession: Maker (of Natural Skin Care Products and Graphic Design)

Craft(s) of Choice: Knitting, Freeform Crochet, Art Quilting, Baking, Mosaics, Beading, Sewing, Embroidery, Surface Design, Painting, Printing, Fusing, Burning, Yikes – I can go on and on!

Blog: http://www.healmyhands.typepad.com

I don’t think there was a time when I didn’t make things with my hands.  In those days we “played outside” until it was time for supper.  We made forts and mud pies and played games with balls and sticks.  As I got older, I made cloths for my dolls, then clothes for myself.   As a young wife, I made clothes for my children to stretch the family budget.  I learned to knit and quilt.  My daughters learned to make what they didn’t have by watching me.  I was the Brownie Leader and we crafted constantly, at our meetings and at home.  We fed ourselves and warmed ourselves.  We baked, canned sewed and quilted by hand.  They made quilts for their dolls’ beds while I made quilts for our beds.

Today, both my daughters are makers.  My eldest daughter designs knitwear for children in addition to raising three, holding down a full time job, baking from scratch and knitting constantly.  She has just taught my youngest granddaughter, who is five, to knit.  My youngest daughter knits, sews, gardens and is a graphic artist.  Making has always been more than a crafty afternoon for us.  It has defined us as women and as a family.  It’s what we talk about on the phone.  What we share.  The first question always is: “So what are you making?”

Dale Anne Potter

Name: Dale Anne Potter

Age: 54

Location: Morse, Saskatchewan, Canada

Profession: Full-time artist

Craft(s) of Choice: art quilting, stamping, mixed media

Blog (if applicable): http://dpquiltsca.blogspot.com/

Everyday the world around me — nature, its textures, rhythms and colours, the materials at hand, fabrics, paper, found objects, and the movement of life — provide me with the ideas and enthusiasm to create new work.

Diane Black

Name: Diane Black

Age: 66

Location: Austin, TX

Profession: Retired Teacher

Craft(s) of Choice: Quilting. Paper Crafts

Blog: iliketomakethings.blogspot.com

I grew up in a crafty family where we made our own paper dolls and doll houses back in the 1950′s. 5 years ago when Hurricane Katrina changed my life forever, crafting saved me. I began to use my hands again to express myself sewing baby quilts completely by hand and making things from paper. I love turning small pieces of fabric or paper into things of beauty.

Fannie Narte

Name: Fannie Narte

Age: 53

Location: Texas

Profession: Artist

Craft(s) of Choice: Mixed Media Painting, Fiber Art, Quilting

Blog: http://fanniecarte.blogspot.com

My life once was routine with daily expectations as a wife, mom, fitness instructor, dance teacher and entertainer. Life was abundant, exciting, productive and fulfilling. Then health challenges turned my world upside down. My world disappeared. Gone were the things that defined me. Gone were the activities that moved the seconds and minutes of the clock into a new day. It’s as if someone erased my life’s history and left me empty and old. So many questions, feelings of insecurity–invisibility.

My journal became my nonjudgmental companion; my safe place. She helped me find my courage that was hidden below the layers of fears, pain and anguish. She helped me discover innovation through imagined possibilities. She helped me find gratitude as I attempted to reconcile sadness, loneliness and losses.

I had a pity party, and I was the only guest. Finally resigned to creating a new life and determined to make it exciting, I threw my emotions into creating, first with my sewing machine, and later with fiber and paints. I found a new life without daily expectations. My roles or daily activities no longer define me. I now attempt to express my ideas, beliefs, and thoughts through my writing and my art. These activities do not define me, but they help me define the world around me. Music, dance, songs; writing, painting, sewing; life, discovery, gratitude—they’re all art in different forms. I am an artist. I am a woman being.

Jennifer Coyle

Name: Jen Coyle

Age: 28

Location: Huntington Beach, CA

Profession: Financial Services/Asset Management

Craft(s) of Choice: Embroidery, knitting, sewing, quilting

Blog: http://stitchchick.blogspot.com

My earliest memory of being aware of crafts was my great-grandmother’s quilts. She used old feed sacks for the back and outgrown clothing from the family for the quilt top. The quilts made the past, and my family’s history real to me, and was a tactile reminder of a woman I had never met. I didn’t really start crafting until a few years ago, mostly as a counter balance to a high-stress job. I had always thought of crafts as either being fussy and out-dated (geese cross-stitch, anyone?) or requiring skills I lacked. I began knitting, and just feel in love with the ability to make useful things with my hands. I then moved onto embroidery once I found Sublime Stitching (love!), and became fascinated by the modern craft movement. I also began sewing and quilting, again, discovering the modern fabrics and patterns available. I have just loved learning skills that will allow me to  (hopefully) leave handmade goods from my life and family history to future generations, maybe a grandchild will have a picnic on one of my quilts someday. 

Jenna Zeidler

Name: Jenna Zeidler

Age: 27

Location: Champaign, IL USA

Profession: Assistant Librarian at a software company

Craft(s) of Choice: Oh, I dabble in so many things!  Knitting, thread crochet, sewing/quilting (So much faster than knitting!  Knitting is like making your own fabric and then creating something out of it while sewing seems one step ahead of the game to me!), polymer clay, paper crafts/origami, miniatures, jewelry, spinning, embroidery,

Blog: http://corgipants.blogspot.com 

Crafting to me is about learning different and varied skills. I was brought up crafting and it shaped my learning style.  I learn by doing, creating and thinking about the process, not just the end product.  It is also about being more self-reliant and prepared for the worst.  If push came to shove and I was forced to rely on myself to create my own shelter, food, clothing, shoes, etc., I feel secure in my ability to take on the challenge with all the knowledge I have amassed from the variety of projects I have tackled and the heritage skills and work ethic my parents instilled in me!

But let’s just say that major civilization meltdown never comes.  I’ll be a very happy, active senior! My degree is in Leisure Studies and one thing I really took to heart was the fact that the more recreational options you explore early on in life, the more choices you will be open to when you’re older. I am dedicated to trying new things not just for fun and enrichment now but to broaden my recreational opportunities once I’m AARP-age.