Editor-in-chief, craft-a-holic, awesome indie gift finder extraordinaire.
Hello! My name is Anne, and I love DIY. I grew up in the Metro Detroit area. Crafting and DIY is in my blood. My mom has remodeled her own kitchen like 4 times. She feels at home in a wood shop. She crochets, knits, sews {she sewed my entire wardrobe one year...I think i was 2?}... I think she gave me the confidence to try anything I wanted to do, she is pretty fearless like that... very clever and inventive! I have been crafting since I was 9, when I learned how to macrame friendship bracelets at Girl Scout camp. Then my mom taught me how to sew on her old Singer. I quickly moved on to making barbie clothes, purses and bags to carry my stuff, then onto clothing. What I create has always evolved from what I want for myself.
In school I always loved art classes: ceramics, painting, drawing, but especially cutting and pasting. {love. i have always been very mixed media} I took graphic design but back then it was boring. it wasn't digital. it wasn't for me! I liked making collages with pics from magazines, writing phrases on them, making thought bubbles say funny things. My teacher didn't really appreciate my aesthetic.
When I found the grateful dead at 17, I was mesmerized! Other people liked to sew, and bead and crochet n stuff?? I was amazed. I started making bone chokers and peyoting stitching like crazy. I bead embroidered flowers all over my corduroy overalls. I embroidered on the hems of my calico patchwork dresses. total hippie... I started selling my jewelry at 18, at dead shows and to friends of friends.
I traveled to the West Coast of the US in 1994, spent a few years traveling, making and selling my art and jewelry at shows up and down the coast, stopping to visit friends, caretook a summer camp one winter, then an abandoned homestead up in Humboldt County: {Weitchpec, CA} the next summer for my herbal apprenticeship.
I settled in San Diego in 1998 to go to school to become a Holistic Health Practitioner, Herbalist, Aromatherapist, and Esthetician, specializing in herbal skincare. By 2005, I was working at a 5 star resort spa in San Diego.
Through everything I have found time to create. Crafting & art is my meditation, I LOVE to crochet, sew, embroider, cross stitch, paint. and I love urban art. graffiti. found and recycled art. In 2006 I collaborated with a group of other urban artists, and we started hosting art & fashion shows in our favorite bars and restaurants around downtown San Diego.
In 2007, I moved back to the Metro Detroit area from San Diego to be close to my parents. I started investigating ways to sell the 100+ pieces of jewelry and art I had made. I found Etsy in 2007, and set up my shop. For the first year I struggled with photos, listing, promotion, etc. I didn't really put much into it. I was working full time as an Esthetician and my shop got neglected.
I started The Handmade Gift Guide in October of 2009, shortly after getting back into selling on Etsy after taking a break from working as an Esthetician to have a baby girl. For 3 years, I blogged about cute stuff that I found online that I would love to buy for my family! Or for my puppies. cool clothes and art, or gluten free cupcakes... mmm those flor de sal caramels.... Or just some stuff that I loved... projects I was working on... and I took classes online to learn photoshop, lightroom, and indesign...
I love to support the handmade/independent {or what I refer to as "indie"}retail movement here in Detroit.
I have had various Etsy shops of my own: Bijoux Paperie, Lillian George, and now my graphic design shop: Renovation Alley... so I know the challenges faced by crafters online. I have learned so much, and love to share my knowledge about buying and selling on Etsy, blogging, and product photography with my clients.
In school I always loved art classes: ceramics, painting, drawing, but especially cutting and pasting. {love. i have always been very mixed media} I took graphic design but back then it was boring. it wasn't digital. it wasn't for me! I liked making collages with pics from magazines, writing phrases on them, making thought bubbles say funny things. My teacher didn't really appreciate my aesthetic.
When I found the grateful dead at 17, I was mesmerized! Other people liked to sew, and bead and crochet n stuff?? I was amazed. I started making bone chokers and peyoting stitching like crazy. I bead embroidered flowers all over my corduroy overalls. I embroidered on the hems of my calico patchwork dresses. total hippie... I started selling my jewelry at 18, at dead shows and to friends of friends.
I traveled to the West Coast of the US in 1994, spent a few years traveling, making and selling my art and jewelry at shows up and down the coast, stopping to visit friends, caretook a summer camp one winter, then an abandoned homestead up in Humboldt County: {Weitchpec, CA} the next summer for my herbal apprenticeship.
I settled in San Diego in 1998 to go to school to become a Holistic Health Practitioner, Herbalist, Aromatherapist, and Esthetician, specializing in herbal skincare. By 2005, I was working at a 5 star resort spa in San Diego.
Through everything I have found time to create. Crafting & art is my meditation, I LOVE to crochet, sew, embroider, cross stitch, paint. and I love urban art. graffiti. found and recycled art. In 2006 I collaborated with a group of other urban artists, and we started hosting art & fashion shows in our favorite bars and restaurants around downtown San Diego.
In 2007, I moved back to the Metro Detroit area from San Diego to be close to my parents. I started investigating ways to sell the 100+ pieces of jewelry and art I had made. I found Etsy in 2007, and set up my shop. For the first year I struggled with photos, listing, promotion, etc. I didn't really put much into it. I was working full time as an Esthetician and my shop got neglected.
I started The Handmade Gift Guide in October of 2009, shortly after getting back into selling on Etsy after taking a break from working as an Esthetician to have a baby girl. For 3 years, I blogged about cute stuff that I found online that I would love to buy for my family! Or for my puppies. cool clothes and art, or gluten free cupcakes... mmm those flor de sal caramels.... Or just some stuff that I loved... projects I was working on... and I took classes online to learn photoshop, lightroom, and indesign...
I love to support the handmade/independent {or what I refer to as "indie"}retail movement here in Detroit.
I have had various Etsy shops of my own: Bijoux Paperie, Lillian George, and now my graphic design shop: Renovation Alley... so I know the challenges faced by crafters online. I have learned so much, and love to share my knowledge about buying and selling on Etsy, blogging, and product photography with my clients.
I have always wanted to have a magazine, but had yet to master indesign...So I bugged my sister until she finally gave in last fall. She knew indesign really well from paginating a newspaper for years. We started the Handmade Companion as a way to promote the DIY handmade lifestyle.
We published 4 print editions together before I realized that the digital aspect of it had something special... and decided to go fully digital and interactive. I wanted to change my format and also change the name to Indie Lovely, to include independent designers and shop owners. I love vintage and the whole recycle and reuse thing... After I had learned indesign well enough, I published a few tests, and I had it. Indie Lovely magazine was born!
I find stuff somehow. I can walk into a thrift store and find cool stuff with no problem... online: I find fun things to make for yourself, gifts, your home, dog, kids, yard, craft room, front porch, gramma's birthday...
But whatever, check it out if you like that kinda stuff. I think you do.
stalk me.. Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, and Twitter
