A blog is born

Spring is here, and with it birth and growth. Today marks the birth of my first blog, and my first blog post. With it I hope there will be some growth personally and artistically as I share some of my inspirations and experiences with you, who ever you may be.

Before we move to my current projects and observations, or discoveries I'll tell you a bit about myself.

Once upon a time I was a college student majoring in Crafts/Metals at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, back in the dark ages before blogs, personal web pages or even the internet as we know it. For years after graduation I did little that was artistic, pursuing many other avenues and some were more fulfilling than others.

But if art and artistic expression is part of your make up it's hard to keep away from it for very long. Therefore after getting married and moving from Philadephia to the wilds of Delaware I found myself in need of some new forms of self expression. For a few years I was a floral designer, during that period I discovered the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe.) There I started studying the arts of the medieval scribe, within the SCA I am known as Mistress Sarra the Lymner, and my main area of study and expression has been calligraphy and illumination.

A several years ago answering a request made by my daughter to come up with a fairy doll like one she saw at a party I started making cloth art dolls. They mostly tend towards the fae or fantasy themed art dolls. I have never learned the fine art of reading sewing patterns but I did survive figure drawing classes so I opted from the very beginning to make my own patterns.

Sometime in the last 2 years I started to reconnect with the jeweler I was once training to become. I do not have a metal working studio so at the moment I am content to play with pretty beads and string necklaces and make earrings.

If you are still with me and curious as to what the results of these artistic explorations may look like you can pop over to my Etsy site.

http://www.toadstoolsntreestump.etsy.com/