In the Studio (Part 3)

Each month we feature artist's studios on the blog to inspire others to create their own creative space. What makes a studio? It can be a kitchen table, a spare room or a purpose built space. Sheds, garages and attics make wonderful studios.



Lauren Alexander Illustrator

"I started illustration and painting work in 2002. I used to paint on my apartment floor or on my bed or where ever I could fit in. Since business has grown a little since I started painting my husband and I turned our dining room into our studio. I paint and he writes. It works out pretty well, as long as we have no use for a dining room. Most of my paintings are pretty small so the little fold up table I work on is perfect. I love to have books, movies and other inspiring things around my work space to help give me ideas or to assist with the perfect title. I mostly paint abstracted animals and forms from nature so it fits that my workspace faces right out onto our patio where my dog keeps watch over the birds, squirrels, and the occasional stray cat or two. I love working with color so having natural light around really helps. I look forward to paintings to come and hope to be doing what I love for a long time!"

Lauren Alexander Blog



Rachel Lucie Jeweller Rachel Lucie Designs

"After what seems like many months (because it was) my workroom/office/hideaway-from-the-kids is finished! By finished I mean finished decorating, and I am in.For anyone familiar with the Julia Donaldson book 'A squash and a squeeze', let me just say, that old man was right. Take everything out of one stacked-high room, stash it round you whole (small) house, for months on end, and when you take it out, your house is MASSIVE! Months and months of sorting will now follow as me and the other half finally look in all those boxes we have had stowed away for over 10 years, but that's another story.The main news here is I'm in, and I LOVE IT! Come in and have a cup of tea, and a biscuit....
You will notice 3 things immediately, which I will discuss below:
1) Let's just start with this one, you all saw it - half of it is orange.Suspiciously like 'etsy' orange. Let me explain, I am not THAT addicted to etsy, honest. It's paint by Fired Earth that we bought 10years ago to paint our kitchen, called 'Brussels Orange'. It never got used, so hey, why not. It's only on the 2 walls you can't see from the landing, so it's sort of a secret (or it was). The other 2 walls are plain white and filled with Ikea furniture.
What can I say, I love Ikea, and the white really helps to brighten up my north-facing room. Specially in the winter, as the sun doesn't rise about the hill on my side of the valley. I live on what is colloquially known as 'the dark side'!
2) It's very small, or 'compact and bijou' as I like to call it, Mostin (do you remember that advert?).
3) It's pretty messy. What can I say, I work in mess, it's how I am. I have found that clever use of tools like a 'bead amnesty pot' pot helps immensely with all the stragglers left lying around. And I generally have a desk clear every couple of days, mainly because I can't find a pen anywhere.

"But just look at my view!
I love Hebden Bridge, right outside my window you have the most amazing Yorkshire gritstone houses perched on the Birchcliffe hill on the other side of the valley. I am actually quite high up, and you can't see down into the bottom of the valley from here. Those woods are called 'Machpelah' and the ever-changing trees reflect the seasons."

Rachel Lucie on Etsy
Rachel Lucie on Coriandr
Rachel Lucie on Notonthehighstreet

If you would like to be featured "In the Studio" contact Artists in Business via the email link at the bottom of the page and prepare a short write up and four jpegs too.

Find Jemima Lumley on Folksy and Flickr



Artist's Bio: " Fig is open! Our gorgeous new craft shop and studio is finally up and running.Have a look here to see how it turned out. Six of us are working and selling from here. We are: Jemima Lumley, Jane Ormes, Charlotte Harris, Helen Burgess, Kate Tarling and Rosalind King.The address is 206 Gloucester Road, BS7 8NU. We are next to Billie Jean's, near Bishop Road if you know this part of the world! Opening times are Thursday - Saturday, 9.30 - 5pm. Come and see us!

Silver smith and jeweller Jemima Lumley tells us about inspiration, career changes and her USP.



"Waking up to the dawn chorus (not a happy event for this night-owl) sets my mind off in a whirl of activity. Hmmm… birds on a feeder, birds in a tree, two birds chatting to each other…. Jewellery is always on my mind! Much of my current work features my little lovebirds, and I’m always thinking about what they could do next. They have sat on their lonesome, cuddled up for a quick cheeky kiss, had a baby (or two), balanced on blossom filled branches and even performed circus tricks.
It was only three years ago that I was a freelance graphic designer in children’s publishing. My early morning musing would have consisted of how to design yet another dumper/digger/fire engine cover for the next set of 4 year olds who hadn’t seen the last set I’d designed. After almost twenty years as a graphic designer I was thoroughly bored of it. What had started as something new and exciting was now something I did for money, and spared little love on it.
One day in 2005 while waiting for various clients to get back to me with comments and corrections on the latest books I had been working on, I started making a crocheted wrap for a friend. I’d always crocheted, though my mother, a once a professional hand knitter with her own businesses, always despaired at how we three girls lacked knitting capabilities. Once the wrap was finished, I made another for a friend, and then another… and next thing I knew I had a craft stall at a local fair. Soon I was making scarves and hats, and then corsages. Always one for looking for the next thing while still making the present thing, I thought I if I could make the corsages small enough they could become jewellery.
Before long, that wasn’t enough, and I joined a silver jewellery making course, one morning a week. Six months later I had enrolled on a one day a week NOCN course at the art college – and I was off! No more children’s books for me! I found a space in a small studio space at the end of my road, and ploughed on.
I soon realised that the income from the few passing people would not keep me in silver, let alone pay for my shoe collection, so I looked around for where to sell my work. I found a few stockists in the West, and a couple of fabulous galleries, but I knew that what I had to do was get people through the door, paying full price to me. I’ve done craft fairs and participate in the local arts trail, but more was needed.
Then I read an article in the paper about craft websites. The ones I had stumbled upon already were either too big and US based, or you had to pay vast sums to be one of many selling jewellery, not all handmade. In the article Folksy was mentioned and I had a look. I love the mix of crafts, and the range of prices, and the community. Though my work is on the high side for the site, I have had a dozen or so sales in a few months, been a featured seller and had a piece on me in Make Jewellery Magazine thanks to them coming across me on the site. It may not make my fortune, but it spreads the word for absolute minimal cost.
I’ve got a very good and clever friend who advises me now and then on promotion and marketing. Her favourite question, which she insists I should always be considering is ‘What is my USP?’ Why should you buy my work and not the next jeweller. I always struggle to answer this, but I hope that it’s a mixture of things, including originality, value for money and wearbility. Each piece is unique, handcrafted from start to finish, but the cost is not prohibitive – or not too prohibitive! Nothing is cast or copied, every piece of lace I use is destroyed in the process of being printed onto the silver, and I get bored making the same thing more than once. Naturally some items like my earrings I repeat many times, but my signature pieces are always different in some way.
My clever friend also tells me I should think about the future – what will I be doing in 5 and ten years time? Well I know one thing, and that is that I will still be beavering away in my new shop as I’ve recently committed to a ten year lease on the local busy, and hopefully thriving, main shopping road. There are six of us crafts people working and selling from our gorgeous place, and enjoying being together, influencing and helping one another. I love the atmosphere and simply being with people creating wonderful things. For now that’s fine, and hopefully for the coming decade too!
Sometimes my morning reverie consist of worrying about what will the next influence? My lovebirds, butterflies and bees I can trace back to my work in children’s publishing. The whimsy and the silliness where all around me, and now I have a tiny garden full of birds to entertain and influence me. But then I’ll see a picture of some new work by Tord Boontje, or someone will send me one of Rob Ryan’s cards and I’m off again. And there’s always my stash of Victorian jewellery catalogues and vintage lace, and I’m off in a new direction. At the moment it’s Victorian jet mourning jewellery…. tomorrow? Who knows?"

Jemima Lumley

Find Le Bar Du Vent on Etsy and Dawanda.





Artist Bio - "Bonjour and Welcome to my little shop. Jewellery and accessories, pearls, often, but other beads too, and stones, wood, and vintage stuff as well. My themes: sealife, often, but also flowers and other natural creatures, and travel as well. Most of the time, I couldn't repeat a piece, even if I would, so all these are truly One Of A Kind.That being said, of course you should contact me with any question or request - I can always at least answer ASAP!"

Our contributor this week is Agathe, from Le Bar du Vent. Agathe is a jeweller from Bordeaux, France and she tells us about internet selling in Europe.

Tell me a bit about your journey into "hand made" and why do you make jewellery?
I can't say I remember journeying into handmade— it's more like handmade was always part of my life journey. I have always admired and envied people who make "things" with their hands. I think I was brought up that way, but there is also something very idosyncratic in my curiosity about crafts, and my desire to explore them.
Since childhood, I have always dabbled in this or that craft. I have a particular fondness for everything pen and paper, but also very early on wanted to make distinctive clothing or accessories, experimenting with sewing, crochet and knitting.Until I was well over thirty, it was an on and off thing, and then seven years ago, I dived into cross-stitching, and stitched away my leisure time for about three years, spending hours on end listening to TV...
I make jewellery for a number of positive reasons (some listed above) but also negative ones. My love for pearls, above all gems to me, drew me to explore technique after technique, and what I like about it is that it allows me to combine my love of words and style and uniqueness. I loathe the fact that you see some much of the same everywhere around, in all shops, and it is really important for me to keep changing, to keep feeding my creativity, however humble my craft...
It may sound corny, but once I have made a piece I really like, one that just came into my hands out of the materials or some idea, word, or image, once it has given me pleasure to make it, to look at it and touch it, I don't really feel an urge to keep it. I enjoy making custom pieces, with someone specific in mind, it makes me most happy when someone chooses one of my favourites. It feels good, it feels like sharing something, fleetingly, simply.

What are your favourite materials to work with? Pearls, first and foremost; then copper, silver, as well as organic fabrics and threads, but also glass and crsytal, as well as vintage (I mean genuine vintage) or ancient materials and patterns.

What inspires you to make jewellery and which designers do you admire?
I didn't go to art school and have little knowledge of designers in "my field". However, now that I think of it, there is one jeweller whose work probably planted the tiny seed of jewellery-making in my mind, when I was much younger. His name is Jean Vendôme and I stumbled across his fabulous shop-windows, rue Saint Honoré in Paris, when I was about twenty; shop windows full of gorgeous organic-looking creations made using scrumptious— yes, you've guessed it— pearls! I'm also very sensitive to the use of age-old symbols and to simple, elegant shapes and subtle colours. In my own work, sometimes I am inspired by a word or a phrase or a pun; sometimes, I just want to put some material to good use. Other times I am just trying my hand at some new tool or technique and the limits of my tentative skill stimulate me to come up with something interesting yet doable...
Even though I spend a lot of time "checking out" fellow Etsians and DaWandians, it is always with an eye to technique, and never intending to copy their work. Even when I use a beginner's kit (as I did recently with silver clay) I just have to do my own thing. So much so it's actually silly— but I'm just not interested in "easy"...

Which outlets (both in-line and in the real world) do you sell your jewellery at and how does Dawanda differ from Etsy? Right now, I only sell directly and on DaWanda and Etsy. Really looking forward to Folksy opening up to us continentals and considering a couple of other sites, one French and one American, but I don't want to scatter to much.The differences I see between Etsy and DaWanda have a lot to do with the fact that Etsy is older and more popular, when DaWanda is more recent, and is supposedly more focused on crafts since it excludes second-hand / vintage items. On Etsy, I like the fact it runs smoothly, the quality of design and creation and the vast choice, but I find the forums very unfriendly, some people being easily dismissive. On DaWanda, I like the Old World touch and the general friendliness. It's a shame that the English site is not more active though. I also get the impression that the German site features most quality design and German is not my forte...
The French and English sites feel overcrowded by supplies and not-so-handmade stuff... I wish more real designers and artisans would join and stick it out.

What tips would you give to artists who sell on a site that is not in their country? When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I think it's important to be ready to adapt and not expect others to be at your beck and call. Explore, look around, read the FAQ before complaining or asking the obvious...
Remember that the internet is very human. It's people at the other end. Always.Don't even think about it if you can't understand and speak the language— or get competent help— checking out the forums is a good way to make sure that you do. Or not.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? Somewhere else.

What advice would you give to artists who are going into business?
Don't do it for love or money. Do it because you have to.Check out the forums. Also, the other day, I was reminded (but I cannot remember by what...) that in old French, the word "commerce", now mostly used for "trade", used to mean relation, connection, company. All to do with fellow humans. Not stuff, not money— mankind.

Le Bar Du Vent

In the Studio (Part 1)

"In the Studio" is a regular feature showing ... er.... artists' studios! Whether you work in a purpose-built studio, a shed, an attic or at the kitchen table, we are interested in seeing where you create your art. If you would like to be featured "In the Studio" contact Artists in Business via the email link at the bottom of the page and prepare a short write up and four jpegs too.

Suzanne (Periwinklesuz) Glass Artist

"I painted my studio and moved my glass torch inside so I can use it this summer. I chose a girlie color as I am the only girl in the house and I need a "girl cave". It still needs some ventilation so that I can blow the propane out when I use the torch. I love my work area and I got my table at Pier1 at such an incredible deal and it is perfect. The blanket under the table is where my pup hangs out. Here is my computer where I spend time on Facebook and I have made myself a Flair Board.

I love having my own room where I can just 'be' and play with my stuff. I also like the fact that I can close the door and not have to tidy away at the end of the day".

Periwinkle Studio

Melanie Hazen Jewelry & Glass Artist

"In January 2009 I contacted a friend, who is also a builder, to create my studio space. It measures 14' x 14' with a concrete slab floor and wood ceiling (which I love)! I had drawn out the space as I saw it and he advised me about the needs and the costs for the building. It has heat/air, phone and is stubbed in for water, although it's not connected yet. There is a dedicated glass space and metals space at either end of a built-in stainless steel work bench, an area for assembling beaded pieces and an area for packaging materials, magazines and books. I am still working on getting it decorated!

I've been working from my garage for eight years therfore the creation of a studio space is a dream come true."

Melanie Hazen on Flickr.

Janice (JKA Designs) dichroic glass and sterling silver jewelry

"A few years ago I converted one of my bedrooms into a small but functional studio. Since I work with more than one medium I have divided the space into three sections One section os dedicated to cutting and fusing glass and ouses my small kiln. Another sectioon is where I solder all my jewelry pieces and is home to my (can't live without) rolling mill and drill press. The third section is where I use the hand saw, carry out fabrication on silver pieces create beaded necklaces and wire wrap my fused pendants. I house my larger kiln in my garage for fusing sushi plates, candle holders and large decorative glass".

JKA Designs blog.

Anna Hull (Half an Acre) decorative wood designs

"I totally love this room and I "stole" it when we moved into the house (ha ha)! It's not very big and I have lined all four walls with furniture so there is just a wee space in the centre for me to move around in. This spare bit of floor is then covered in drying fish, print offs and other detritus. I tried tidying it up but I have realised that I really didn't mins it being a mess. It only has short-coomgs when I am painting, using the sewing machine and the laptop all at the same time.

I can do whatever I like in this room; paint it without "consultation" and stick whateve I fancy on the walls with scraggy bits of tape. It's MINE and everyone else in the house knows it!"

Half an Acre Blog

Metalsmith Anne Malone of CocoandChia talks about her apprenticeship and subsequent work as a fine jeweller.



I learned to work with metals by apprenticing to four amazing jewelers. Each person had their own style and their own specialties. As an apprentice you work for very little money, do a lot of the dirty work and get a lot of experience along the way. I also worked in jewelry repair. This taught me a lot about how things are made, where things are likely to break, how many people have to have rings cut off (!) and that jewelry almost always has sentiment attached to it.

Being a metalsmith is my second try at earning a living. I worked for years in offices as a book keeper and administrative jobs. Along the way I realized that I was bored to distraction and would end up doing it forever unless I made some changes and took some risks. Now I work full time for a fabulous high end jeweler in New York. I make their jewelry – they tell me what they want, supply the materials and it is in galleries around the world. I particularly love high karat yellow gold and gemstones. My personal favorites are the little boxes that you see some of on Etsy. I don’t think they will ever sell there as the amount of time and energy to make them puts the price pretty high. I love to make intricate small containers with hinges and hidden compartments and precious gems.



Honestly, I have not found my niche on etsy. My work sells in galleries and it is important to keep the same pricing on etsy as it is elsewhere. Etsy is a great website in my opinion. I’m happy that people love handmade. The listing price is low, the site is easy to get used to and the commission is reasonable. Most of the gifts that I have bought in the last few years have come from there. I understand why lots of pairs of $15 earrings sell on etsy.

I know my strengths and my weaknesses. At the very least this is a good starting point. I am not a salesperson. I am a terrible planner. I have at least 20 projects that are finished ninety percent of the way. I’m very meticulous in my work. I often imagine any of the jewelers I have worked for critiquing a piece and I make sure that everything is as technically excellent, beautiful and secure as possible. My work is certainly not an impulse purchase. I have hopes that people will see my work on etsy, appreciate the craftsmanship and materials and make a decision to buy after some thought. As I’ve grown up a bit the things I buy for myself reflect that I know what I want when I see it, that I am willing to spend money on great craftsmanship and that I’d rather have one really nice thing than ten OK things. I’m always searching for the perfect pair of blue jeans!

In five years time I’d be quite happy to be doing what I am doing right now. It would be great to have more exposure online and in galleries. I’ll keep on making things. I know that I am lucky to be employed as a jeweler in this economy and that there are thousands of people who would love to have my job. I get to be at home with my dog and take long walks in the afternoons and sometimes naps! A super added bonus would be to have my own studio … I dream of my very own space in an artist’s collective.