My name is Angela, I am the owner, Indiepreneur, craftswoman, artisan, and artist (there are a lot of words for me) behind Alice's Owl. Welcome to my blog! This is the about me section... so with mo further introduction... let me tell you how I came to be the open creative artist that I am today.Creativity is the air that I breath and the food that I eat. As the saying goes, you are what you eat... and I am creative to my bones :-).
I have been being creative and making arts and crafts since I was old enough to have an imagination thanks to my mother. She is an amazing soul who I love her dearly and I owe many of my inspirations to. She instilled a strong sense of both creativity and imagination in me while I was young that I consider myself very lucky to have. These are both qualities that she valued and qualities that I am proud to carry forward into other generations.
From the moment I began the process of "growing up" I was always creating. Creating arts, creating crafts, creating culinary artistic creations, creating in the garden as I got old enough to accompany mom. It's been a continuous evolutionary creative journey for me. Many of these creative traditions I have carried with me decades forward.
In high school I discovered and developed a love for creating out of found objects and what others disposed of. One of my great friends in high school and I would go to the old dump (*allows time for you to gasp*) and dig up fantastic treasure. We would nurse them back to health, and turn them into terrific pieces of art. This was my creative journey into my earliest adulthood and some of my earliest experiences with "green art" and recycled/ upcycled art.
Once into college, I had many a major and eventually settled into a few. I was on a journey-- searching for something. In addition, I minored in fine arts and in recreational arts (in addition to a few other things). During the summers I worked at a summer camp as an arts and crafts director/specialist. Oh, I loved those summers! Exposing young minds to the wonders of imagination, creativity, and art was an experience dreams are made of. We even did underwater basket weaving! (YES! It is real!) Each week during those summers my hands would look like a very bad Easter egg experiment gone horridly wrong from tie dying well over a hundred shirts each Thursday night during "All camp tie-dye"! One summer I actually decided to wear nothing but tie dye the entire summer, since I was the arts and crafts director. I thought it would be fun and cool. My skin did eventually return to a typical human pigment. What I can say is that I do know how to tie dye just about any sort of clothing and to do a LOT of designs :-).
When not at camp-- throughout my undergraduate and then eventually both of my graduate programs, I continuously learned and perfected new art techniques and mastered a variety of crafts. They kept me busy on the weekends, evenings, and breaks. My collection of arts and crafts supplies and skills continued to grow. While I tried to keep the materials contained, those who would see inside of my closets, crawl spaces, or secret hidden rooms often looked at me like I had lost my mind. I secretly knew that one day it would all come to use. Of course, when Christmas or birthdays rolled around no one was complaining anymore and instead they wanted to know what I was making this year!
It was also during college that I began to sell my handcrafted goods. Slowly, concentrating, perfecting and releasing one line at a time. I typically concentrated only on individuals whom I knew-- family, friends, family friends. I built a small reputation for myself as an artisan and for some of my lines and work this way. I have been selling my work now for over seven years locally. Jewelry, Goat milk soaps, Infused honey, Bath salts, Candles, Ceramics, Papercrafts, Scrapbooks, Wreaths and Arrangements... and more... are some of the goods that I became locally known for and which individuals began requesting of me.
After getting my Master's degree in this, and working on my doctorate in that, I came across the Holistic Health Program at my university. While this appealed to me for many reasons and I instantly began to work on my graduate certificate in holistic health-- the many classes in creative, expressive, and visual healing arts captured my entire being and pulled me in the fastest and kept me the longest. Again... I found myself gaining considerable more knowledge, understanding, and techniques, in both different areas of the arts, and in crafting. I have since been combining those techniques with the crafts and fine arts that I already pursue.
Here we are in the story, caught up to the present. I opened my Etsy shop in the late fall of 2010 after much work, contemplation, and consideration of taking my work public.
This is my story of how I have come to be the artisan that I am today. The story of my art and the story of the craft that I practice. The story of the emotion, love, joy, energy, practice, time, effort, and so much more that goes into everything I lay my hands on. The story of how I have come to work with various mediums and materials in art and in crafts.
Creating with my hands, and making something to beautify the world is a calling. It is a spiritual calling and an occupational calling.
In addition to arts and to crafting, I also love pets, love animal rescue, and still love crafting and creating culinary artistic creations in my kitchen and garden. I also enjoy reading, and learning (especially about my craft!), love holism, the earth, being as green as I can be. I love loving and being loved, and spreading positivity. I love my friends and my family, who have supported me through much in my life, including this endeavor. Oh-- and I LOVE Lake Michigan (It's hard to find a West Michigander who doesn't!).
