Friday, July 22, 2011

Featured Artisan: The Dancing Brick

Hello everyone, please welcome today's featured artisan, Rachel of The Dancing Brick.


First off, tell us a little about yourself! 
I am a teacher, currently teaching at an International school in Germany.  My German is not great, but I can get around, and my students love to teach me how to say things in German.  They are very supportive!

I have always loved making all kinds of art and have tried all kinds of painting, drawing, and jewelry making over the years.  I usually have several projects going at once and go back and forth between them. 


How did you start creating your artwork, and how long have you been doing it?

I first started using Fimo to try and make beads when I was probably around 10 years old.  But I got very frustrated because I couldn't make it look like the picture I had in my head, so I gave up on it and went back to drawing.  Now, about 20 years later, I was encouraged to try it again by a friend of mine who used it to making some cufflinks.  So I bought a variety of colors and just started playing around with it.  I was much happier with my results this time! 

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get my inspiration from colors.  In my drawing and in my jewelry making I love to play with different colors and see which ones go together and which ones really pop out at you.  So I can be inspired by someone's garden or a colorful ad in a magazine or just looking at my box of colored pencils.  But I usually start out with colors in mind, rather than an idea of what object or shape I want to create. 

Outside of crafting what else do you enjoy doing? 

I love cooking!  I have gotten enough confidence to buy a German cookbook and I have been trying some recipes from that.  I also really love teaching. It is really amazing to work with young children and see them make so much progress over a year.  It is rewarding, sometimes frustrating, and usually lots of fun!  

Links:

  and Blog: thedancingbrick.blogspot.com.  

Rachel, thanks for the lovely interview!

3 Comments:

Great pendants. Love the color.
I toured Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in high school and lived in a town outside of Frankfurt - a name that slips my mind at the moment for a summer. My German was horrible! They looked at my books and couldn't read it either. So we tossed them aside and spoke English. They had an American father in the military. Worked out great for me.

These are very beautiful creations!

Well done for sharing the work and inspirations of other artists and makers. I've 'played' with fimo clay but my beads always look like something a five year old would be proud of. Great to see what is possible.
Fiona x

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More