I began selling on Etsy at the tail-end of 2010. It was a wonderful outlet for my creativity and a means to meet other creative people. I've been creating dolls, baskets and working in fibre arts literally most of my life (I made my first basket at age 9, my first stuffed animal when I was 6). I've always loved reflecting my impressions of the world of nature around me in a 3-D format, and have shared my work with the public while working in the health and human services field as a day job.
When I had my own children, I found there was a real lack of environmentally friendly, beautiful and creative toys for them, and my creativity took a new turn as I started to experiment with toy making as an art form. One day I saw a needle felted figure. I was taken with the detail and a little sad it was seen as exclusively an art item and not for children. What if some somewhat simpler items could be made with children expressly in mind?
I went to the local knitting store, picked up some of my favourite roving (I was already a spinner and familiar with that end of things ) and asked if they had some of those "felting needle things". I went home and rolled and wrapped and pulled at the wool into various shapes and poked at it with a needle (I was felting about 3 years before I ever read a book about it) and this mermaid that still lives in our house with us emerged. From here, there was no going back!
After this initial indulgence for myself only, I went on to tweak my creations to be more in line with the spirit of a child. When creating for children, I keep the design more simple to allow for imagination, but with enough detail to be engaging, and of course, I keep things very sturdy. You can visit my shop to see more!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltingFishDesigns
While you're there, here's a few more shops with equally interesting designers to meet. More links coming!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bananabottoms
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MegsCrochetCreations
http://www.etsy.com/shop/engravedmemory
