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I must add that I really like the way the texture of the background works with the piece!

Another example of the stories woven into her pieces is below. Titled Ancient Treasure, her description includes 'earthy cave walls' and 'tribal princess'. I may have an active imagination, but I can definitely create a little film in my head.

Linda (Raedawn), owner of Dreams and Echoes, has spent many years as a visual artist, living primarily in Maryland with periods in Oregon in New Mexico. Her daughter, Amy, started beading, and Linda saw another opportunity to explore her creativity through it. She learned the basics and hasn't let go since.

Each of her pieces is a journey and an invitation to explore different styles, from romantic to primal, contrasts, and different symbols. The piece below, titled The Goddess Protects, includes a well-known character, very prominent in many peoples' spirituality.

Linda has an active, interesting blog, so make sure to check it out. She regularly features other artisans, and shares details of her learning and creative process -- always very interesting to me!

HAF Feature - baublezptoa 07/07/2010

This week has been a fraught of computer and networking issues, so I'm terribly behind on getting this feature ready. This week's artisan is baublezptoa!

A self-proclaimed ex-hippie, Carmen began her jewelry career right after high school when she found her local bead shop. She strung for friends and family, but soon found herself drawn away when the local bead shop closed and school and work picked up in intensity. Her talent laid low while she maneuvered herself through the corporate world, but it came into full bloom when she began searching for a new way of life.

Since she made that break from 'the real world', she's acquired more and more skills and explored her artistic abilities and talents in many different areas. One of her more recent accomplishments was to gain her certification in Precious Metal Clay. The below piece uses PMC as a base for two lovely peridot cubic zirconias.

Carmen's certification in PMC allows her to share her knowledge and skills with others. I'm a pretty bad teacher and have a weird learning style, so I have a great deal of respect for anyone who's able to communicate with others and allow them to explore new things. That said, she prefers to stay in the studio and design, sculpt, and tweak her pieces.

The piece below really caught my eye. The glitz of the cabochon is unbeatable and snazzy, and you can see how much care she puts into her pieces in the detailing around the sides and top.

Another part of her life is her animals. She has a beautiful fur family, and I really enjoyed looking through her galleries. Currently, baublezptoa is donating 30% of sales to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Pet lovers will also love the paw print medallion at the top of the page. Everyone will love at least one of the drool-worthy, fine-art pendants! Absolutely gorgeous.

You can find baublezptoa's shop on etsy, as well. She has a website here, and a blog where you can read about her crafts and other artist features.

HAF Feature -- Tuscan Road Designs 06/21/2010

Travel inspires many artists, whether it's other artisans creating beautiful things in a new, exciting way, the vistas, beautiful building, the exotic taste of another language, the novel flavors of a foreign dish, or simply just the time away from daily life. This week's artist, Holly of Tuscan Road Designs, is no different and found herself in a new, creative world after her visit to the island of Murano.

Her style is very eclectic and feminine, and you'll be able to find rustic, organic designs and frilly, victorian-esque designs snuggled next to clean-lined, modern and bold, colorful designs. It's a candy shop where almost anyone would be able to find something to suit their tastes.

Her outstanding collection and gallery of jewelry is only part of her day-to-day life. After taking lampwork classes, inspired by the beauty of the glass artists discovered on her journeys, she taught and she shared her knowledge with her son. Her son, in turn, shares his experiences with wildlife rehabilitation. You can read all about the baby owls (who are disgustingly cute) on her blog.

HAF Feature - HelenaPuck 06/15/2010

Robin of helenapuck is a busy mom of two, an active professor, and a multi-talented artist. She's an accomplished cross stitcher as well as a jewelery artist. I always find it interesting when people are able to combine two, seemingly unmeldable (don't think that's a word...) mediums into one. Needless to say, because of that, I was caught by this piece:

Inspired by a Charlie Brown story (recognize his shirt?!), she took two strands of thread and stitched across. She framed it with a sterling plate pendant, to top it off.

You can find more of her cross stitch here, including some of her amazing patterns like the one below.

Her jewelery designs range from quirky to cute to interesting to wow, with a few other adjectives thrown in there. ;) One of those wows is her Copperhead Road set. Totally hand-forged and fashioned, this piece is just amazing, to me. The loops and whirls are so perfect and pretty, and it gets even better when you see the elegant, hand-crafted clasp.

HAF Feature -- Dream Again Jewelry 06/07/2010

Dream Again is a perfect name for this week's artist. Looking through her shop, I was struck by the boldness and forward beauty of some pieces, the organic simplicity of others, and the intricacy of most. Her etsy shop is really a stunning gallery and sampling of her work.

She's been a lover of feminine, pretty things since she was a child, spoiled as the first girl to her mother. It wasn't a far leap from loving to creating; and, at the age of 20, she picked up her first jewelry supplies and that was all it took.

Above is one of the bold pieces I admire. The fish and dragonfly motif are elegant, yet very feminine, and the alternating symmetry of the chain adds a lot of interest, for me.

An important part of creating is constantly learning, and this self-taught artist strives to expand her knowledge. You can read on her blog about her journey into creating beautiful chainmaille pieces. I really like to read stories about people exploring new avenues of creation and the process they go through, and I really admire the persistence and enthusiasm that Dream Again has for learning. Below is a lovely example of her chainmaille.

I'm a huge sucker for pearls, so I have to share this last piece with you. It's a delicate, yet stately bracelet, made up of irregular, fresh-water pearls. The pale pink pearls are attached to a silver-plated, looped chain, if you need more pop than those gorgeous pearls give you!

HAF Feature -- Haffina 05/12/2010

I'm new to the Handmade Artist Forum, but decided to jump in with both feet. Part of that is joining the HAF blog ring to learn about and feature artists, many who are new to me. Haffina is this month's pick and I hope you all enjoy reading about her. :)

When I popped all of the links where you can find her, I was hugely impressed and a bit astonished. I've dabbled a bit in polymer clay, but I'm far from accomplished. I occasionally see things that astound me and put me in awe of the versatility of this medium, and the piece below (found in her Artfire shop) really caught my eye. Image transfer onto polymer clay -- who knew?! Super cool.

And she's not just a polymer clay artist! Her jewelry shop is filled with creations that I feel span a wide range of tastes. Jewelry creation is not one of my strengths (I can wad up wire like nobody's business), so I really admire the ability to combine textures and colors so well.

On top of that, Haffina is a mom of five, a blogger, enthusiastic about handmade, and I'm sure a good many other things. It sounds like she's a bit of a superhero, to me!