Introducing Etsy Artist Papermockingbird

I would like to introduce our Feature Etsy Artist for the week......Papermockingbird. You can find her beautiful jewelry at http://www.papermockingbird.etsy.com/

1. When did you start crafting?

Well now...I've been making things nearly all my life! I think someone told me I was good at art when I was very young and I somehow beleived them enough to carry on with it! But my serious jewellery-making business started about a year ago when I was unemployed in France and the risk of going hungry pushed me to start making and selling jewellery in local markets. I would set up my little table and sit there freezing whilst trying to make stuff and earn enough at least to pay for the plot... and then when xmas came along I started to get a lot of sales and a few people asked if they could have some of my stuff in their shops! That encouraged me to start my own Etsy shop and learn about promoting myself.

2. What is your favorite crafting tool?

I love re-using things! nearly all my jewellery is made from old and broken or out-dated jewellery and people's old button collections that they dont want anymore.....I take pride in the fact that I rarely buy supplies (apart from the wire thread to hold it all together). So you know that you will almost never find the same beads or buttons on another necklace! It's what helped me build my little business from nothing!! Oh and I would be lost without my trusty pliers!!! They're really old but so sharp and pointy that you can do really intricate stuff with them - I don't think they make them like that anymore!!

3. What do you like to make the best?

I love making necklaces! They take the longest but I really get into it and I'm nearly always pleased with the result. There's something about the symetry of a necklace that can really change someone's look. I often imagine the woman (or man) who would wear it...or what sort of dress it would go with.

4. How did you discover etsy?

A friend of mine told me about it and I just clicked online expecting to find some quaint & humble little site full of grannys selling knitting and jam and (no offense intended grannys).....WOW!!! -I've never looked back! It was as if I discovered a whole other world with thousands of people like me in it! that's part of the attraction - meeting so many other creative people who I would never meet in everyday life and lots of cool grannys too lol. And the selling part is just an added bonus...

5. Tell us about yourself...

Well I'm 29 and I'm from a place called Rochester near London-England. I spend a lot of time in France with my very supportive partner Aymeric and our dog, and I'm studying an Msc in Environmental Architecture in Snowdonia, Wales. So basically I do a lot of travelling around! I'd like oneday to build a beautiful house (or houses) in a French woodland somwhere and turn it into an Artists retreat or something....and have lots of tree houses and ...I'm a real dreamer! I love cycling (& I'm curently designing a fold out bike trailer to sell my jewellery out of and become a real-life "peddler" -as I'm always on the move), and I can get very passionate about food when prompted ;¬)