Liz Wolfe

For some reason, I'm totally fascinated by the art photography of Liz Wolfe. Maybe it's the pretty pastels she seems to favor...or maybe it's the delicious looking candy she uses to create her landscapes. Either way...I'm in love with these photos and wanted to share them with you. Please check out her site for even more!

Liz hard at work!



















If you like what you see, check out Liz's shop to purchase her beautiful photos!!

Bike Furniture

I love the idea behind the cool collection of Bike Furniture by designer Andy Gregg!!! Talk about functional art that is great for the environment! Andy has taken old, run down bikes and created furniture pieces using the wheels, frames, handlebars and anything else he can come up with...I LOVE the outcome!! I'm not much of a bike rider (something about riding on the city streets with cars whizzing past doesn't sit well with me) but I have a group of friends who are obsessed with biking and fixing up old bikes. Wonder what they would think of these pieces!

Tiny Oddities

I find these photos from writer and artist Molly Lesher absolutely fascinating. I love the attention to detail and the beautiful, eerie fairytale-like quality she captures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Matchbook Sign Language

I found this while randomly surfing the Internet and thought it was too cool not to share.



These are matchbooks that artist, J.F. Keller found on the street and manipulated to form a sign language alphabet (plus and added extra that's not so nice!). Very cool!!

Here are some other projects by the same artist:



Live Free or Die



Typeface for a New York Times article



Harmen Liemburg Lecture Poster

Weekly Win It-Awkward!!

Today's fabulous Weekly Win It Etsian is Bran from Awkward! Bran makes amazing knit pieces that I only wish I could create! They are absolutely ethereal and beautiful!

I haven't the patience for anything involving needles, be it embroidery, crochet, needlepoint or knitting. I'm not sure what it is but my mother has tried to foster that interest in me to no avail. Fortunately, there are plenty of artists out there who can work some magic with a needle and Bran happens to be one of them. Her delicate scarves are my favorite and I am in awe at the beautiful hand spun yarn that she offers in her shop (makes me wish I could knit!). Let's meet this great artist and learn a little more about her and her craft!

Where did you learn how to knit? How long have you been creating your beautiful pieces? I taught myself to knit in 2001 or 2002, because I wanted to make my baby sister a Harry Potter scarf. The bad bit about learning from a book was that I learned to do it almost completely backwards, and somehow, for months, I could only knit in the round, with double-pointed needles (that’s the technique used to make things like hats without any seams), because otherwise I would twist every stitch.

After I took up spinning, I had a much wider assortment of wools and silks and exotic fibers to work with, which inspired me to create more elaborate pieces. I’ve never been comfortable knitting from patterns (something I’ve only learned to do recently), but I’m very enchanted with learning new techniques and then using those techniques to create something on a whim, or by memory.

You sell yarn in your shop…do you make this yourself, and, if so, tell us a little bit about the process? All the yarn up in my shop currently is handspun, and made by me. For the most part, I spin from commercial top and roving, which is prepared fiber—washed, sometimes dyed, and combed. Sometimes I make my own blends with handcards, which is intensely time consuming. And even when the wool is commercially blended, it still requires further preparation by hand before it’s ready to spin.

I often make plied yarns, which means that in order to make a 100-yard skein of handspun, I have to spin 200 yards of singles and then put them together—the same 100 yards passes through my hands two or three times before it’s done!

As a final step, I gently soak the yarn in a wash to relax the fibers and set the twist, which leaves the finished yarn fluffy and ready to knit with.



I have to ask, what was the inspiration for your shop name? When I was first learning to spin, I was extremely concerned with the quality of the yarn I made, and very interested in getting yarn that would knit and wear well. I noticed that other spinners who felt that the handspun yarn in knitting shops wasn’t up to their standards would describe it as “young” or “awkward,” and was completely mortified at the possibility of drawing that sort of criticism—so I coped by spending two years refining my skills before offering my own work, and then adopting “awkward” as my business name, so that someone could remark “This is an awkward design” without being disparaging at all, and in fact responding to it positively. Apparently I was hoping to create as much confusion as possible.

What made you decide to start selling your items on Etsy? After refining my craft to the point where I felt comfortable with it, I became smitten with the idea of mitten-funded travel. Etsy seemed like a good place to develop a microbusiness without neglecting the professional aspects of running one—or compromising the nonsense and idealism that motivates it.

As I’ve gone on with Etsy (I’ve only been there for a couple of months) I’ve become really fond of it, and of the community there, and the excitement of all the different shops working together to show each other off—things like treasuries and independent ideas such as your weekly contest.



How long does it take to finish one of your pieces?
Anywhere from about an hour to ages and ages. The scarves I make can take several hours to knit—the handspun ones can take more than 10-12 hours to spin and knit, because I design the yarn that goes into them.

What is your favorite thing to make and why? I like making open lacelike scarves, because they’re such a purely tactile process. Handspun yarn behaves differently from commercial yarn, often having more bounce and energy than comparable millspun yarn, and I like sneaking in any opportunity I can to spin for my own designs just so I have the excuse to knit with fine wools and tussah silk. Aside from scarves, my favorite thing in the whole wide world to knit right now is anything made with ridiculously tiny needles and little stitches.



Wow! So talented!! I just absolutely love the lace like quality of her scarves!!

Okay, Bran has graciously offered one of her beautiful hand knit Single Button Wristcuffs and the winner gets to choose the color!! So cool...these would look fabulous with a funky jacket or even with a short sleeved shirt! I love it!!!



Shipping on your prize will be included if the winner is in the U.S. There will be a small fee if the winner is international. Please check here for contest rules and regulations!!

Bran is also offering $5.00 off handspun yarn (excluding samplers) and scarves to all the JLC Studio readers. Just mention this blog contest in your message-to-seller space!! Don't forget to check out Bran's Etsy shop, Awkward, maybe you'll see something for Mother's Day!! Thank you so much Bran for your lovely interview and offer for this week's give-away!!

Weekly Win It-Rio Oso Designs!

I know I always say I'm super excited about the Weekly Win It featured artist but, I always am!!!! This week is no different, please welcome Angela of Rio Oso Designs! Okay...listen up Etsy artists and business owners, because this shop is a great place to get affordable, custom designed business cards and shop banners!


Angela provides her design services for businesses or individuals looking to add some professional, creative graphics to their website or marketing package. Her fantastic designs include shop and blog banners, business cards, promotional postcards and pretty much anything you need to creatively market your business. She has a great eye for creating well-balanced, creative layouts and seems to be full of endless design ideas. This busy mom also runs another etsy shop called Ambrosia Delights featuring jewelry and clothing items. In her "spare" time, Angie authors three popular blogs, Rio Oso Designs, Ambrosia Delights and The Downtown Boutique. Whew! I'm getting tired just typing all of this...let's find out how this talented artist keeps track of her busy life!

Your banner designs are absolutely amazing! Where did you learn how to create these and how long have you been doing this? Thank you so much! I didn’t even realize I had the capability to do something like this, until I started playing around with my photo editing software…Microsoft Picture It. I’m not a graphic artist…I only put graphic images together that I have purchased the commercial licensing for. I have been doing this since May of 2007.

What made you decide to start selling your design services on Etsy? I figured that I had discovered a niche. With all the shops on Etsy, I figured there would be a need and a desire for my style of banners.


What was the inspiration for your shop name? My husband’s mom calls him “Bear”, and they are Hispanic, so that’s where “Oso” came from. Then, we love to go fishing together as a family, so that’s where “Rio” (or river) came from. It’s kind of who we are.

On top of a great shop, you have another shop “Ambrosia Delights” and at least two very popular blogs…how do you find the time to do it all? I have NO idea!!!! I think my husband is a saint for putting up with it! He actually encourages me strongly in all that I do. But I do tend to neglect some housework, etc. I really need to figure out how to balance better!


Do you sell your items at places other than Etsy? Believe it or not, I sell most of my jewelry to my husband’s family! They love it! I also sell it to friends, and my husband takes it to his work and sells it there…he works with a lot of women. I also sell the burp cloths and greeting cards to friends.

Where do you get inspiration for your banner designs? I pray a LOT! Seriously. I know that God is the one who has blessed me with my creativity, so all the credit must go to Him. Other than that, I just love putting things together and seeing what works. I love pinks and sage greens and polka dots, in case you couldn’t tell. I love the feminine, vintage, swirly looks. I try to work with what’s popular right now, and go from there. A lot of the inspiration comes from my customers themselves.



Amazing! I absolutely love her designs and am so impressed by her humble and gracious attitude!

Okay...now to find out what Angie is offering up from her fabulous shop!! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to enter for a chance to win your very own custom banner for an Etsy shop, blog or website!!!!!



You heard correctly...this fabulous give-away will be for one custom banner that you get to collaborate on with Angie!! Please visit Rio Oso Designs to check out Angie's custom banner listing for an explanation of what is included in the design. Please check here for contest rules and regulations! Thank you so much, Angie, for taking time out of your busy life to chat with us and participate in this weeks' give-away. Your designs are fabulous (and you are too!)!!!!!

Karin Eriksson

I've been admiring the delicate pottery of artist Karin Eriksson for quite some time now. She designs one-of-a-kind pieces including bowls and platters, tealight holders, cups, vases and delicate mobiles. I love the motifs she incorporates and some of my favorites are the colorful butterflies, delicate flowers and words which run around and over the smooth surfaces of her various pieces. Karin has a delightful little blog as well as an Etsy shop, make sure to check them both out! Love her!!