CCCOE Member Studio Tour: Featured Artist: Pacific Paradise Soap Company

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Tell us a little about yourself and how it all began.

I have been a very creative person my entire life. For fun, I took a soap making class with 2 Chemist friends from a lady on a farm out in the country more than a decade ago. The 3 of us would get together and make soap for Christmas presents over the years. Last year, after 23 years as a Senior Scientist, I experienced a Company wide lay off. A few friends & relatives suggested I should start a Soap Company. I thought working from home would give me more flexibility with my hours & allow our Son to not be in daycare. I’ve always been organized & really motivated to excel at whatever I do. I surely do not miss the hour and a half daily commute! Working from home is really a lifestyle. I really love what I do & it’s a good thing because I’m almost always working. That’s how Pacific Paradise Soap Company was born.Soap Rack and Soapmaker Where do you work? Show us your space please! Anita labeling her soap While vacationing last summer my Brother-in-law asked me “Where in the house do you make your soap?” and my Husband quickly interjected “Everywhere!”. I was shocked! But after I thought about it for a bit I realized he was right. Soap has taken over the house; the office, the spare bedroom, the hallway, the garage, the laundry room, the kitchen…one entire room in the house is filled with drying racks, flowers, lavender my Mom has grown, colored paper, boxes, ribbons, bags, salts, and soaps. I label soaps on the counter in the hallway where you are suppose to fold laundry. When I’m making a batch of soap I take over the kitchen, the laundry room & the garage. My husband can no longer park his truck in our 3 car garage because of the racks of soap. I also keep butters, oils, shipping supplies, molds, essential oils, fragrance oils, wooden bowls, gift crates, colorants, the gazebo & tables for craft fairs & farmers markets. The laundry room also has shelves of fancy molded soaps. 12 soap bar cutter What is your favorite tool? My favorite tool is the log cutter my Dad & I made. He assembled a 3 sided square with smooth wood & drilled 2 holes that I put a guitar string through. This tool makes the first cut that reveals the beautiful end result of my labor of love. I also really like my 12 bar cutter & my edging tool. What time of the day are you the most productive/inspired? I am most productive while my Son is in school for obvious reasons.3 Bar Soap Sets What inspires you? I wake up inspired with so many new ideas pouring out that I now keep paper & pen on my headboard. I am always thinking of new products to add to my store. I am inspired by Mother Nature. Sometimes I am inspired by customers needs or something said in conversation. How do you promote yourself and your shop? I promote myself, my shop & my team by communicating in the forums on etsy, Flickr, Team Blogs & at Craft Fairs. How long have you been on Etsy? I have been selling on etsy since October 2008. What else do you enjoy doing other than creating? I also enjoy gardening, doing yoga, making cards, aqua aerobics & going to the beach. What would you like to see happen/change with CCCOE? I would like to see more people buying from CCCOE. What is your favorite thing about CCCOE? My favorite thing about CCCOE is all the support & camaraderie. I also love the monthly challenges. What is your favorite food? My favorite food is chocolate J I also really enjoy ethnic foods like Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican & Italian. Favorite book or movie? My favorite book is The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy by Valerie Ann Worwood. My favorite movies are The Thomas Crown Affair & National Treasure. One thing you absolutely cannot live without? I absolutely cannot live without happiness Lastly what piece that you have created is your favorite and why? My favorite piece is a Fancy molded soap that says “Love” in a wooden dish. My Dad turns wooden bowls & platters on a lathe & I use them for my fancy molded soaps. I think Love says it all. Thanks so much to Anita of Pacific Paradise Soap for sharing her space and her work with us! Be sure to stop by her shop to treat yourself.

CCCOE Member Studio Tour: Featured Artist: HideABook

Japanese Plum Blossom Book Cover Tell us a little about yourself and how it all began. My name is Shanna Vaughn and my shop is HideABook (http://hideabook.etsy.com). I make vinyl book covers with attached ribbon bookmarks to hide and protect paperback books. I love to read romance novels but I find many of the covers to be goofy or embarrassing. I also like to take a book with me pretty much everywhere I go so that I can have something to read while waiting in line at the Post Office, doctor's office, etc. I wanted something pretty to cover up my books and to keep them nice while bumping around in my giant purse. I couldn't find anything stylish out there so I decided to make my own covers. Other friends who are readers loved my idea so I figured that random strangers might too. I've been a shopper on Etsy for a few years and I knew that it would be the perfect place to set up my online store. Where do you work? Show us your space please! I share an office in my apartment with my husband who is an IT professional. I'm working on annexing his space :) My dream (and goal) is to eventually have a nice big work space where I can have some elbow room and plenty of space to lay my delicate papers flat. What is your favorite tool? My favorite tool would have to be my super sharp guillotine I use for paper cutting. What time of the day are you the most productive/inspired? Definitely evening, my brain doesn't start cranking until at least noon. What inspires you? I get inspired by gorgeous handmade papers. The Paper Source store is my favorite place; I could spend hours browsing their amazing Japanese and Indian papers. How do you promote yourself and your shop? I have two book blogs that I use to run promotions and ads for Hide-a-Book and I stay involved with communities of romance readers online. They're my peeps but also my customers. How long have you been on Etsy? Since May of 2008 What else do you enjoy doing other than creating? Whenever I get some free time I love to read. Just give me a comfy chair and I can lose myself for hours in the fantasy world of a book. What would you like to see happen/change with CCCOE? I recently got to meet some other OC/LA area Etsy sellers which was really cool. I would love to regularly get together with people who share the same goals, joys and frustrations that I do. I'd like to get advice from sellers who have been doing this for a while and have wisdom to share. What is your favorite thing about CCCOE? Everyone is really friendly and helpful. I couldn't have asked for a better group to join. What is your favorite food? Mexican food for sure. I could eat it every single day. Favorite book or movie? I think my favorite book would change depending on what day you ask me, but right now I'd have to say Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. One thing you absolutely cannot live without? My iPhone. It allows me to compulsively check my sales when I'm away from my computer and to read ebooks. Lastly what piece that you have created is your favorite and why? I love my Japanese bunnies book cover in gold. The bunnies are just so cute and the contrast of the pink and the vintage gold is so pretty. The ribbon I used for the bookmark matches just perfectly. Thanks to Shanna for taking the time out to share her studio and work with us. Be sure to check out her shop on Etsy. And if you are are a CCCOE member and want to be featured simply copy these questions and send your answers along to Heather or I.

CCCOE Member Studio Tour: Featured Artist-The Chainmaille Lady

Tell us a little about yourself and how it all began.

I have been pretty crafty all my life. My mom was extremely crafty, she was always creating something, paper mache’, painting, throwing pots, and macramé. My mom and I each entered a collage in the local craft fair and I took home first prize and mom took home second! I think it had something to do with me being a kid : ). At our local park they were always giving free classes in knitting, crocheting, and various other crafts and mom made sure I attended all of them. So ultimately I have “many talents”. I knit, crochet, cross stitch, Swedish weave, bobbin lace, needlepoint, and hardanger. In 2003 I entered two items I had made, a Swedish weave blanket and a hardanger wall hanging into the L.A. County Fair. The blanket won third place and the hardanger won first!

Where do you work?

Well, I have a bedroom that has been converted into my "studio" which is very nice but I do most of my work in the living room on my swivel chair.

What is your favorite tool?

My Lindstrom pliers made in Sweden . What time of the day are you the most productive/inspired?

Usually right before I go to bed, I will think of something I could create and then I can't sleep! I have to stay up until I either get it down on paper or actually create it!!! What inspires you?

Everything. Sometimes I sit out on the back porch and just stare at the wonders of nature. Other times I'll be watching T.V. and I will see something that will trigger my creativity. My husband is great source of inspiration. He is very helpful when I am bouncing ideas off him, he usually will help me to name some of my pieces. How do you promote yourself and your shop?

One place is at the weekly Farmers Market & Craft Show where I have a booth. I love to talk about my jewelry and give demonstrations as to how it is made. People really appreciate the information. I wear my jewelry and always have business cards on hand to give out. I have a few The ChainMaille Lady T-shirts I wear. I use Flickr, Twitter, Blogspot, Kijiji, Craig's List and have also joined a couple of Etsy Teams.

How long have you been on Etsy?

Since May of 2008 What else do you enjoy doing other than creating?

Spending time with my husband and my little Chihuahua Miss Gizmo. Visiting with family. What would you like to see happen/change with CCCOE? What is your favorite thing about CCCOE?

The members and the weekly thread. The Yahoo Disgest is good to because I can keep up to date on the group.

What is your favorite food? Taquitos from Pepe’s Favorite book or movie? Grease One thing you absolutely cannot live without? Chocolate and milk. Lastly what piece that you have created is your favorite and why? My Hardanger Eyelet Chainmaille bracelet. It looks like a delicate piece of Norwegian Hardanger. To see more of Lauren's beautiful jewelry check out her Etsy store.

CCCOE Member Studio Tour ~ Featured Artist: Wrenay Charlton

Tell us a little about yourself and how it all began. My name is Wrenay Gomez Charlton (my etsy friends and some close family members call me Wren). Currently, I run a graphic design studio from my home office. I started making crafts after the birth of my second daughter, Mia (now 2 years old). Crafting was my way to have a creative outlet, since I had to put my conceptual art pursuits on the back burner to tend to the newbie in the house. I started off making felt plushies as Christmas presents, but then started to get custom requests from friends and friends of friends. Where do you work? Show us your space please! What is your favorite tool? I love working with my vintage cameras. I shoot a lot of photos, not only as a means to create art, but also product shots for my 3 etsy shops. I also cannot live without my sandpaper block-almost everything I create-at some point will come into contact with sandpaper. What time of the day are you the most productive/inspired? Because I work from home, I can fit blocks of time for my shops and crafting between everything else. But, I am most productive between 10PM and 1AM (when everyone else is asleep) What inspires you? Music, poetry, my kid's laughter, rain, cloudy days, memories, art supplies, the blank page and the smell of playdough. How do you promote yourself and your shop? I promote my shops at craft fairs and on my blog. I'm also on Trunkt and some other related sites. I just recently started advertising online, but its too soon to tell if that is driving traffic to my shops. I plan to launch a website for all my crafty endeavours in 2009. How long have you been on Etsy? I've been on Etsy as a buyer since Jul 24, 2006. I opened my first shop, Whimsy in Jan 2008, my second shop, Wrenay Gomez Charlton Photography in March 2008 and my third shop, The Crafty Wren, Sept 2008. What else do you enjoy doing other than creating? I like going on drives, listening to music...I waste a lot of time on Facebook. I meet my friends at least once a week, for coffee, museum/gallery visits, etc. What would you like to see happen/change with CCCOE? There are so many talented members, it would be great to have our own version of Etsylabs-CCCOElabs! What is your favorite thing about CCCOE? I have met so many wonderful people since joining CCCOE. I love the support I have received from other teamsters. Whether it be a friendly dispatch on the weekly thread, an uplifting convo or a visit to my booth at various craft fairs. There are a core group of members at the heart of this team and I have grown very fond of them all. What is your favorite food? Pizza Favorite book or movie? There are too many great ones to pick a favorite...but I'll give it a go... Some recent great movies I have seen include...The Diving Bell and Butterfly, Stepbrothers, Cinema Paradisio (this one is a fav I return to often) Books: Where the Sidewalk Ends, Wicked, anything by Edward Gorey or Bret Easton Ellis. I also love craft books, my favorites are Remake, Restyle, Reuse and Lotta Prints One thing you absolutely cannot live without? There are so many things that I would not want to live without (besides the aforementioned sandpaper block). But, since having kids, I have learned that there are a great many things that I can live without, after all. Lastly what piece that you have created is your favorite and why? My current fav is a set of notecards I made, using my own silhouette (from when I was 10) as the artwork. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15926583 Much of my conceptual art is based on my childhood memories. My eldest daughter is often the model in those photos-a stand-in for me as a child. This is one time, I actually got to use my own image from childhood to make something.