THE CRAFTGOSSIP BLOG NETWORK

Meet your editors

CraftGossip relies on its bunch of dedicated editors to bring you the latest in craft gossip. Each sub-blog has its own editor so that you know that you are getting the best information possible. This page tells you a little about each editor so that you can know the faces behind the gossip!

Edible Crafts Editor: Meaghan Mountford

 
 For ten years, Meaghan served as head decorator for a custom-cookie store outside of Washington, DC. Before starting this “temporary” job that became not so temporary, she had never picked up a bag of frosting. Fast forward to today, and there are few objects she hasn’t put on a cookie: washers, dryers, kayaks, popcorn, guitars, every animal from alligators to zebras, T-bone steaks, mac n’ cheese, space aliens, human organs, martinis, beer, yo-yos and yoga poses…just a miniscule sampling. Her store was featured on NBC’s Today Show and Discovery Channel’s Home Matters. Meaghan’s cookies have appeared in The Washington Post, Modern Bride, The New York Times, Washingtonian Magazine and Chocolatier Magazine.
Her book on the art of cookie decorating, Cookie Sensations: Creative Designs for Every Occasion, published by Rutledge Hill in 2007 fuses this passion for edible art with her love of writing. Inspired by the joy of crafting her book (and motivated by her daughter, who keeps her home), Meaghan designed a series of themed cookie decorating kits available at her online store, Chic Cookies, at www.chiccookiekits.com.

Meaghan also has a Masters in Liberal Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Literature/Creative Writing from American University in Washington DC. She lives in Washington DC with her husband, her baby girl, and their three cats.
 

Glass Art Editor: Lori Greenberg


Lori’s craft life began when her grandmother taught her how to crochet at the age of seven. At the age of ten she opened her first business (L&J Crafts) with her sister where they sold hand drawn pictures, turned candles and pottery to their cousins and neighborhood kids.

Since that time Lori has poked her fingers into all kinds of crafty endeavors and even received a degree in basket weaving textile design from Indiana University. After many odd jobs over the course of 10 years Lori found herself moving to Arizona and starting her art career. She chose glass as her primary medium in 2002 and hasn’t looked back. While Lori’s focus has been on making glass beads, here at Craft Gossip she will bring you the scoop on all things glass.

Lori’s other passion is writing. Her beads and tutorials have been published in Step by Step Beads, Glass Patterns Quarterly, Glass Art, The Annealer Magazine, Simply Beads and Bead Unique. Lori has also written a beginners tutorial book, Hot off the Press, which teaches how to use press tools with molten glass.

You can see Lori’s glass beads at www.lorigreenberg.com and read more about her work and the business of beads at her blogs at www.lorigreenberg.com/blog and www.beadnerd.com.

Bath and Body Editor: Jessica Neaves

Jessica Neaves was born and raised in San Francisco with some time spent in San Diego and Los Angeles. She’s been a crafter most of her life and was a member of the former San Francisco Craft Mafia. After making jewelry for many years, Jessica began making bath products under the name La Patisserie Jolie. In her free time, Jessica enjoys trying new crafts, reading, traveling, and exploring San Francisco.

Scrapbooking Editor: Sarah Hodsdon

 Sarah Hodsdon is an internationally recognized Mixed Media Artist, award winning Designer, Author and Instructor. Her work has been published in Home Companion, Somerset, Stamper’s Sampler, The Rubber Stamper, Scrap and Stamp Arts, Expression Arts, RubberStampMadness, VSN, Creative TECHniques, Crafts n Things, The Card Maker, Indie Arts, as well in a number of books, industry publications, online galleries and advertisements. She has designed two lines of rubber stamps for Art Declassified as well. Sarah is one of 7 invited guest artists to appear on Carol Duvall’s new Art Unscripted Retreat DVD, and appears on her own Crafting DVD for Teens called Functional Art from PageSage. Her “Isn’t that Crafty” book series for teens with Bluegrass Publishing will debut it’s first title, “Repurposed”, later in the year.

Sarah is about teaching, inspiring and creating art that tells a story and uses the everyday “stuff” around you in the process. Since everyone is different and wonderfully unique, how they tell their story and document their memories and thoughts can only naturally be that way as well. Sarah spends her free time with her husband and 3 children and many animals living on her 10 acre piece of paradise. She is actively involved in the community where she volunteers time and resources teaching art to at risk youth and participating in Art Focused Non-Profits like the Heidelberg Project in Detroit Michigan.

You can read more about Sarah on her website at http://www.stampingtoday.com or on her personal blog at http://www.sarah-n-dipitous.typepad.com

Craft Artist Life: Jennifer Perkins

Jennifer Perkins is the head honcho behind the kitschy jewelry website and blog Naughty Secretary Club. Jen’s work has been featured in magazines and newspapers such as The New York Times, Elle Accessories, Bust, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Crafts Report, Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue and more. Around her hometown of Austin, TX she is known as a founding member of the Austin Craft Mafia as well as a producer of the Stitch Fashion Show and Guerilla Craft Bazaar. Jennifer is the host of Craft Lab which airs on the DIY Network & HGTV, she is also the co-host of Stylelicious. Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry is the name of Jen’s new how-to jewelry book. When Jen is not interviewing other crafters for Craft Gossip you can find her playing with her Mastiff Ella, listening to her husband play drums and watching a lot of Bravo TV.

Knitting News: Terrye Kinch


I live in a little log cabin in the woods in Northern Michigan with my other half, any or all of our 5 kids(and this changes regularly) and a plethora (technical term) of my cattle, horses, chickens, turkeys and a pig or three. My hobbies are knitting, riding my bike and my horses, skiing and snowshoeing, and my farm.

In my daytime life I design and maintain websites, the main one being for Quilting Goddess, Kaye Wood. In my nighttime life I’m a farmer, homesteader, biker chick, Red Wings Fanatic, and of course knitter. Weekends frequently finds me under the water with 90 lbs of air tanks strapped to my back, or in a neighboring town victimizing the local yarn shops.

Recently I’ve started to dabble with spinning, and if you want the lowdown on how to create really cool, slubby, thick and thin yarn, just let me know! When I figure out how to create that on a regular basis, my life will be complete!

Sewing: Candi Cane-Canncel

Candi Canncel Candi Cane-Canncel is a clothing designer and sewing instructor based in Los Angeles. She has been featured on a number of crafty television shows as well as a whole lot of sewing videos on expertvillage.com. Her website is: http://www.candiland.com.

Needlework: Denise Felton
denisefelton.jpg Denise is always happiest with a needle between her fingers. Her personal specialties are hand embroidery on paper and bead embroidery; but she has meddled with everything from candlewicking to bargello, and she’s always looking for new needle-media experiments. She compulsively cruises craft sites and blogs, hunting for bargains, tips, and new twists. She is relieved to have a spot at Craft Gossip that justifies her addiction and makes it appear to be normal behavior. Denise is based in Maumelle, Arkansas, USA. She would love to have your input about all things needlework related.

Polymer Clay: Wendy White

My name is Wendy, and I have been “claying” around for the last couple of years and seriously creating for the last year or so. I absolutely love polymer clay and all of the awesome things that can be created with it. I am a member of the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE), I also serve as a committee manager for the guild. I have a shop on Etsy called “ClayCrazy”, and my hobbies are reading, writing, surfing the web, and watching scary movies, when I’m not spending time with my family. Oh, did I mention I love to play with clay? >G<

Stamping: Maggie Lamarre
Maggie Davis I Have always being crafty dabbling in many kinds of art from jewlery making, to decorating, from scrapping to stamping to my current love of Altered art …

After all these years I finally found my niche in Hybrid. Getting into stamping and scrapbooking was a natural evolution for me, combining my love for technology with Photography. With the growth I’ve experienced I describe my style as simple with a sprinkle of textures, lots of depth, and vibrant luminosity.

I am a graphic designer and you can find my designs at http://www.dragonflairestudios.com or on my blog at http://www.mphoinix.blogspot.com.

I hope you enjoy the post and leave us comments. Let us know if there here’s a technique you would like to see featured.

Have fun create your ART,
Maggie

Indie Crafts: Sherezada Kent

 Sherezada Kent is a writer, artist, crafter, and filmmaker living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. A U.C. Berkeley graduate, she has written for “Release Print” magazine, Hostelling International, and numerous other organizations, publications, and websites.
Born in Mexico and raised in Southern California, Sherezada is happiest when she’s creating. She works predominantly in embroidery, cross stitch, and paint, though she also loves to dabble in sewing, papercrafts, jewelry-making, knitting, and anything involving glitter. Her needlework has been featured on popular blogs such as craftzine.com, spritestich.com, and the Official Star Wars Blog. You can check out her work on her own blog, http://handeyemindmouth.blogspot.com/. 

Jewelry Making: Barbe Saint John

Barbe Saint John

Barbe Saint John is a mixed media artist/teacher who creates narrative mixed media art jewelry, handspun novelty art yarns, and assemblage. Her passion is taking the old, found, broken, vintage and lost bits turning them into one of a kind pieces of art. Her work can be seen in books and publications including: ” Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn”, “Artist Trading Card Workshop” and “Make It Mine Magazine, as well as shown and sold in galleries and boutiques across North America. To find out more please visit her website http://www.barbesaintjohn.com. She is a member of the American Craft Council and ZNE.

Felting: Linda Lanese

Linda Lanese

I am from the Midwest and I am a freelance graphic designer and I work for companies and individuals designing their logos, banners, flash and web designs. I have been a long time member with Art on The Net where I have my art gallery. The following is my web site: www.studiolou.com .

I adore most arts and crafts and have tried my hand at most of them to see what appeals to me. When I discovered felting I found a new world of creative crafting, that in my opinion is just being tapped. New books arrive on the market each month and I have purchased my share of these wonderful volumes and was overwhelmed by what you can do with felting.

The felting I am reviewing has nothing to do with knitting, as it is an art unto itself. I hope to offer you the newest in felting ideas and the latest tools for this craft. Hearing from you with ideas, questions or your projects will be a real pleasure for me and everyone else on the site. If you know of a neat link or project please let me know. I hope this felting area opens up a new world of crafting for many people. Here is a site that shows some of the items I have felted.

www.studiolulu.com-a.googlepages.com/felting

I am thrilled to be one of your felting editors.

Candle Making: Coming soon

Crochet Editor: JD Wolfe

JD Wolfe

I’m a Midwesterner who has crocheted for 8 years. When I first learned to crochet, I knew no other crocheters, so I started the St. Louis Crochet Club which still prospers. Since then, several other crochet groups have popped up in the St. Louis area and I’m in touch with many crocheters locally. I love all sorts of crafts, including beading, quilting, sewing, and papercrafts. I have a huge stash of crochet books and patterns that I have acquired during the past 8 years. Fortunately, my husband is very indulgent and my children are tolerant of the stacks of magazines, stray skeins of yarn, and repeated reminders to not step on my work as it lingers on the floor of the family room! I MUST work on more than one project at a time so I can take a break from a project to regain my enthusiasm. Crochet has pretty much taken over my craft life, leaving little time for my other crafts.

I am in LOVE with freeform and have a strong bent toward reusing, recycling and repurposing materials for craft. I call this Re-Crafting. I own my own business, a learning center for teens in substance abuse recovery, work in my husband’s office, and referee at home with my three kids and their many friends who seem to enjoy hanging out at our home. I have taught several of my students to crochet as I find crochet to be both creative and spiritual. There is nothing else quite like the feeling one gets upon completion of a difficult project! I use patterns mostly as suggestions of how to make things, so I often become involved in a lot of frogging and reworking. It’s a learning process that seems endlessly intriguing to me.

In past lives, I have been a highschool English teacher, Assistant Director of a Hospital Medical Records Department, homeschooling mom, homeschooling mentor, and spent seven years writing and editing reports of litigation and publication for a firm of forensic engineers involved in accident reconstruction and causation, including testifying in court on many cases. I look forward to retiring sometime in the next 10 years so I can devote more time to crochet and pattern design.

Recycled Crafts Editor: Robyn Charles

Robyn’s been crafting for as long as she can remember. From her mother handing her a crochet hook at a young age to “altering” her undershirts into sports bras, Robyn has been a crafter from the word go. Currently obsessed with knitting her way through all her yarn, re-purposing all the unworn tee shirts in her home and discovering a way to put all that errant cat hair to use from her three cat-babies, Robyn spends much of her day re-purposing and recycling craft materials. Some of these attempts are documented on her personal craft blog Craft and Found (craftandfound.com). She and her boyfriend (affectionately referred to as The Monkey) reside in their fixer-upper in Omaha, Nebraska.

CraftGossip Editor: Shellie Wilson

Shellie Goyal

Shellie Wilson is the founder of Craftbits.com and CraftGossip.com.

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