FAST Member Interview- Helen of Empress Barrettes
If you’re a member of FAST and would like to be featured in the weekly interview, visit this thread in the yahoo group to get the questions, then send your answers (and a picture or two if you’d like) to me at merigreenleaf[at]yahoo.com (or a convo to merigreenleaf). These will be posted in the order I receive them.
What is your name?
Helen Reich
What is your Etsy shop?
Empress Barrettes
Besides your Etsy shop, do you sell anywhere else?
I am currently selling at 2 bricks and mortar stores in the Milwaukee area: The Sparrow Collective, and the gift shop at the Boerner Botanical Garden.
How long have you been making art/crafting? What was the first thing you remember making?
I have been making art very sporadically throughout my life, and my most recent project (my etsy shop) is the first time that I really worked at it and developed. I made my first barrette only about a year ago, my first bobby pin flower probably 8 months ago, my first headband a few weeks ago. The first thing I remember making as an adult, though, was a fabric collage Carnival mask.
What kind of fiber arts do you do?
I make formal and whimsical barrettes, hair clips, bridal headpieces, headbands. Most of the hair clips are flowers, but I’m starting to do some birds. They all use fabric, and many use beads or ribbon.
What’s your favorite thing to make?
I think my favorite thing to make is flower hair clips that have been modeled after existing flowers. I have a botanical fixation, left over from my Master Gardener training.
(Click the below link to read the rest of the interview and see more pictures)
What do you think is the strangest or most unusual fiber arts item you have made or been asked to make?
I made a yellow duckling hair clip as my submission to the first ever Handmade Challenge www.handmadechallenge.com . Birds don’t fit the medium quite as easily as flowers, but some can work, and I have some plans for a penguin.
What is your favorite place to work?
I work at my dining room table, where there’s lots of light available!
What inspires you? Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes frequently from the fabric that I have in front of me, but also from the neighborhood gardens, garden catalogs, and my imagination.
Tell us a bit about yourself- where do you live, what’s your job do you have a spouse/children/pets, any other hobbies, that kind of thing.
I live outside Milwaukee, and I work as a musician in the viola section of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. I’m single. In the summer I’m part of the crew on a large-ish racing sailboat. I like to travel and watch movies, go to concerts, perform concerts, buy jewelry.
Tell us one quirky thing about you (or one thing no one knows about you).
I have played viola in both a Baroque chamber music ensemble and a fusion band. Music written between 1600-1775 and music written yesterday. I miss these ensembles very much.
Do you have any advice for other fiber artists? Have any craft room, storage, or other tips?
I find that if I have a construction problem or design problem, it’s best to leave it for a while, and let the solution come to me while I’m watching TV or taking a shower, or something.
Tags: etsyfast, member interview
November 15th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Great interview! Interesting that when we are good in one arts area, we are often good in another! keep up the great work!