All about the writer, Lynne of Pirate Pixie Crew

For the next few weeks I am going to invite each of the writers of this blog to tell the readers a little bit about them self, so that you readers can get to know a little bit about us, what we do and how we came to be writing for Autonomous Artisans. So, I guess I better be the first.

I’m Lynne, I am the maker of all the goods in my Pirate Pixie Crew shops and co owner of Hyperloop Hoops and I make most of the hoops and wick covers. I started Autonomous Artisans to give exposure to people, who like me, hand make goods, produce artworks, recycle/upcycle goods. I was finding it so hard to get people to view my on-line shops and realised that lots of other people were in the same situation as me. Autonomous Artisans grew out of the need to connect buyers with sellers and to champion people that were doing it for themselves.


I strongly believe that human beings need to find a less damaging way to live on this planet before we cause the environment to become so hostile to our species that we can’t survive. The earth will go on, with or without human beings, so I’m not trying to save the earth; I’m trying to save the environment that my loved ones need to stay alive. Handmade, recycled goods and buying as local as possible all fit neatly into my vision of making things better.

So who am I? I'm not sure the answer to that question is very simple. I'm everything and nothing. I'm a dreamer, but realistic. I'm creative, yet love to take things apart. I'm full of ideas, but can't convert 90% of them into reality. I'm told I'm a strong person, yet I feel lacking in strength. I love life and the adventure, but sometimes I don't feel I can live any more. Small details thrill me, small minded people annoy me. I spin fire poi and hoops, yet fire frightens me. I dance in puddles and sing in the bath, but deep water scares me. Bright colours thrill me, yet I mainly dress in black. I'm a hoarder yet long for neat, clean lines. I adore wide open, wild and windy places, but hate to feel cold. I guess in total I'm really a 6 year old child living in a 41 year old body that's struggling to come to terms with the world being not exactly as I dreamed it should be.

I guess a lot of people would class me as a bit of a tree hugging hippie and I wouldn’t take that as an insult, so I guess I am. I’ve had Myalgic Encephalomyelitis for over 20 years. I have a relapsing form and can spend years in fairly good health, but I do also have many months of being pretty ill. I started out my working life in microbiology and moved from that to retail as my health was declining, but a sudden down turn my illness has lead to me being all but unemployable for the moment, so I’ve taken all my hobbies and expanded them all into a way of making a bit of money and spreading my love for certain things, like hula hooping and hats.

I live in South Wales in the UK with my supportive sexy partner Jon and our two misbehaving monkeypunk cats. We have mountains behind our home and the sea is only 20 minutes drive away. The countryside around us is gorgeous. Being it is Wales, which is mountainous, we do get a lot of rain, but that keeps the grass and trees green and the rivers flowing. Our big dream is to build ourselves a self sufficient home from recycled car tyres on a big enough plot of land to be able to grow most of our own food. The aim is to get off the national electrical grid by the use of solar and wind power, and to be self sufficient in water and waste disposal. This dream is a few years away yet, but the plans are growing and we are researching and collecting ideas all the time.

So that’s a little bit about me and my life.