Artisan of the Week, Lynsey of Swirlyarts

Happy Sunday everyone! Today's Artisan of the week is the oh so talented and oh so hard working Lynsey of Swirlyarts. How this lady keeps up with all she has to do amazes me. Lyndsey had a shop on Etsy and one on Folksy. She also has a personal swirlyarts blog and she runs the divine Cuteable blog. She must be more organised than I am, for sure. All the things she squeezes into each day would take me at least 3 days to do, and add to that she does them all so well... Anyway, less of my marvelling over Lynsey's skill and onto the interview.

1. Could you please introduce us to who you are and what you do?
Hi my name is Lynsey, I'm 31, married to a lovely man called Matt and I have two young daughters who are 2 and 5. I run my own little business called Swirlyarts where I make lots of different things, mainly from products that have had a previous use - up-cycling really! I also run a blog called Cuteable which takes up a large chunk of my time!

2. What led you to take up your craft?
I loved art at school and when I trained to be a primary teacher (a job I no longer do) I specialised in art. I really got into craft though when I was pregnant with my elder daughter and I couldn't find any birth announcement cards I liked so my mother in law bought me some card making things and the rest is history!

3. Which part of your work do you most enjoy?
Ooooh I have lots! I like looking around charity shops for fabric for my chicken doorstops and for old damaged books for my gift tags and mixed media work. I think my favourite thing is just getting time to sit down and create which can be tricky with 2 small children! I'm really enjoying mixed media work at the moment too.

4. Which part do you find hardest?
Apart from lack of time to create when I want, it would have to be keeping up to date with my shops. I'm generally good at making products and photographing them but actually getting them into my shop is a different matter! I have about 30 products that I have photographs of that aren't in my shops yet!

5. Where do you hope to be in 1 year’s time?
My younger daughter starts nursery for 2 and a half hours each day in September so I'm hoping that the extra time I will have will be spent creating. I'm also hoping to have had time to explore photography a little more and have better product photographs. Oh and to have organised my time much better!

6. What is the best advice you have ever been given?
To do what you love - if you enjoy what you are doing then it will show. Oh and to have good product photographs which is something I am working on!


7. Could you name artisans sites/shops would you recommend are worth a visit?
Well one of my all time favourites has to be Lupin and I love Lucie Summers fabric at Summersville, but the 2 shops I could happily spend all my money in are La Pomme Stories and Sophie Isobel Designs

8. What is your favourite sandwich filling?
I'm quite partial to a crisp sandwich (meaty flavoured crisps only) but I really like chicken and sweetcorn in mayonnaise - yum!

Thank you so much for joining in with our blog Lynsey. I adore your chickens so much and I admire your upcycling skills. If only we all did a whole lot more of that, we wouldn't have so many landfill sites fit to bursting point! You are an inspiration to me and I'm sure many other people! Go and check out both her shops and her blogs dear readers. You won't be sorry you did.

Written by Lynne of PiratePixieCrew and Hyperloop Hoops