Shop Name: Mindful Presents
Description:
Basically
I have had an incredibly eclectic life, I was Born and spent my early
years in South Africa. I lived in Belgium, Berlin, London and the USA.
In my 20’s I studied costume design, and lived as an au pair in Berlin
with a lovely lady who designed costumes for the Burg Theatre in Vienna.
She was the first person who sent me to art school, where I studied
portraiture. I then came to the USA studied theatre costume design, did a
few shows on our beautiful Mount Tamalapais (The Mountain Play: Annie
get Your Gun and Henry V) then I moved back to Europe, designed a few
shows for small theaters in London before taking off and working with
the Club med for 6 months. When I returned to the USA, I continued to
design clothes. However I was really interested in making a difference
in the world, so I started my prerequisites for Nursing, and in 1988, I
married my husband Alan who is my rock. We had two children, I went to
school, and worked, and graduated with my nursing degree in 1996. I
continued to try and create things, I made clothes and
halloween,costumes for the children, and sewed, and took up silk
painting. I worked on a lot of school art projects, and helped with
school plays. I made many blankets, prayer shawls, and scarves.
I
also made teddy bears, and crocheted. However I had so little time,
working as an RN in a very busy cardiac stroke unit, and taking care of
my children husband and 2 beautiful border collies. My children are now
21 and 23, and I am very proud of them, but I now have an empty nest.
I was feeling a little sad, since they left home. One day,about three
months ago, while out running on our beautiful mountain with my border
collies, I fell, and ended up with a broken ankle. This was a blessing
in disguise.
I
thought, since I now had the time off work, I needed to get my creative
juices flowing, and to boost my morale, I decided to
create ‘one beautiful thing’
every day. So I started making crowns, all kinds, big ones, small
ones, brightly colored ones, ones with seashells and feathers and
flowers and glitter. Every day my husband came home and found me
cooking dinner with a new crown on my head. It was so much fun, and my
creative juices were bubbling over, so much so that I was able to delve
head first back into my silk painting.
I
created a number of scarves, and sold a few to people at work, then I
created the mermaid quilt, which made my heart sing. I pulled out some
old pieces I had stopped working on a while ago, because I didn’t have
time to finish them.( I was so busy, as I had gone back to school to
further my nursing education at the ripe old age of 51 and got my
Bachelors of Science in Nursing.) I found that I looked at these pieces
with new eyes, and started working on them with renewed passion. While
at work, one day a lovely patient of mine asked to see my work, and I
gave her a crown before she went to surgery She wore it during her
hospital stay and everyone commented on how radiant she looked. She
suggested I open an ETSY store. So I opened Mindful Presents at the end
of July, and have been so happy to be part of something creative. I am
blown away by all the gorgeous, stunning artwork, clothes, and designs,
even the food creations I have seen on ETSY, there is so much talent.
Prior to ETSY, I never sold anything - I just gave everything away. I
was amazed when people actually commented on my work, and ‘liked’ my
store. This is all very new to me, but I feel like I have my mojo, I am
meeting so many people, and have made new friends with local people who
are on ETSY. I love it when the people who buy my wares write back to
me, and include me in the pleasure they experience while wearing one of
my creations. I called them Crowning Glories, in the hope that whoever
wears them will feel beautiful from inside out.
Not
only am I expressing myself creatively, but I am feeding my soul,
especially when I paint on silk, because the ebb and flow of the silk
as it disperses and bleeds into the pristine white background is
meditative and soothing. This is why the reason I call my silk
creations, ’Silk Dreams’
My
goals are to build up my silk painting inventory, continue with creating
the Teddy Bears I call Bear Souls, because there is nothing like a
teddy bear to bare your soul to when sad. I will also continue to
crochet - a lovely pastime taught to me by my grandmother. I have a new
project I would like to get started, which is creating dolls from
recycled materials. I make dolls out of old glass or plastic bottles,
and all the old socks whose mates have moved on to sock heaven. I call
these Bottled Souls… They are fun and whimsical. I would also very much
like to get back into making costumes. So as you can see I have many
irons in the fire. I am so happy to be on ETSY, it has opened up so many
exciting avenues for me.
Featured Items:
Hand made Embroidered SILK QUILT/ Wall Hanging. OOAK Kiss of the Dolphin.
Hand made Halloween, Queen of the Sea Starfish Crown
Exotic Halloween Head Piece with Peacock feathers, Oyster shells, and Sea Plants
Where to find Mindful Presents:
Mindful Presents Etsy Shop
Mindful Presents on Facebook
