Designer Profiles - Paper Craft

Good afternoon folks.
I know its been a while since I have been here - life has a habit of stopping you in your tracks sometime.  I am happy to be back today with a selection of amazing Etsy Ireland paper crafters.  So lets go.....

Let me introduce you all to

• Aoife from  eefaa
• Fionnuala from  FuzzyIrishCrafts
• Holly from  hollytron
• Letizia from  ooakie

  

 Designs by Eefaa

Mo:

Welcome on board ladies, apologies for the delay but I happy to finally get you all together.  Can you all introduce yourselves and tell us what you do.

Aoife:

Hi Mo, My name is Aoife (eefaa). I am a 25 year old Graphic Designer / Baker. I live in Waterford but I am originally from Kilkenny City. 

Fionnuala:

My name is Fionnuala and I make handmade greeting cards and wedding stationery at home in Dublin, Ireland. I am passionate about everything Irish and handmade and blog about arts and crafts in Ireland.

Holly:

My name is Holly, and I design and make stationery sets, among many other things! I did some training as a Graphic Designer, and have a whole host of other interests that add to my creative process – History, Nature, Books, Video Games, Drawing, Knitting, Sewing, Skating… the list goes on! I think a natural curiosity is what drives me to learn, and the creative process is a great way of processing and expressing my discoveries.

Letizia:

By day I work in an office - all very ordinary, and when I want to breathe, I open my wardrobe of tricks (yes, wardrobe!) and see what I can lose myself in for a while. With the weather so nice recently I got a few plants for the butterflies and made some stakes from my craft wire to keep them organised until they were planted out. When I’m not doing that I’m always trying to organise something new or fun to do or dragging my niece and nephews to cartoon films, fairs, fota (anywhere you need a child ;)

 

  FuzzyIrishCrafts

Mo:

How did you get involved with your craft?

Aoife:

I can't remember not being involved with crafting. Paint and Paper have always been my favourite mediums to create with, so after I finished college and got my degree in Graphic Design, I opened my Etsy shop! 

Fionnuala:

I started making cards for myself in 2012 as a hobby. In order to fund my addiction to buttons and ribbons, I started selling to friends and family. I then opened my Etsy shop and started receiving orders from all over the world. I now sell through my website, through Etsy shop and through various craft fairs around Ireland during the year.

Holly:

I have always liked making things, and the stationery sets? well, that’s an aspiration on my part.  I was always a terrible pen pal, but I really loved making something pretty to send through the mail! So making stationery sets for people who are far more organised and interesting correspondents than I am is quietly satisfying to me.

Letizia:

I come from a very creative family so imagination was always there for me but how I got involved with paper craft stemmed from my love of shopping.... I was watching QVC many years ago and saw this rotary cutter at a bargain. Really they were practically giving it away ;) so when I got my cool paper cutting gadget home, that was it, I started making cards and my love of paper craft was born.

Hollytron

Mo:

Describe a typical day?

Aoife:

I have a little cat called Milo who loves to watch me make things. She tends to get in the middle of things so she doesn't get to stay in my studio for too long. I start my day by checking emails and Etsy orders and then I get down to business. I try to make a stockpile of cupcake picks and bunting to stay on top of things!

Fionnuala:

I work in a school in the mornings, I run a craft café (The Hazel House https://www.facebook.com/thehazelhouseie) in the evenings and I run Fuzzy Irish Crafts when I should be sleeping! Oh did I mention that I paint as well!

Holly:

A Typical day is wrapped up in taking care of my Family.  Up in time to walk the kids to school and often on my walk I’ll be turning over ideas in my head, design ideas, new products.  When I get home I usually do some housework before sitting down to do my “Job of the Day” be it Designing, Blog posting, Stationery set construction or something else entirely! As I have a bad habit of getting into my work and losing track of time, I have an alarm set so I don’t work through pick up time for the kids! Then its back to do Mummy things......

Letizia:

A typical craft day, I start with a leisurely cuppa while checking e-mails, then the wardrobe gets unpacked, I look through my orders and to-do list and dig in. I do tend to flit from project to project depending on what I find in my hand at any one time so I might make a start on plenty of cards and only finish off a few from the day before. I like to live with an idea in my head for about a week; those projects always seem to turn out the best.

  ooakie

Mo:

Any future goals and ambitions?

Aoife:

I would love to work at my shop full time - that would be my ultimate goal. I want to continue to expand my Wedding Range, I love making special items for Brides and Grooms to be. Eventually I want to open a shop, where I can work and interact with my customers face-to-face every day.

Fionnuala:

My short term goal is to develop my range of wedding stationery in my Etsy shop. My long term goal is to own my own little craft shop stocking handmade Irish crafts and become a ‘brand’ for Irish crafts.

Holly:

Oh, this is always changing, but at some point, I’d like to get my Stationery sets into a lovely Brick and Mortar store with lots of other lovely things – at the moment everything is made to order, which is nice because I can customise things really easily, but it’s not so good for expansion! I also want to make more stationery things – Notebooks, Wrapping paper, bookmarks, etc. and I’m slowly plugging away at that

Letizia:

I’ve never been overly ambitious, I’m happy to get orders when and if they come in although I do have it in my head recently that I’d like to submit to a magazine, so when I’ve got some product shots that I’m happy with, watch this space!

Aoifes wee cat Milo

Fionnuala and her pal

 

Mo:

Are there any Designers, blogs, crafters, arty people you follow and why?

Aoife:

There are so many crafty people I admire. I love Paper Panda, Shen Wong Jewellery and A Drim Design. I love their use of social media to showcase their items.

Fionnuala:

I am constantly amazed at the wealth of talent that Ireland has to offer in term of crafting. There are so many Irish crafters that I have featured on my blog that I just love like Rosario at Ventry toys, Kay at Ruby Robin Boutique and Maria at Lollipops and Daydreams to name but a few.

Holly:

I love How About Orange for all the resources she posts, and other amazing people she links to. Also love the work of Olly Moss.  He makes my inner Geek (Both design and regular) sing

Letizia:

Dawn Bibby an English card maker – I learned all the basics of card making online from Dawn, and of course I follow loads of our fabulous Etsy Ireland Team members, It really makes me happy to see when you do so well and turn up on magazines, newspapers, at craft fairs etc.

 

Letizia at play

Holly at work

Mo:

Any advice for new crafters?

Aoife:

My advice for new crafters would be to start out slow and enjoy crafting. It will take time for you to find your 'niche'. Try new things all the time! Don't get bogged down if sales aren't coming your way. It will take time, and that's OK! Just remember to enjoy it all!

Fionnuala:

My advice would be to do keep doing what you love to do and what gives you energy and then you will never have to work a day in your life.

Holly:

Go for it!  Listen to Advice and Ideas from other people, but always listen to your gut. 9 times out of 10 its right.  Don’t let fear make your decisions for you.

Letizia:

Try not to give yourself unreasonable deadlines, if you’re new to crafting you need lots of playtime to work everything out. Also don’t let one obstacle or negative incident make you quit, I read only yesterday something along the line of – Giving up after one setback is like getting a flat tire so you cut the other three.

Mo:

Where can we find you .......

Aoife:

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eefaadesigns

instagram: http://instagram.com/eefaadesigns

etsy: www.eefaa.etsy.com

Fionnuala:

Twitter https://twitter.com/FuzzyIrishCraft

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FuzzyIrishCrafts

Blog http://www.fuzzyirishcrafts.com/blog.html

Website http://www.fuzzyirishcrafts.com

Holly:

https://www.facebook.com/hollytrondesign

http://hollytron.blogspot.ie/

https://twitter.com/Hollytron

Letizia:

Facebook www.facebook.com/ooak.ie

Twitter www.twitter.com/ooakie

Mo:

Wow girls, you are all such busy people.  I love your enthusiasm for what you do.  Thanks for being part of this Designer group.  I wish you loads of success for the future.   Now folks please pay these paper crafters a visit and share some love.......

Thats it for now from this occasional series of Designer blog articles.  As there has been no crafters in the spinning and weaving section who have come forward to be interviewed, the next category is Woodwork and Rushwork.  So calling all wood and rush workers on Etsy Ireland.....  If you would like to be included please get in touch.

Cheers for now

Mo

huggleknits