Friday's Featured Artist - Meri GreenLeaf!

One of my favorite parts about being an on-line seller is that I make all sorts of wonderful friends! Susan (who goes by Meri on-line for the most part) has fast become one of those friends. We have many of the same interests and spend a lot of time talking on plurk! So it is my great pleasure to introduce her to you as this week's featured artist :) Click on any of the pictures you see below to be taken to the listing.

1.What type of art work do you do?

Name it, I probably do it. ;) I crochet, make jewelry and chainmaille, sculpt, paint (usually on fabric) and draw, make dreamcatchers, spin (and sometimes dye) yarn, and sew (handsew- I don't know how to use a sewing machine). My main one is the crochet, though; even a lot of my jewelry is crocheted. Most of what I make is fantasy-

related, but I also make things inspired by nature.

2.How did you get started doing art work?

I've always been into art; in elementary school I'd stay in at lunchtime to help in the art room, and in high school I stayed after school almost every day to work in the pottery classroom (pottery was my obsession back then, but I haven't had a chance to work in it since). I also used to make a lot of plastic jewelry when I was a kid. For the things I do now, I started crocheting about four years ago all because I wanted a Hufflepuff scarf from Harry Potter, and I haven't put down my hooks since. The rest of the art I do I've picked up in the few years since, mostly teaching myself

and winging it as I go along.

3.Do you do any other crafts?

I think I already answered this- yes, I do a lot of them. :)

4.Is there a story behind your shop name?

Both “Elfling Creations” and my Etsy shop “Elbit Enterprises” (although I may be changing that one to match at some point- I just haven't done that yet) come from the race of my alias/persona (and old roleplay character) who is a half elf/half halfling (or hobbit); I combined those races and got “Elbit” originally, but lately have switched over to using the combined “Elfling” instead. I go by “Meri Greenleaf” online (and sometimes in real life, as well); that was the name of my old roleplay character that has become my alter-ego (nope, I'm not a Legolas fangirl, just a huge fan of Mirkwood; “Thranduiliell” [the original second part of the name] would have been too hard for people to find me with. Besides, “Greenleaf” fits me well because I'm obsessed with the color green and forests).

5.What's your favorite piece in your shop right now?

Oh geez, that's a hard one! I love making everything I do! I think it may be Wynmaeg, my crocheted renaissance wench plushie.

(featured at the top of the post)

She's one of my older plushies, but I had so much fun making her and coming up with all the accessories for her outfit- and I love dressing up for the Renfaire, so it was fun getting to make a costumed doll.

But then again, my favorite could be this faerie cat, named after my own black kitty Clarabell. (featured to the right)

That doll isn't perfect (it was my first attempt at making an animal pattern), but I think it's adorable. Then again, I may be biased because it's based off my fur-baby. ;)

6.Where do you sell your work?

I'm on a few random online craft selling sites, but my two main ones are Artfire and Etsy:

http://merigreenleaf.artfire.com

http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com

My website is http://elflingcreations.com but I don't actually sell on that site; I use it to link to my other shops.

7.Do you blog?

Yup- I love blogging! My art blog is in two places- the main one is on blogger (http://merigreenleaf.blogspot.com) but I also crosspost most of the entries to my art livejournal (http://elbit-blog.livejournal.com).

8.Are you on any social networks you'd like to share?

I'm on a whole bunch, but Plurk is my favorite. :) These are the ones I use most:

http://twitter.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.plurk.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.ravelry.com/people/merigreenleaf

http://www.myspace.com/merigreenleaf

http://www.facebook.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.flickr.com/photos/merigreenleaf

http://merigreenleaf.deviantart.com

9.Do you watch or listen to anything while you work? If so, what?

A lot of the time when I'm working I'll listen to audiobooks (literature, mostly- I love http://librivox.org because that site has free audiobooks that are in the public domain) or comedy (usually Eddie Izzard- I love him!) on my iPod, but sometimes I'll also try to read at the same time (that one's a bit hard to do, lol) or watch tv (also distracting). When I'm listing and editing photos I'll often listen to music- usually Blackthorn, Enter the Haggis, Hanson, Spin Doctors, Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, and Tonic, as well as the occasional filk or video game song (yeah, my playlist is pretty eclectic). I've recently started streaming Pandora Radio, too, so I get to listen to all sorts of fun Celtic and Celtic rock bands that I hadn't heard of before. :)

10.Tell us one random fact about your self *wink*

Just one? Hmm... well, besides being an artist, my main goal in life is to become a professor of British Literature, hopefully being able to focus on the Renaissance- I have a thing for Renaissance plays. Besides art, books are my obsession.

I recently won a cartilage chain earring like the one you see above from Meri in a blog contest! Pictures will be coming soon :)