Artist Spotlight on Valerie from Valmade

This weeks spotlight is on Valerie.  She makes lovely cards for all sorts of occasions and knits some lovely scarves and very cute baby booties and stuffed animals.  Here is one of her cards that I just love. Isn't it great? And now, here is Valerie, in her own words. 1) Name, Location Valerie, Hong Kong 2) Where can you be found online? www.valmade.artfire.com http://en.dawanda.com/shop/Valmade 3) What do you do? I’m a bit of a jack of all trades making cards, cross stitch pictures and knit the odd thing as well. 4) How long have you done it? My cards are more recent, last couple of years, but have been knitting and cross stitching for longer than I care to remember ☺ 5) How did you start? Took up knitting and sewing as a child. From there I started making knitted baby booties and cross stitch birth announcements for friends when they started having babies, just as a hobby really. It’s progressed into an online shop when someone suggested I try selling some to keep me in supplies, and card making just seemed a natural progression. I started with cross stitch cards and now make all different types. 6) Why did you choose this and not something else? Not entirely sure why I chose this. I suppose it was something I enjoyed as a child and just managed to keep it up over the years. 7) How did you learn your craft? My mother taught me to knit and sew when little. I studied Needlework at school so went through a stage of making lots of different things, but have reverted back to small projects. 8) Is this a full time profession for you or do you have another job? No, I work full time in the finance industry and this is something I do when at home in the evenings. 9) If this isn’t your full time profession, would you do it full time if you could? I’d love to be able to devote more time to this, however as I personally make every thing by hand, I don’t think I’d survive very long on the income it might generate ☺ 10) Anything you want to share with others in your craft or who may be considering your craft? I think you have to have a real passion for what you make, and just enjoy it for what it is. Although I know there are many artists out there who do make a decent living from their work, I know my work will never make me rich, but I am happy just knowing that someone got some pleasure out of something I took the time to make. Thank you Val for participating in my artist spotlight.

If you would like your own spotlight email me at hhertziger@gmail.com for more information.