I have always been a creative soul! When I was little, I loved going shopping with my Mom, we would always hit up a little craft store (do you remember Lewiscraft?)There were a few here and there, long ago before Michaels of course but still so exciting for a little girl like me! I would always pick up a few things each time and add to my craft collection.
Fast forward a few years, I took up professional painting and sold my one of a kind artwork in professional art galleries. I was successful and had some lovely repeat customers, I felt blessed, selling original artwork isn't always easy!
After a few years it got more difficult and I started to lose interest and my passion for creating art. It was also the beginning of the end for a few of the galleries I was a part of. They slowly started shutting their doors.
Although sad to leave this passion of mine behind, I knew I still wanted to create and share it with the world. But what could I do? What could I create?
I remember coming across some scrap pieces of leather and my mind started to wander, what could I create with this? I loved that leather was more of a luxury item and gets better with time (usually). Coming from creating original and somewhat expenses pieces of art, I was in love with using leather as my medium.
I kept buying up scraps and started making leather cuffs with flowers and then started etching pieces of metal with wording to attach to them. These sold like crazy and I was hooked!
I continued to create, to expand and learned all of my skill pretty much on my own, no formal training just a few Youtube videos and online tutorials. I wanted to start making leather bags and drew out my patterns all by hand. I wanted to create "works of art" with my leathercraft. All of my bags were limited edition, only a few of each were made. To this day I still create some of the same designs but always with different colors of leather, still making them limited editions.
I love that I can still create and share my craft after all of these years!
(Picture of me and my Momma a few years ago taking a painting class at Red Deer College, it was a Birthday gift after she took up painting herself).