As part of the kickoff of the monthly featured artisan feature, I am happy to bring you the second featured artisan: Sarah of Small Shiny Objects. Sarah creates beaded jewelry and other beaded gifts that she describes as ‘comfortable elegance.’ In Small Shiny Objects you will find necklaces, earrings, bracelets, crystal suncatchers and a couple of crafts from her little girl Laura! Most of her jewelry is made with a combination of semi-precious stones, Swarovski crystals, czech glass beads, and silver or gold-filled wire.  The occasional vintage piece makes it in there as well, when it suits her fancy. While she does not have a blog, she is frequently on the Etsy forums!

Now let’s see how Sarah responds to this month’s 20 Questions!

Sarah’s 20 Questions:

Let’s start at the beginning. What is your earliest crafting memory?  
My mother and grandmother would always find something to do with the materials we had at hand, whether it was crafting dolls out of wooden clothespins and cloth scraps, or cutting out ornaments from old wallpaper samples.  It was always something new! Read More

Another in-depth review for you today, or is it? Truth be told, the shop I’m reviewing today needs to do very little to improve, in my humble opinion. That shop, is Waterrose.

Right off the mark, I fell in love with the Waterrose banner. Very nice, appealing and shows the range of products without looking like an Etsy Mini. The shop announcement is short but inviting and the policies are in place on the profile page, which also adds warmth in it’s initial description of where the name of the shop comes from.

The item photography is nice and bright and shows off the cute little items very well. The colors are vivid, the backgrounds nice and basic so as not to clash with the items themselves, the descriptions are strong, and the shipping costs are reasonable. Truthfully, it’s hard to do an in-depth review/critique of this shop as I can’t find anything to really suggest for improvement! The ONLY suggestions I can come up with, and that’s after taking a break last night and looking at the shop again this morning, are firstly that the shop accepts money orders and checks so may want to add something into their policies to protect themselves regarding time for the payments to clear before shipping. Secondly, that the shop needs to fill those empty sections or remove them for now.

Truly, this is a very well-done shop and I enjoyed looking at it. Let’s see if anyone else can come up with some constructive commentary that i might have missed!

My rating: 5 out of 5 cherry blossoms!

The ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ is a regular feature on Mindless Pursuits intended to provide insight and exposure to the tons of talented artisans working today. Please comment and give them some encouragement and check out their work! If you would like to be considered for the Spotlight, click on the ‘Free Press’ link above!

What is your shop?
Creative Hook Designs (http://creativehook.etsy.com)

What is your art/craft?
Fiber arts, mostly crocheted. I make things that are practical: environmentally friend market totes, purses, scarves… And things totally impractical: weird quirky little crocheted monsters with attitudes…

Describe your style in 2 words:
Quirky, cool.

What is the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t fry bacon naked!

What is the one piece of advice you’d give?
Be yourself.