I'd like to chime in and welcome you all to MyCraftivity! I'm Jessica, one of the cohorts Tonia mentioned in her first post, and I'm so happy to have this outlet to connect with all of you in the mixed-media and collage world.
As Tonia mentioned, we are book editors, and I have to say that sometimes editing books is a strange thing indeed. We work closely with the authors for a very long time--often well over a year--helping to bring their artwork and their voices to life on the page, and then we send the finished products out into the world and... well, and then that's it, for our part in the process! We move on to the next work in progress. But all of the books I have a hand in creating also have a special place in my heart, and many times I find myself wondering who reads them, who they have helped inspire, who makes up this elusive audience of crafters, what their own labors of love are, and what they are looking for to enrich their craft.
That's why I'm so excited about this group here in MyCraftivity; finally, we can all be part of one big, interactive online community. I look forward to receiving feedback from all of you on all things mixed-media. I look forward to reading your blogs and seeing your artwork in the gallery and hearing about your creative processes. And I also welcome the opportunity to share my own thoughts and creations with you here.
Here at the North Light Books office we are preparing to travel to Anaheim for the Craft and Hobby Association show. This is one of the rare opportunities we have to really spend time in person with some of our favorite talented mixed-media and collage artists and authors. Events at our company's booth will include special appearances by Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Jane Wynn and Josie Cirincione, to name just a few of the many lovely and talented smiling faces we're looking forward to seeing in sunny California. Jealous? Not to worry; so you can live vicariously, we'll be sharing fun stories and photos from this event with all of you right here at the blog.
Welcome to our first Mixed Media + Collage blog post! I'd like to introduce myself and let you know how excited my fellow group moderators and I are to be a part of this group and share our love of all things mixed media with you, our group members. I'm Tonia, the Group Owner and I'll be sharing blog posts and forum monitoring with Christine and Jessica.
As acquisitions editors for a variety of great books from many talented and creative people, Christine, Jessica and I are not only passionate about the world of mixed media, we are also constantly on the look out for the best products, events and talent across a variety of artistic areas. You're going to meet people in this group that are collage artists, jewelry makers, painters, metal smiths, paper crafters, fiber artists, art journalers and more, for the arena that we call mixed media is a large one. We're all going to learn from one another here and, everyone's input and contributions are valued.
I'll begin the sharing process by telling you a bit about some of the things I am personally interested in. I enjoy painting, papercrafts, bookbinding, creative framing, art journaling and my current passion is heavily focused on using Plexiglas to create jewelry and dimensional artwork. I'm looking forward to getting to know you and what you are passionate about. In addition to the photos you may choose to post on your private MyCraftivity profile site, I would like to encourage you to post photos to the Mixed Media Public Gallery as well.
My crafty cohorts will be introducing themselves to you in the next few days and we're all very excited to share more of ourselves with you and learn what you have to share with us. Until next time, Tonia
