"Like so many of you I'm a dabbler! My mom is very artistic, so I learned a lot from her- machine sewing, decoupage, stenciling, painting, etc. My grandma tried to teach me to knit, but it didn't stick. A roommate taught me when I was 20, and I then taught myself to purl from a book, and taught it to her. (We made a lot of garter stitch scarves with wonky increases!) Right now I'm trying to teach myself crochet. I pick up different techniques here and there mainly to help out with my costuming hobby. When you have a limited budget the creativity and broad range of crafting experience helps a lot. (If you need a 10' tall wearable puppet made out of plastic bags, duct tape and soda cans I'm your girl.)

Currently I sell a lot of origami jewelry in my etsy shop, and I supplement that at shows with one of a kind assemblages. I saw a tutorial online for the origami stars that I make, and quickly became addicted. People say "oh, you must be an origami expert", but that's not the case. I'm really good at one fold! I can't do a crane,
despite many attempts. Don't even ask about that poor, poor butterfly. I came up with my own technique to make the paper stars into jewelry, which is something I just picked up along the way."

-Lauren
Paperelle