Tell us a bit about yourself name, location,
affiliations, personal stuff.
Hi, my name’s Veronika von Allmen. I’m a Swiss native but am currently living in Germany with my English boyfriend, my ever growing collection of fiber, a big pot for dyeing things in and our two quirky cars. My studio, also known as the living room, is where I spend most of my time usually sat behind my slightly squeaky spinning wheel.
I grew up sailing around the world with my parents, but most recently relocated to the German town of Bensheim after finishing my studies in Britain. By day I work for an international charity that provides funding for the prevention of blindness in developing countries. By night (and on weekends and holidays) I am Snowberry and Lime, the online store I set up on Etsy back in 2006. I had been knitting, sewing, drawing and basically creating lots of my own “stuff” since childhood, but more recently added another addiction to my list – Spinning. These days, most of my store is made up of handspun items from natural fibers – the only problem is finding the time to photograph and list them all!
Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Well, apart from eating, sleeping, working and spinning, my main interests include travelling, textiles, dancing and generally finding antiques and old things that inspire me. Creating is definitely my main interest, including knitting and sewing but also sketching and watercolors - when I get the chance. During the week I take Salsa classes with my boyfriend, and I also like to explore the region – usually looking for unusual fabrics or yarns.
What first made you want to become an artist?
I still don’t really consider myself an artist, but I have always liked to create things and my favorite classes in school were always arts and crafts. My family is more into numbers and art never seemed like an obvious choice.
Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.
When? – good question! Whenever I have the time basically. I source my fibers from all over the world, taking special care to find natural and eco-friendly materials. Most recently, I have found myself using a lot of soy silk which I buy from my local retailer. I also really like anything snuggly and soft such as a merino/silk mix and hand processed Alpaca wool, which I buy from a farm close to my hometown in Switzerland. I also like to find the most quirky and unusual trinkets or beads to spin into my yarns. I even find a lot of these on Etsy.
After hand-dyeing my fibers in a big pot on my stove, I generally use my Ashford traditional spinning wheel (with my precious bulky flyer) or sometimes my Turkish spindle if the beads are too big or the yarn is too extreme to fit through the wheel!
As well as spinning, I also sell a lot of hand-knitted items in my Etsy shop. Wrist warmers are my favourites, although I often find myself wanting to take them out of the store and wear them myself at this time of year! In addition I am constantly planning and sketching detailed handbags and other sewn items, but I rarely seem to get around to sew anymore.
What handmade possession do you most cherish?
A pin-cushion that my boyfriend hand-stitched for me – despite his lack of experience in the needlework department! I also really love a pearl necklace that I bought from damselle on Etsy!
Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.
Admittedly, I don’t get time to read too much fiction because looking at a book and a spinning wheel/knitting needles at the same time usually gets rather messy! My favorites would probably be Papillon by Henri Charriere, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and a book of poetry called Staying Alive.
I am admittedly a big fan of movies! My absolute favorite is Amelie with Audrey Tautou, but I also really enjoyed Girl Interrupted, The Terminal and ANYTHING with Johnny Depp in it!.
I also really like a lot of TV series (good to have on in the background while spinning!), my favorites being Creature Comforts, Alias, Family Guy and Two and a Half Men.
As for music, I am usually into music with singers who are a little more unique vocally than your general ‘American-Idol’ voice. I also have a very eclectic taste ranging from rock to folk to alternative to even a little Charleston! My favorite musicians would probably be Alanis Morissette, The Bates, Duffy, Marilyn Manson and Amy Winehouse.
My fave websites are Ravelry, my google-reader for an ever growing blog roll, Cakewrecks for a little baking-related humor, the spinning forums over at Craftster and the websites of my many suppliers - where I am constantly eyeing up new fibers.
What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
Take the best pictures you possibly can of your items! I can’t tell you how important good pictures are. Also, constantly improving your items and trying to make them stand out from the crowd can only be a good thing - not only for improving your sales but also in terms of satisfying your own aspirations as an artist.
What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?
I love the ‘favorites’ feature as I love to browse other peoples lists to discover new great sellers, the forums for business topics and ‘time machine 2’ as it’s great to find out what kind of stuff is being sold (especially if you can convince them to make another one! Ha ha).
I would like to see a statistics feature on Etsy, as I would love to know where buyers are coming from and how they are stumbling upon our little stores from the world wide web. In the long-term I would also love to see Etsy embracing foreign customers more by expanding and offering international languages and foreign currencies. There is a great percentage of international sellers (and buyers!) out there, and although Etsy is in America, it is an international community made up of people all around the world and I would like to see it being treated more like one.
How do you promote your work?
Well, just earlier this month I had a stall on a Christmas market here in Bensheim. I love to actually get out there and sell my items in person as it is so wonderful to meet the people who are buying my products. Other than that, all the usual suspects that I’m sure most sellers on Etsy are familiar with such as my blog, Flickr, Ravelry and the like.
In ten years I'd like to be...
In ten years I’d like to have started my own little family, be living in a beautiful part of the world and hopefully working less in the office and more on Snowberry and Lime! |
