Tell us a bit about yourself name, location,
affiliations, personal stuff.
My name is Anne Holman. I grew up in northeast Minnesota and later was transplanted to northeast Ohio. I moved to Columbus, Ohio years ago to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design and have been here since. I live with my 9-year-old son in an old house within walking distance from the best ice cream shop in the country and I am lucky enough to be surrounded by very talented and creative neighbors. I am fortunate enough to say that my jewelry business has been my full time job for about 3 years now and I just recently began teaching jewelry and metalsmithing part time at the Columbus College of Art and Design. I try to stay involved in the local art scene, and I am the co-organizer of Tiny Canary Indie Design Market with my good friend Aline.
Apart from creating things, what do you do?
I spend quite a bit of time creating, and I enjoy the quiet and solitude that this lifestyle provides. I am happiest when I can create and share things with other people… I really enjoy cooking for friends and gardening with my neighbors in our huge, shared vegetable garden. I try to eat healthy and live as eco-friendly as possible. I enjoy practicing yoga, being outdoors, reading, traveling, perusing flea markets and antique shops, and I am attempting to relearn to play the piano.
What first made you want to become an artist?
I don’t know that I ever decided to become an artist. Art making is something I have always done. I think it was rather apparent to everyone in my left-brained family that I approached things from a more right-brained perspective. I enjoyed spending a lot of my time as a child in my ‘studio’ - a small storage closet above the stairs of our house. Sitting amongst suitcases and winter coats, my workspace was a deep shelf where I placed an old lamp and all my art materials. With Elmer’s glue, crayons and markers, I played around seeing what I could do with them besides the usual drawing, and cut & paste. I pigmented glue with marker ink and made things that primitively resembled plique-a-jour enamels, and I discovered what could be done when you melt wax crayons on a warm metal lampshade. I took this knowledge to school and made encaustic paintings on the radiator beside my desk in elementary school when the teacher wasn’t looking. You wouldn’t believe how beautiful a metallic silver crayon is dripping down a hot radiator! That same year in school, a Cherokee woman came to our class and taught us how to make earrings from porcupine quills and glass seed beads as a Mother’s Day gift. I was hooked. Soon after, I got a beading loom and promptly wove intricate beaded bracelets for all my friends. When I was about 11, I discovered my father’s tool bench where I found copper wire that I’d bend into decorative shapes and then pound flat with a carpenter’s hammer. A family friend working at a stationary shop in town encouraged me to keep making these earrings, and for a while, I sold them at her store. Little did I know at the time, the seed was planted for what I am doing today… only now I have my own workbench, a bigger studio, torches, and real metalsmithing tools.
Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.
I find a lot of inspiration in daily life as well as in antiques, traveling, and experiencing things from other times, places and cultures. I have always been a collector of objects and am fascinated by the histories each hold. For a while, I had dreams of becoming an archaeologist, traveling the world and digging for artifacts. In fact, I have boxes and boxes of rocks and other treasures that I’ve picked up over my lifetime and I can still recall where I found most of them.
I made an art installation years ago that featured a collection of jewelry encasing samples of soil that had been gathered by my family and friends on their travels around the world and from other places of significance to them. Each necklace contained a vial of soil, was labeled with the geographic coordinates from where it was collected and a section of an antique map was framed in a setting on a hand fabricated sterling silver cap. Mapping and the documenting of places became a continuous inspiration in my artwork. This eventually manifested itself into my current line of map jewelry that features sections from my growing collection of antique atlases.
Not long ago, I inherited a beautiful wooden hope chest from my grandparents. It was filled with things they had collected on their travels, old pocket watches, an extensive key collection, antique handbags and beautiful hats. Every time I open this chest, I find something I haven’t seen before. I have a typeset drawer on my mantle filled with many of these objects, which are a constant source of inspiration along with my regular visits to flea markets on the look out for interesting materials, textures and patterns from times past.
I take pride in making my business as ‘green’ as possible, I try to reclaim and repurpose materials when I can. My packaging and shipping materials are made from nearly all recycled paper. And I am very happy to say that I have recently begun to purchase a majority of my raw materials from a refiner who produces 100% recycled precious metals.
What handmade possession do you most cherish?
I don’t know if there is any one in particular. I try to fill my home with handmade objects and artwork made by friends and family. Knit blankets, quilts, clothing, ceramic mugs, porcelain vases, mezzotints, paintings, photographs, wooden toys… These objects have a soul and craftsmanship that will always be treasured more than any store bought counter part ever could. They exemplify the talents of each person, and are a physical memento of a quiet moment they each spent creating something with their hands.
Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.
This is impossibly difficult to narrow down…
Books:
Anything written by Michael Pollen, Sarah Vowell, or David Sedaris
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - by Milan Kundera
Peace Is Every Step - by Thich Nhat Hanh
A Natural History of the Senses - by Diane Ackerman
Movies:
David Attenborough documentaries
Alfred Hitchcock films
Miyazaki animations
Anything starring Audrey Hepburn
Once
Music: recently…
Philip Glass
Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone
Bon Iver
Neko Case
Fleet Foxes
Websites:
NPR
Google Maps
Google Sightseeing
Pandora
Kiva
What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
Have great craftsmanship and customer service, thoughtful packaging, clear descriptions and stellar photos. Ask friends or others on Etsy to give you honest critical feedback about your shop. Be objective, and open to improving what you are doing. Be original, patient, and most importantly be passionate about what you are selling!
What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?
I love seeing the treasuries people curate and the hearts feature. One of my favorite ways to browse Etsy is linking from one seller’s favorites list to another.
One thing I’d love to be able to do is to sort and store my convos into folders rather than the tagging. Ideally, I’d like to have the ability to archive old convos so I can keep only the active conversations in my inbox.
How do you promote your work?
I make sure to have consistent branding of my products to keep it immediately recognizable. When I sell my work at events, I always make sure to hand out a lot of business cards. Never underestimate word of mouth marketing. Great customer service goes a long way. People will remember their experience and tell their friends, who tell their friends… I have met some extremely loyal customers and retail shops that have passed kind words along to bloggers, newspapers and magazines. I can’t thank them enough!
In ten years I'd like to be...
healthy and living near the water in a cozy bungalow with someone I love, making whatever it is with my hands that makes me happy. I'd like to be continuing my yoga practice, keeping bees and tending a huge vegetable garden. I would also love to have more time off for adventuring and traveling abroad with my son to do some exploring and humanitarian work. |
