Tell us a bit about yourself name, location,
affiliations, personal stuff.
Hi! We are Rick and Heidi – a husband and wife team. We live in a rustic log home in the wilderness of Northern British Columbia, Canada. Our post office is eight miles away, the nearest city, Prince George, B.C., is about a two hour trip. We have beautiful children and grandchildren and have been empty nesters for over 10 years.
In 1998 we sat down and wrote a scenario of our ideal lifestyle. The strongest points emerging were being creative and living in a homestead setting as self-sufficiently as possible. Serendipity led us to the peaceful setting of Paradise Hill, where we have since become deeply rooted. The motto, "Do what you can with what you’ve got" inspired us to build furniture for our house, using simple tools and barn wood we found on the property. A passion for designing and creating took over and resulted in Rick handcrafting a beautiful shop and Heidi sketching original designs of functional home décor, trying her hand at woodburning and also writing songs.
We don’t have television (by design), but love how the internet allows us to connect and communicate directly with the world – tomorrow we are getting hi-speed satellite installed, yeah!
Apart from creating things, what do you do?
We love going for walks , nature is right outside our door. From our window we enjoy watching wildlife such as moose, bear, deer, and at times wolves moving in the river valley below. The kettle sizzles on the woodstove all day and we drink tea and have relaxing visits with our neighbour friends. In summer we raise vegetables, flowers and gather wild berries in the bush. When time permits we like to read and practise singing together.
Heidi writes songs, plays finger-style guitar and performs with her band, Sound of the North, on some weekends. We have a great, supportive family and love it when they come to visit, sometimes we travel to see them.
What first made you want to become an artist?
Heidi: I grew up in Germany, where handcrafts were taught beginning in Kindergarten and great emphasis was placed on high quality of workmanship. The beauty of handmade pieces all around fascinated me and I found satisfaction in working with my hands from early on.
One of my most memorable creations was a full length skirt I crocheted as a teenager. Since no pattern was available (European fashion had just turned from mini to maxi overnight!) I designed it free-style as I went along. It fit really well and I proudly wore it to the next school dance.
Rick: For years I admired people with talent but believed that I had none. One day I declared that there must be something that I can do which resulted in my creating a birch bark picture frame with embellishments of twigs and pine cones I collected on a walk. That small project was the breakthrough that led to creating small pieces of furniture and eventually my 24x30 ft workshop, built without written plans.
Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.
The first step is the reclaiming of aged wood in our surrounding area. We get quite excited when we find a new source – it’s almost like discovering a vein of gold – and we ooh and aah over it a lot. The wood is brought into the shop, were Rick removes any nails and leaves the boards to dry for a time.
We make all our own designs, sometimes it’s just a pencil sketch of an idea, most times it’s hands on the wood right away. The creating involves a lot of quiet listening and being ‘in the flow’ - each piece gets all our energy and full attention. We have no set hours to create, but often start early in the morning and keep going way into the evening.
What handmade possession do you most cherish?
Heidi: A solid wood island in my kitchen made of reclaimed pine with mahogany trim. Rick designed and handcrafted it for me – it is so functional and beautiful - I use it every single day.
Rick: My shop.
Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.
The following books/magazines rate high with both of us:
The Power of Now & A New Earth by Eckhardt Tolle
The Law of Attraction by Abraham-Hicks
Backwoods Home Magazine
All Writings of Joel Goldsmith
We are not up to date in the movie world – but here are couple we enjoy:
Chocolat (2000) Juliette Binoch & Johnny Depp
Divine Madness – Bette Midler
Songs/Musical Groups:
Ian Tyson
Gary Fjellgaard
Valdy
Calvin Vollrath
Alex Meixner
Websites:
Jackie Clay blog/Backwoods Home
Cottage Gardener
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What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?
Make use of the amazing free resources that Etsy provides all through the site, including the community forums. Tend your shop as you would a garden, to thrive it needs your loving attention on a regular basis. Be as creative in the set-up, marketing and maintaining of your shop as you are in creating your product. Add some freshness as often as possible. Take great pictures of your items.
What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?
We appreciate the overall clean design of the whole site – it is artful in itself. The front page and treasuries are a real delight to the senses. The community forums and storque articles contain great resources. A neat new feature would be the ability to somehow search/sort the sold item.
How do you promote your work?
On Etsy we list new pieces as often as possible as well as renew items. We also attend selected arts and craft fairs in our area and have our work in a couple of galleries. Otherwise we give out business cards, and get all kinds of attention when wearing our own pendants (some are for men, too!).
In ten years I'd like to be...
Still creating beauty, piece by piece.
Presenting evenings where music, art and delicious food are combined into one enjoyable experience.
Visiting with grandchildren, family and friends. |
