Once upon a time there lived a little girl who saw color, design and had ideas of creativity buzzing around in her head all the time. Some how she, Colleen, knew she wanted to express her creativity . So at the age of 7 she designed her own line of clothing for her barbie dolls. She learned how to knit, crochet and cross stitch. Her first studio consisted of a sketch book, oil pastels and a bean bag chair while listening to her Grease sound track.

Fast forward many years later and I would say I am still the same 7 year old at heart. In fact I still have that old sketch book filled with my drawing. My studio has changed but my love of creating has remained the same. I grew up, went to college, got married and had five kids. During that time I was always going to garage sales and thrift stores collecting beautiful things that spoke to me and caught my eye. Some times they just needed a little love and TLC. I started repurposing items that others saw as junk. I love to reuse items in a fun new way.

Wearing jewelry is something I have always loved to do. So I started designing jewelry for myself to wear. I love digging through my collections for inspiration and creating one of a kind pieces. From there, I got the idea to try my hand at selling my creations. My shop HoopLa Junk was born!

"Hoopla Junk" seemed to be a fitting name for my etsy shop. I have fun, or hoopla, making art from what others consider junk. Recently, I have been learning how to solder jewelry. As an artist I strive to learn new techniques and continue to strengthen my skills.

A child at heart, who loves to go into her studio and play. That is how I would still describe myself today.