My name is Antonia Hansen and I am the designer and owner of Wire Art Ink.
In 2006, while teaching art full time to adults with disabilities, I needed a way to supplement my income and still have time to make and promote my own art. A friend of mine suggested Etsy as the perfect solution and Wire Art Ink was born.
When the shop first opened, I exhibited my current work, which was abstract wire mixed media sculpture that took hundreds of hours of fine detailed work per piece. It was beautiful, but at the time consumers just were not spending much money for expensive art. After researching, I found that people where drawn to unique or custom made pet and animal art. I changed the focus of my shop to whimsical animal sculpture and personalized pet portraits.
The first piece I made was modeled after my beloved black cat, Lu. He sold quickly and I began to receive more and more requests for custom animals. I have since extended my shop to holiday items, and functional household decorative pieces. Most of them are animal focused.
I often am asked how I got into working with wire. Seven years ago, when I was doing a lot of drawing, an associate remarked how they really lent themselves to wire. That little comment was just the thing to set fire to my imagination.
In the future I plan to manage Wire Art Ink full time and open another shop featuring my abstract art sculpture. I also intend to travel and teach art and craft workshops throughout the country.