PAFA Monday Merchant Circle

Please welcome Laura of Cave Creek Primitives. My featured Monday Merchant artist, and Primitive and Folk Artist teammate. Laura has always loved all things primitive and country, probably from growing up in an 1860s farmhouse. Fabrics, fibers and trims were also a part of her childhood. She loves the quirky, unusual, and inexplicable. Laura created Cave Creek Primitives so she could continue to play with strange looking animals and dolls. Makes total sense to me! Let's read and learn more about our friend Laura and take a look at some of her said dollies. Here's one of my favorites.

1. Tell us your first name and name of your business and how you chose its' name? Laura. Cave Creek Primitives. I named it after the area in Kentucky where we live. There's a real Cave Creek, not far from our home in the Daniel Boone National Forest. There are also lots of caves around here. It seemed to fit nicely.

2. How long have you been in business? I've been sewing and crafting most of my life, but I seriously started making primitives about six years ago, I think. I didn't open an Etsy shop until 2010, and then it was Cave Creek Studio. I changed it later when I decided to focus on just primitives and folk art.

3. Who or what inspires you? I receive inspiration from so many things - Nature, my own dogs and cats, other artists, and living in this area. I also have a pretty weird imagination - sometimes new ideas just pop into my head from nowhere.

4. What is your creative style, primitive, country, folkart? Probably a mixture - I seem to be developing my own style as I go. I rarely plan ahead or use patterns - more often I just get an idea, then figure out how to put it on paper and make a pattern I can use. I never know where a design is going until I work on it - then it sort of creates itself and I just follow along. There have been several designs that I've completed that I still don't have patterns for. I'm working now at making patterns that I can release at some point.

5. What medium do you use in creating, clay, fabric, altered art, wood etc.? Muslin fabric - by the bolt. I have another shop, LauraOh Designs, and I save all of the fabric scraps from that to use for stuffing. I rag-stuff all of my primitives. I also use cheap cotton sheets for stuffing. I make my primitive stain, and I also sometimes use paints and other finishes. I use a lot of vintage buttons too - I have thousands of them all over the place in tins and jars. I have my own studio building, and I absolutely love what I do. I am so thankful that I can do this full-time too. My husband is a musician, with his own studio too, so we each work at home and we are truly blessed. I give away a lot of my work to friends and neighbors. I am most happy when something I've created makes someone else smile.

6. What are your links (list your etsy shop, eBay, web site, blogs etc.)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/cavecreekprimitives

http://www.cavecreekprimitives.blogspot.com/

http://cavecreekprimitives.weebly.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lauraohdesigns

Click on Laura's links and shop for your quirky, unusual, and inexplicable home decor!

Thanks Laura!