Talent Tuesday: For Quilt's Sake

It's Talent Tuesday:
For Quilt's Sake!

Today, I’m starting off the first Tuesday of February by introducing a new column on the Capitola Girl Jewelry blog, Talent Tuesday. Talent Tuesday is going to be a once a month feature that will be published here on the first Tuesday of each month.

My preparations for Talent Tuesday began last month, when I started seeking out a talent that was doing something uniquely creative and different with jewelry. And I was lucky to find the kind of creativity that I was looking for with the quilted pendants that I am showing you today from quilt artist, Pam Geisel. Pam sells her quilted necklaces and other goodies at her For Quilt’s Sake Shop on Etsy.

Being the creative type, Pam has been doing arts and crafts for as long as she can remember. In 2001, she took a hand-sewn quilting class and after hand-sewing her first few quilts, she then moved onto the sewing machine. Pam designs beautiful quilts. Although, because I am a jewelry maker, I must admit that what first captured my attention about her was how she was mixing her traditional quilting techniques with beading. She was creating these really cute quilted square pendants, and I couldn’t curb my curiosity. How did she get the idea? It was so creative. So, after Pam agreed to be the first Talent Tuesday artist, that was one of my first questions.

Pam, what first gave you the idea to turn your quilts into jewelry?

A few years ago I made a square wall hanging and found it to be more interesting when I turned it on point (45 degrees) and hung some beads off the corners, so then I decided to do that to some of the necklaces. I made a few miniature quilt squares, just 1.5 inches each, so I got some stretchy cord and strung it with beads. I thought they might make interesting pendants.

When creating a new design, what are your top three sources of inspiration?

I am inspired by everything, so this is a tough question. I’d say Nature, shapes and the secondary patterns they make when placed together, and sometimes the fabric just tells me what it wants to be.

In your opinion, what is one of the most challenging aspects of being an independent artist and how do you overcome it?

One of the challenges is finding an audience who might be interested in buying your work. I’ve been doing local art shows and working on getting an on-line presence to promote myself.

Who has provided you with the greatest source of support for your quilting?

My husband has been very supportive. He figured out how to display my work for art shows and has gone with me to the shows to help with set-up and tear down and to cover for me when I needed to take breaks, he helped me find places to show my work, he has been understanding when I don’t have as much time for him because I’m working on my quilts, and most important to me is that he likes my quilts and when I take them off our walls to go to a show, he misses them.

I’d like to thank Pam for sharing her terrific sense of creativity with us today. To see her beautiful quilts and uniquely creative quilted pendants, be sure to visit Pam at:

For Quilts Sake

Website: http://www.forquiltssake.com/

Shop: http:// http://www.forquiltssake.etsy.com/