My Interview with Liz Plummer:

I came across Liz's work when I first started LBOE. I wanted to know more about how she started and what her work is all about.

I was so intreged with her work shown in her etsy shop http://www.lizplummer.etsy.com/ I just had to share it with you. Please spend some time to read this interview and enter the world of Liz Plummer.

M: Please you tell us about yourself and your back ground?

L: My name is Liz Plummer and I'm a 48 year old textile artist. I live inNewport in South Wales with my husband and three teenage boys. When theyoungest started school I wanted to find something creative to occupy mytime. I did a City & Guilds course in Patchwork and Quilting at a local college and that opened my eyes to the fun and possibilities in painting anddyeing fabric and designing my own artwork. Then in 2005 I started a blogcalled Dreaming Spirals (http://www.lizplummer.com/blog) where I document myjourney and inspiration. I found I loved writing and getting to know other bloggers engaged in similar work.

M: Can you tell us a bit about your work and how did you start your etsy shop?

L: I love colour and texture and layering fabrics and paints to give the effectof depth and hidden things and a lot of my work reflects this. I likeworking small, although I have a variety of sizes of art, from tinyACEOs (tiny art cards 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches in size - the size of tradingcards - which are very collectable) to largerwallhangings. I have made a lot of postcard sized art, which is designed to go through thepost, stamped and postmarked just like anordinary postcard. The stamp and postmark then form part of the art. Theycan also be mounted and framed just like ordinary art.I also sell larger wallhangings, and hand dyed silk scarves.I heard of Etsy right back when it began, but I wanted to see whether ittook off as a successful selling venue and also to wait till there were moresellers from outside the US. A couple of art quilters whose blogs I readstarted shops last year and finally, in December last year, I decided toinvestigate it a bit more and start listing my work!

M:What usually sparks off an idea?

L:Hmm... a lot of my art originates from nature and from the effects of lightand reflections. For instance I did a series of postcards sparked off bytrying to depict the reflections of the light during rain. I get a lot of ideas just walking around town.I have also done a lot of rust dyeing, fromwrapping fabric around rusty objects. I love the colour and texture ofrust and the effects of aging on metal objects.

M:Please tell us about your latest products:

L:I recently bought a Print Gocco machine, which is a small Japanese printingmachine. The Japanese use them for printing New Year cards and about athird of all households there own them! I bought it to create screens forprinting on fabric, but I have also started printing cards and the covers ofsmall, pocket sized Moleskine journals with designs developed from my photosor drawings. I love it, because it is a very unmessy way of printing and Ican fit a printing session into the time the boys are at school. It isactually a bit of a cult item amongst artists, and has always been rare in the UK although there are suppliers in the US and Australia, so I am planning to sell used machines purchased in Japan on my blog.