Jenny Hoople and Her Bunny

by jennyhoople

My name is Jenny Hoople, my business is Authentic Arts http://www.jennyhoople.etsy.com/ . A few years ago, I saw job's tears for sale in Johnny's seed catalog. The description said that it was a natural bead, so I thought I'd try it out. I ended up with a whole tin of seeds, but they were so light that when I made a necklace with them, the clasp kept coming around to the front. So they sat, unused, in my basement for a few years.

This July, my mom and dad were visiting and my mom, as usual, wanted to stop by a craft store. While I was waiting for her, I kept walking up and down the bead aisle thinking about what would go well with the grey job's tears. I bought a few things and made a necklace. My mom liked it so much that she asked me to make her one, and since I had materials left over, I just tried to come up with as many different designs as I could. Well, when I got done with that, I had to buy more materials and really, I couldn't stop making necklaces! A lot of things were coming together in my life, bringing me to this, so I jumped on it and started selling them. I decided to use knotted silk because I like its history, it's more romantic! I choose "natural" materials (stone, bone, wood, shell, silk) because even when altered by human hands and arranged and strung by them, the beauty of the processes that formed them breaks through and dazzles me. It's so fulfilling to finally be able to use my creative side (B.A. in fine arts, millions of crafty hobbies) as a part of my livelihood. You can see from the picture that my workroom is...the coffeetable in my living room! I sit on the bean-bag chair. Please note the neglected fishtank and my small bunny helper under the table :)





















I've always needed to work and live in the same space, I need to be where the action is!