Featured Artist~ Lori Paximadis In Her Studio Loft

Lori Paximadis was struck by the creative bug early, eschewing dinner one night as a three-year-old to complete a stick-figure self-portrait (or so her mother wrote in her baby book). Over the years, she has explored a variety of media and spent many years of quality time with photography, ceramics, beads, and metalworking.

Check out Lori's creative work at...
www.virtuallori.etsy.com

Lori Paximadis (virtuallori on Etsy) works with beads and metals in her studio loft overlooking the woods in Fairview Park, Ohio. She is a big believer in storing beads in clear tubes and containers so she can instantly see what she has on hand.

Her plans for 2009 include replacing the open shelving and scattered containers behind the desk with a system of shallow drawers and cabinets from Ikea.

Lori blogs irregularly at http://virtuallori.com/ and hangs out on Twitter as http://twitter.com/virtuallori

Gorgeous!

Check out Amanda's gorgeous designs and her wonderfully, amazingly organized studio space!

It looks like a great place to create.

by BellaRhysDesigns

My name is Amanda-or BellaRhysDesigns on etsy.com. I have always been involved in the arts one way or another. From painting scenery at our community theater and earning a few awards for watercolors in my school days to my last 16 years dedicated to being a hairstylist and salon owner, each day has seemed to carry an artistic outlet for me in some form. Besides acrylics and watercolors I’ve also enjoyed creating w/ oil pastels, black and white photography, mixed media altered art, pottery and scrapbooking.

In 2002 I started making jewelry after being inspired by pieces I had seen in Greece on vacation and was frustrated and bored with the components I was finding locally. I started shopping around on Ebay and ran across some very cool glass beads by Cassie Donlen called lampwork. I immediately started researching them and was excited to incorporate them in my work. I found a local class and dove right in, completely mesmerized by the colors, styles and techniques used to create these little works of art! I found that they totally changed an ordinary piece of jewelry into an endless array of possibilities.

I have since taken metalsmithing classes to enhance my work by making my own forged or custom stamped pieces.I find inspiration in my children’s books, fun material, change of seasons, pictures in magazines,some of the treasuries on Etsy or even let my 6 year old daughter to come up with a fun color combo.I hope you enjoy the tour of my studio! If anyone would like to look at my blog for ideas of pieces I make that haven't been listed on etsy please feel free to come by for a visit!

http://bellarhysdesigns.blogspot.com (An amazing blog! I love it ~Kerry).

http://www.bellarhysdesigns.etsy.com/