Etsy Monday – Caracarmina
This week’s Etsy Monday featured seller is Cara Carmina. I first discovered her work when I was lucky enough to win a set of her beautiful Cyrano Dolls during the Etsy Mexicoteam’s Day of the Dead contest last year. I’ve watched her shop ever since, and I absolutely love her handmade dolls as well. I’m thrilled to finally be able to feature her on my blog! (Disclaimer: get ready for lots of pictures because I had a really hard time choosing which pieces to include. I literally love everything in her shop!)
She took the time to answer some questions about her work. I was very inspired reading her answers, full of insight and passion. On top of that she shared lots of links to some really great blogs! Here’s what she had to say…
1. When did you realize that you wanted to be an artist/artisan?
Very early in my life… I always enjoyed coloring and drawing… I used to copy some drawings from a coloring book I had and sell them for 5 cents to my classmates. I was always very crafty, loved to make art projects at school and one of my most desired things was this pretty box of 250 colour pencils, oh God, I would look at it in the window with such a desire… I always liked art… since ALWAYS I want to be an artist!
Little pieces – 3D collage dolls
2. How long have you been working with your medium and what first sparked your interest in it?
Well, lately I´ve been much focused in my cloth dolls and my collage dolls, and I kind of started them around the same time (beginning of 2008). I started to make a series of paper doll called Cyrano dolls which I really liked and I kind of liked the idea of making them come alive in a 3D form. My best friend has done cloth dolls forever and every time I went to her house and saw her sewing machine, her fabrics, her threads, and all her material something inside me wanted to do it too… everything looked so beautiful… so I finally got my sewing machine, read the instructions, played with it a little and found a great extension of my brushes and paintings in it!!!! I just couldn´t stop sewing and since I didn´t know how to do it, (I still don´t know)… I just adjusted to the machine and use it as if I´m drawing… for me the thread is my ink and just draw my dreams with it, it´s wonderful to see a doll when it´s finished… it´s like giving life to my drawings!!!
3. What do you find most enjoyable/rewarding about your art/craft?
The creation per se… to be able to give something, something beautiful, something that will make a child smile, something that will bright up a space, something that will make your loved one feel special when you give it to him or her, something that makes you sigh, something to embellish your life, a reason to dream, a reason to laugh, a reason to cry, a reason to love. And in my work I see all of this together. I really enjoy the fact that something I made, that came from my mind and heart and was put together by my hands and effort, will make someone smile.
No one’s children (Blue stripes)&Little girl in squares (MAGAZINE)
4. Where do you find inspiration for your art/craft?
In art, in the streets, in other people´s clothes, in children books, in my fridge, in nature, in the circus, in a shoe store, in a paper store, at the museum, in my house, in my favourite blogs, in other people´s crafts and creations, in my favourite paintings, in the bus, in the metro station, in an old church, in the children, in fashion, in different countries, in my country (Mexico), in the supermarket, in the fabric store, in the botanical garden, in old books, in vintage soap wrappers, in the clouds, in my memories, in my dreams, in my wishes, in the middle of my daily routine, in my cats, in old poems, in a cup of cold chai tea, in vegetables, in sooooo many things… Inspiration comes to me out of nothing and I just have to be receptive to know, to feel, to smell, to listen… beauty is all around us…. we just have to open our eyes…. most of the time we have them closed.
5. What message or values do you wish to convey with your art? What does your art say to the world?
I would like people to believe. To believe in magic, in love, in colors, in beauty. I think one of the saddest things in the world is a lonely person, is just as sad as an empty wall. One needs to color the walls in the house, and fill them with paintings, with cute things, with a touch of color here and there. We need to stop being lonely and open our hearts to other people, we have to paint our hearts and decorate our souls… to bring a touch of beauty in our world makes the difference. An empty wall will never be the same as a red wall full of paintings and details… I wish my art brings that little, small, tiny touch of color in a person´s world.
I think my art talks about simple but beautiful, about uniqueness, about being special. I´m a big promoter of handmade crafts, I don´t like the mass made toys children play with these days, and I think somehow, children don´t really like them either… a girl will always remember her first doll… I do!
6. Are there any other creative outlets that you use to express yourself? What are they and what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, I´m a children illustrator and I have this secret desire that one day I will see a children book illustrated by me in a book store. I still draw a little but since I started making the dolls I just been so busy with them that I have no time. I love to go to the book store and just browse the children books, I love them, I have a huge collection of them and from time to time I like to look at them to get inspired. I´m also a painter, and my favourite technique is oil painting, I have a series of women portraits that I like a lot and I still paint sometimes, (just did my husband portrait last week) and I plan to put more time into it in the future, I love to paint with texture, like Van Gogh did, I just love the way oil looks in very thick layers and in bright colors, it makes me smile! I also like to take photos and to write (I have 2 unfinished books I will finish one day…) meanwhile I write in my blogs… I just love to write… to express… in any way I can…
7. Do you have any advice for other artists/artisans?
Yes, love what you do! And just do it because you love to do it. It works for me. It doesn´t matter if you don´t know how to draw, or how to do this or that… we all can do anything we want and we are all creative… if you cannot paint like Da Vinci… paint like Chagall…. or like a child! Open your eyes… there is so much beauty all around us… we just have to open our eyes!!!
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In closing…
Where else can we find you and your work, either on the internet or in person? (ie blog url, flickr, facebook, etc)
My store: www.caracarmina.com
My e-mail: caracarmina@yahoo.com
My flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/norma_andreu/sets/
My blogs:
www.caracarmina-atelier.blogspot.com (my creative space for my recent work)
www.caracarmina.blogspot.com (a blog 100% dedicated to children books)
www.miverdelimon.blosgpot.com (a personal kind of diary) (this one is in Spanish only the other 2 are bilingual)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/caracarmina
Facebook: Cara Carmina (but I just opened it so it´s still under construction)
My dolls are selling also at the Boutique of the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. (where I live now)
Are there any other websites or resources you’d like to recommend (not just to other artists)?
Well… I love to visit my favourite blogs when I have time or browse some of my flickr friend’s photos. Here are 5 of my favourite blogs:
http://studioviolet.blogspot.com/
the blog of Studio Violet, a project from Camilla Engman (one of my fav. Artists) and Elisabeth Dunker. You find the cutest stuff here…
http://junkerjane.blogspot.com/
The blog of a fellow artist that makes such amazing cloth dolls! I just love her work!
http://www.pencil-ilustradores.com/pencil.html
Children illustrator agency from Spain which has the work of some of my favourite artists as Elena Odriozola, Miguel Tanco and others… (Plus I love the little lady bug walking around it…!)
http://www.wallpaper.com/
One of my favourite design magazines! Just love to browse around!
http://theblackapple.typepad.com/somegirlswander/
One of the 2 blogs of Emily (aka The Black Apple). This girl is a wonderful artist, I love her work! In this blog she shows her passion for vintage fashion. Oh I just love her clothes and her pictures!!! Is such inspiring the way she dresses!
