Welcome to the weekly Feature and Giveaway! Every Monday, we’ll be featuring a lovely craftsperson, artist, or artisan – and every week you’ll have the chance to win something from their shop!

This week we welcome Sarah from Artos the Bear. Sarah is an artist, and she also creates clothing and steampunk pieces!

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Where do you live?

I technically live in Huntington Beach, CA, but I commute every weekend to Los Angeles, where my boyfriend lives.  It’s nice but it always ends up with the particular piece of fabric or lace, or my favorite brush, being at the house where I am not.

Where do you do your work?

Anyplace I can.  I have no official workspace, and I rarely can even find enough space to properly spread out and really get organized.  Most often I find myself sewing or drawing on a bed, since it’s usually the largest stretch of comfortable work area that I have available to me.

What’s your favourite place in the world, and why?

My very favorite place lives mostly in my mind right now: Boulder, CO.  I want to move there, although I’ve never even been there.  But the Boulder in my mind in simply lovely.

What did you want to be ‘when you grew up’?

At first I wanted to be a writer, then I wanted to be a vet, then I got disolussioned by school and finding menial jobs to pay the bills and I had no idea what I wanted to be.  Now I have decided I just want to be an Artist.  I want to make my living off what I create, whether it happens to be paintings, jewelry, steampunk clothing, historical costume recreations, or something entirely different this week.  I just want to be a working Artist.

How did you first get into your craft/art?

There was never a time when I wasn’t creating.  I have found memories of making ‘painted butterflies’ as a young child.  My mom would take a big sheet of paper, cut out a butterfly shape, fold it in half and give it to me.  I would then unfold it, smear blobs of paint and glitter over one side, fold it back, and the result was half warshack test and half modern art, but I always thought they were indescribably beautiful.

What do you make?

It varies frequently.  Right now I’m doing a lot of watercolor painting.  I’m also getting into making steampunk stuff, which I’m really enjoying and will probably continue with for a while.  It’s always evolving.

What are you most proud of making?

Hmm.  It’s a three-way tie between the first painstakingly, tediously, very historically-accurate Victorian era corset I made; the gaudy, delightful, burlesquey black and white striped not-historically-accurate corset I made for a Halloween costume; and the steampunk underbust corset I made and designed on the fly as I cut the material from an old coat.  I guess corsets are challenging for me 🙂

What do you like the most/least about selling your wares online?

I like waiting to get sales the least.  That part is disheartening.  The best thing about it for me is getting to feel like I’m finally doing something I’ve always strived for, even if I’m not entirely successful at it yet.

I love…

Geoff :) I love sensuous new, uncut fabric, waiting for me to spin it into gold.  I love having a frenzied idea which won’t wait but comes spilling out of my pencils and brushes onto my paper as fast as I can move them.  I love the sleek lines of sighthounds and how they always move with effortless grace.  I love the satisfied feeling of seeing one of my ideas come to life.

It drives me crazy when…

My day job keeps me so worn out I have no energy leftover to work on my projects.  No fair!

What’s your favourite word?

Ash.

If you could sum yourself or your work up in one sentence, it would say…

Still waters run deep.

Find Sarah online…

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

Website: http://artosthebear.com

Blog: http://artosthebear.livejournal.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/artosthebear

This week, Sarah is very generously offering this gorgeous owl print to our lucky winner!

Sarah is happy to ship anywhere in the world – so anyone can enter!

To Enter:

1. Visit Artos the Bear, and come back here leaving a comment about your favourite piece from the store.

2. For additional entries, leave a comment saying that you: followed or subscribed to Epheriell Designs (or already do); have Twittered about the givewaway; have shared the giveaway with friends on Facebook, or; you have written a blog post about it.

3. Entries close next Sunday night, the 5th of July, at 12pm Australian EST. Winners are announced the next day as part of next week’s Feature and Giveaway post.

Remember to leave me a way of contacting you.. and Good Luck!

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The winner of last week’s giveaway – a set of custom note cards – is Erika from Incalesco – congratulations!

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