| | ARTELLAGRAM 2-19-2011:
"In the Studio"
An Interview with Tammy Hensley
(This interview is continued from the February
19, 2011 Artellagram... )
Artella: What do you enjoy about working on the Artella Team?
Tammy: I love being part of a team of fabulously talented
people who are all over the country and the world! Everyone is so
wonderful and warm and helpful - if we ever run into a concern, we're
all there to help each other out. Even though we can't all be in the
same physical space together, it's fun to learn all sorts of stuff
about one another over the "interwebs" but I hope someday
we all get to meet each other in person!
Artella: You are engaged in lots of other personal projects,
too. What are your best tips and suggestions for staying organized?
Tammy: I've always been a paper planner girl. Ever since my
college days, everything I had to do, every deadline, every meeting
went into my schedule. I still have a paper planner that I rely on
to keep track of deadlines and appointments and commitments but I
also fully embrace the wonder of technology. My wonderful mac mail
and calendar programs let me put all sorts of reminders to myself
that pop up so I don't forget the important stuff. Those little reminders
are great since I'm plugged into my computer all day long!
Artella: What are your favorite ways to express your creativity?
Tammy: I have so many ways that my creativity comes out; I
usually have a whole boatload of projects in various stages of completion
all going on at once. Calligraphy is probably the creative endeavor
that I have been involved in the longest and the most seriously as
I began taking lessons when I was 10 years old. I would have to say,
though, that my greatest creative passion for quite a while now has
been fabric and pattern design. Even when I'm not putting together
the designs on my computer, I'm sketching out all sorts of ideas and
inspiration in my notebooks so I can put them together when I have
more time. Of course, that also means that stitching up projects using
my designs is high on the list!
Artella: What else do you do for fun?
Tammy: I can't get enough of books and magazines!!! I'm a
big fan of pretty much everything that Somerset publishes - I really
should own stock in the company or something! My husband like to go
out a couple of times a week to get coffee and just look at books
and magazines. Obviously creating is a big part of what I do for fun
as well. I've taught myself how to solder so I'm having lots of fun
creating mixed media jewelry combining hard and soft elements. I spend
way too much time browsing other people's creativity blogs and seeing
the amazing things that other brilliantly creative people are doing.
I'm just so happy to finally feel like I have some more energy to
do all of these things since having gallbladder surgery a few weeks
back! Baking is one more of my creative outlets; I love to cook, too.
Both allow for another means of creative expression - especially the
baking part when I decorate cakes and cookies and cupcakes!
Artella: What are your plans or goals for 2011?
Tammy: My biggest goals revolve around fabric design and learning
more about the process of licensing and actually designing for a fabric
manufacturer. I have lots of research to do in this area as I am totally
new to this area and have only been a fan and purchaser of others'
designs. Next to calligraphy, sewing and quilting are the creative
pursuits I've been most serious about for the longest time as I also
began sewing when I was 10. From that age, I remember thinking how
amazing it would be be able to design my own fabrics and use them
in my creations. Now I can, but it's completely self-funded (and definitely
not cheap). I would love to be the Tammy version of Amy Butler! (If
you pick up the newest issue of Where Women Create, you can see Amy
holding my business card and talking to me in the article about The
Creative Connection Event!!!! Big highlight of my life!!!!)
Tammy Hensley is a graphic designer, calligrapher,
and art quilter among other “er”s. She lives near the shores
of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota with her husband, Bob. She is
passionate about preserving traditional and lost arts and her works
most frequently focus on preserving personal histories. She is constantly
teaching herself new art forms to add ever more “er”s to
her resume of skills! You can check out more of her work at www.mnartists.org/Tammy_Hensley.
You can also see her collection of fabric designs at www.spoonflower.com.
See her collection of letter pics at Local
Letters and her other creative pursuits at Art,
Alphabets and Adventure. She is also very excited to
see some of her fabric designs featured in an interior design job for
the first time!
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