Featured Artist KPDreams

You can always tell when someone feels a passion for the work they are doing, can’t you? You can feel the energy and love when they talk about their work and see the care and personal touch when you see their work. This is how I read Karen’s interview; and how I see her amazing work.

Karen was exposed to creativity very early on by watching her mother, who was a trained artist, and being mesmerized by her ability to see something and reproduce it.  Karen gave painting a shot for herself, but soon learned that it is harder than she thought!  She walked away from painting for a time…until one day…walking down the street she was assaulted by the fact that her welcome sign was the same as a couple of other houses!  The horror!  Well, her creative and independent side kicked in and she created a welcome sign featuring her own house!  This unique statement stirred up her passion and she hasn’t stopped since.

Karen has been married for 20 years to a man that claims if you sit still too long his darling wife just might try to paint you!  She will beautify slate, wood, glass, rocks and any collectibles that need livening up.  Karen works primarily in acrylics, but is more than willing to dip her brush and try out new techniques that look interesting.

KPDreams was officially started as a business in 1996 by selling custom welcome signs.  This was fun, but there was a more creative woman busting to get out.  Karen’s mother invited her to share a booth at a local craft show and a monster was born.  Karen and her husband, at one time, did over 50 shows a year…ok, I’m tired now…but has since cut it back to a mind blowing 25.  These shows are not just local either.  Her business card says it all when you read the address…Ohio,Floridaand all parts in between.  She loves the shows because she is able talk with her customers, get immediate feedback and work on ideas based on what people are looking for.  Karen knows that communicating with customers is an invaluable part of her business.

Recently that independent and creative streak kicked up again and Karen has added wedding flowers and flower accessories to her list of amazing products.

Karen is realistic about a creative business and says that if you are ready to jump into the handmade world you must be sure that you love what you do.  She admits that she is not getting rich off of her talent but loving her work more than makes up for it.  She also points out that just because you work for yourself, you still must like people.  When you create you are putting a piece of yourself out into the world at every turn and people are not shy about telling you what they think!

Are you ready to see what this creative wonder-woman makes?  Well, she is easy to find either at one of her many craft shows around the east coast or on the web.  Of course, there is always the HandmadeArtistsshop as well as her Etsy shop here and here.  You can follow Karen on Twitter here and here . You can keep up on happenings through either Facebook page here and here as well as her blog .

Karen cut her teeth in the corporate world and now loves being able to direct her own future by working for herself…and it shows!

 

Tags: buy handmade, Handmade, Handmade Artists, Handmade Products, painting, signs, slate, wood sign

Posted in Featured Vendor