Featured Artist SwedArt

Adventurous spirit seems to be ingrained in so many handmade artists. They see the world through different eyes, looking for an opportunity to experience new adventures and materials feeds their soul. Margareta Lidsklog embodies this idea better than anyone I have ever met! She has proudly bungee jumped on top of an 8,000 ft mountain in California, skied and flown in a helicopter in the Swiss Alps, drunk alcohol from a bottle with a dead snake in China, had dinner on the Chinese Wall under a full moon, hiked in Machu Picchu in Peru, parasailed in Florida, white water rafted in Wyoming, driven an ATV through mud and snow in Colorado, hot air ballooned in Arizona, dog sledded and visited the Icehotel in -10F above the Arctic Circle in Sweden, and had one of the best dinners of her life with smoked and dried reindeer meat lying on reindeer skins in a Sami tent in Lapland.

Margareta grew up in Northern Sweden and went to college inSouthern Sweden, earning a masters degree in social sciences.  She has lived all around the world with her husband and raised their children in a multilingual and multicultural home.  They have followed in their mother’s footsteps as an adventurer so much so that her son spent 14 months traveling all around the world alone with a backpack!  Both of Margareta’s children currently work in the TV industry.

Margareta has always been fascinated by the indigenous 10,000 year old reindeer herding Sami culture that she was surrounded by growing up.  Their history and nomadic life as well as their stunningly beautiful artwork using vegetable tanned reindeer leather from above theArctic Circlecombined with polished antler buttons and wire come together to create the most amazing wearable art you have ever seen.  These works of art captured Margareta’s imagination; wishing to take them to the next artistic level while staying true to their simply stunning design.

Margareta began SwedArt which boasts over 40 different leather colors combined into over 100 different bracelet styles.  This passion for creating has taken over her life and she happily spends over 14 hours a day working on her designs as well as customer service and promotion.  Her work has been worn by many celebrities including Sharyl Crow and on the TV show Desperate Housewives.  She was even offered a chance to showcase her work at the Emmy Award Gift Lounge inHollywoodlast year and was honored and excited to see other celebrities rocking her work.

This talented lady began with dreams of making breast cancer awareness bracelets with a portion of proceeds going towards research.  She also wanted to be the first to add pearls and other funky twists to the traditional Sami style…within the past few years she has achieved both of these goals!

Margareta admits that there are difficulties in working online.  The listing, photographing, shipping and customer communication can be time consuming and difficult.  The upside is the wonderful relationships that she has forged with customers around the world.  She loves to connect with creative people and become friends through art.

Margareta is happy to offer a bit of advice to those just starting out in the handmade world.  She encourages them to read up on everything that you can find and have a plan!  You can learn as you go, but a plan will keep you on track.  Also, if you get stuck…ask!  There are always people that are willing to help you through difficulties and offer advice to take your work and your listings to the next level.

Are you ready to see these amazing designs for yourself?  Margareta is pretty easy to find online on the HandmadeArtistsShop as well as on Etsy and of course her own site.  You can follow her on Facebook and keep up with her day on Twitter.

 

Tags: bracelet, buy handmade, Handmade, Handmade Artists, handmade jewelry, Handmade Products, leather, sami, swedart

Posted in Featured Vendor