About Eölsei Wear:
My name is Eloïse Paré, I grew up in a very artistic family and am interested in different crafts, colors and textures and I like to experiment. Both my will to do environmentally friendly pieces and resistant work made me chose quite rapidly real stones (instead of plastic) and vegetal leather (treated with less chemicals). I love to create various jewels and accessories made with those, but also made of shells and drift wood I picked up on the shore of the St.Lawrence River near Rimouski, Quebec or made of origami tiny pieces I fold whenever I have free time. I also make clothing pieces for myself and my boyfriend and I’m still trying to find the best approach to list them without having tons of fabric in stock.

What is it that got you interested in your craft?
As I said, my family was a very artistic family. Therefore, I grew up constantly surrounded by talented people who created almost anything with their hands and a few materials: wood sculptures, oil and watercolor paintings, leather pieces, clothing and costumes, masks of pearls and feathers, ceramic miscellaneous, etc. In that environment I ended up starting to create clothing for my dolls at around 7 years old, was already doing a couple of easy origami pieces by heart, tried various painting and drawing techniques and continued onward from there. I started recently to paint again, since my father, who died when I was really young, was using oil paint, I almost instinctively went for that medium and I should be able to post my first oil projects in the following weeks.

Where do you find your inspiration?
Anything and everything inspires me. Considering my background, my interest in various techniques and my willingness to constantly learn new ones; any challenge or new possibility is an inspiration on its own. Last week, I was looking at the program of a festival of old movies starring Greta Garbo, saw a picture of her playing Mata Hari, looked up some pictures of Mata Hari herself and ended up making a pattern for an intricate head piece inspired by these pictures! Sometimes it will be music, I will be going to a classical concert and getting my pen and notebook out in the middle of a piece to draw something or take a couple of quick notes. I am also almost constantly on the lookout for more supply of various natures and have to restrain myself not to buy everything I like.

If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? Why?
Very difficult question; depends on my mood of the day I guess. If it has to be a living person, I honestly have no idea. Otherwise J.R.R. Tolkien would be at the top of my list with Agatha Christie, Molière, Alexandre Dumas and Douglas Adams; again, many different styles of books and periods. But I guess I would pick Tolkien, I must’ve read his books at least 30 times and magic and fantasy are one of my favourite inspirations.

What is the most interesting website you’ve ever come across?
I really can’t say, so many things interest me that I cannot choose just one. These days, I’d say anything about pinhole cameras (possibly my next big purchase).

Who is your favourite band/musician?
So many to choose from… Patrick Watson I think. I feel his album Close to Paradise almost saved my life when I lost someone close to me a couple of years back, I was listening to it non-stop!

What is your favourite thing about Canada?
The various climates and differences you can see; with a couple hours drive you can almost feel you’re in another country altogether.

Where is the top spot in Canada you would like to retire to? Why?
Not sure, I moved around a lot already; I’m in my 16^th apartment since I turned 18 (I’m now 32) and moved a lot before that too. And yet, living in one place for a long period eventually gets on my nerve, I need to discover new places, new regions and I cannot imagine myself living in one place for the rest of my life, even for my retirement.

What is your favourite thing to do with your time, aside from perfecting your craft?
I love to read, watch movies, go to film festivals, listen to music and go to concerts to name a few.

What 5 words would best describe you?
Creative, stubborn, imaginative, geek and perfectionist (a girl has to assume herself ^.~)

Canadian winter: Love it or Hate it? Why?
I don’t like the cold, but the snow can create wonderful scenery, especially in the woods.

About Majestic Wire Artworks:
Hi, My Name is Cheryl Chrabaszcz. I grew up in Saskatoon, SK and am now living in Edmonton. I have always enjoyed crafting. I used to have a goal of learning every craft possible and have learned a lot…lol. One thing I found along the way is that one just doesn’t have the time, money and especially the space to accomplish this goal. I have settled down into one craft now and that is the art of jewelry making. I have a new goal of collecting my wire wrapping patterns and writing a book teaching my technique and patterns. I mainly do wire wrapping jewelry and am now dabbling in some smithing as well. I do not have smithing pieces available yet but may be a facet of my jewelry in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read this and visiting my online shop. Note: I am beginning to teach wire wrapping courses at Bedrock Supplies in Edmonton. Please message me if you would like more information on this.

Store Details:
I make each piece of my jewelry by hand myself, taking care, pride and adding love to each piece. I truly want to educate my customers that wire jewelry isn’t just jewelry, it is a piece of art that can never be completely duplicated. Each piece is unique and therefor I try and show the picture of the one piece for sale. If a variation is to be made by special order I will want you, the customer to see a picture prior for your approval.

The Low-Down:
Hi,
My Name is Cheryl Chrabaszcz. I grew up in Saskatoon, SK and am now living in Edmonton. I have always enjoyed crafting. I used to have a goal of learning every craft possible and have learned a lot…lol.One thing I found along the way is that one just doesn’t have the time, money and especially the space to accomplish this goal. I have settled down into one craft now and that is the art of jewelry making. I have a new goal of collecting my wire wrapping patterns and writing a book teaching my technique and patterns. I mainly do wire wrapping jewelry and am now dabbling in some smithing as well.
I do not have smithing pieces available yet but may be a facet of my jewelry in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read this and visiting my online shop.

What is it that got you interested in your craft?
My mother discovered about me at an early age of 3 that I had a unique ability for crafting and after that I didn’t receive any toys only crafts and craft supplies. As I mentioned before I did at one time want to learn all crafts, I was having storage issues, needless to say and decided that I would settle into one craft with a lot of facets that wouldn’t take as much space as my card making…lol this took up almost half a basement. I went on a holiday and looked at some of the jewelry that I was seeing being sold there. I knew that I would be able to duplicate this and well it wasn’t long before I was designing my own designs. I have a goal of compiling my patterns and writing a online book and teaching classes.  Recently when I was purchasing my jewelry making supplies at a local business, I was approached to work at this store. As part of working there I have the opportunity of teaching classes with my designs… One of my goals have been realized..

Where do you find your inspiration?
This is really a funny question to ask me. I dream my patterns most of the time. I come up with an idea in my sleep, kind-of like a dream and then I problem solve in my sleep how to make the item and then some times I wake up at 2 in the morning and I actually physically have to make the item or I wont be able to go back to sleep.

Other times I see someone elses pattern and my mind works with it and modifies it, usually trying to make improvements for strength and neatness as well. Sometimes I have come up with a pattern and later I see that someone else had done it before without me seeing it… with slight variations.. who says two people cant come up with the same idea. I find this to be rather interesting

If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? Why?This is tough for me… I am not a person who idolizes stars at all.. I think that they are regular people just like you and me. They are not better than us. So I would say I would like to have lunch with Jesus. He in my eyes is the most famous of people and worthy of my awe.

What is the most interesting website you’ve ever come across?
I have come across many websites I find interesting. These all have one thing in common. I love to learn things on the net so I love tutorials that teach me things for free. That is what I do when I am feeling down. I search out a web site that can teach me something new and before I know it I am feeling better. Try it sometime.

Who is your favourite band/musician?
Chicago…

What is your favourite thing about Canada?
We have friendly people, and most of the time very trustworthy people.

Where is the top spot in Canada you would like to retire to? Why?
Well I have lived in Penticton for 9 years and moved back to the prairies. The sky’s got me claustrophobic. And the winters were so cloudy. I think I would stay in the prairies and vacation to the hot-spots.

What is your favourite thing to do with your time, aside from perfecting your craft?
I like to learn new things and read.

What 5 words would best describe you?
Patient, loving, forgiving, accepting, creative.

Canadian winter: Love it or Hate it? Why?
I hated the winters in Penticton, to cloudy. I loved them on the prairies (when you are inside on a sunny winters day, who knows it is 40 below) Just enjoy the sunshine…lol

About Elli’s Bows:
I am from small town Alberta. I have a husband and two kids. And I have turned my hobby (collecting ribbon and fabric) into a little business and I am having so much fun doing it!

What is it that got you interested in your craft?
I have always been a collector of fabric, ribbon, buttons and other crafty items (in other words that means I like to shop), so there is no shortage of supplies in my house! All I needed was an outlet and when my daughter was born in 2009, I found that outlet! My family has, for the most part, been very supportive of me - aside from the eye rolling from my husband regarding the lack of available kitchen counter space! My kids know that mommy loves to make things… my little boy even brings me stray pieces of thread that fall from his jeans so I can make something from them!

Where do you find your inspiration?
Anywhere! My kids, a fabric pattern, a beautiful spring day!

Who is your favourite band/musician?
Love the Zac Brown Band right now!

Where is the top spot in Canada you would like to retire to? Why?
I’m a prairie girl, born and raised! Other places are great to visit but I can’t ever see myself living anywhere else! Nothing better than the front porch view of the mountains on one side of the house and the earthy smell of a wheat field in the back!

What is your favourite thing to do with your time, aside from perfecting your craft?
Spending time with family and friends and thinking about what comes next.

What 5 words would best describe you?
Creative, Cluttered, Considerate, Curious and Cautious

Canadian winter: Love it or Hate it? Why?
In November and December I LOVE it…in March and April I despise it!

Hi Everyone, we’re finally back with a brand new look!

You will notice that there has been a massive overhaul of all functionality of the site, both on the front end and on the back end where Sellers can manage their stores

Some of the improvements we have made are:

• Navigation Drop-Down Menu - This menu gives a visitor access to all categories and subcategories on Zaybia with the click of a button.
• More social features, such as the Facebook ‘Like’ buttons on individual product pages and visitor counts for products
• Larger product images
• We have given Sellers the ability to upload profile pictures and store banner images to customize their homepages
• The ability for Sellers to crop and save their uploaded product images

Current Sellers: Please pay special attention to your store’s Admin area, as you may have to crop some of your product photos. You might also consider logging in and adding a profile picture and/or store banner to personalize your homepage.

We are still considering this to be part of our Beta Testing Phase, so the service will remain absolutely free for the next couple of months. All we ask is that you keep the feedback coming our way to help us improve the service even further!

Feel free to visit our Facebook page to comment on the new features and the new look, and to take part in our discussion boards!

We hope you enjoy the New Zaybia!!

Lee & Jarret
-The Zaybia Team-

Hey Everyone,

We’re still working hard on getting the new site design and functionality published but we don’t feel it will be ready before Christmas, so in the mean time we have made a couple updates to our current site to help make holiday browsing easier.

1. We have expanded our product pages to show more items per page

2. We have added a ‘View All products’ link below the list of categories that will display all products hosted on Zaybia on a single page for easier ‘window shopping’

3. We have added links to our Facebook and Twitter pages, which we are going to start using a lot more to interact with buyers and sellers. Be sure to check them out, and follow our Twitter feed or ‘Like’ us on facebook!

4. We have added a ‘Seasonal’ section to our categories list, with categories like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Summer and Winter.

We’re working hard to motivate everyone we know to buy handmade this year, and we hope that you are too!

Lee & Jarret
-The Zaybia Team-