Crafters and Artisans Directory

Her name is Laura Bartlett and she has been creating art since she had her first art show at the age of five. Crayola never looked better on her Grandma's dining room wallpaper. Grandma said she would grow up to be an artist.

Laura taught art in public school for a while, but quit to pursue her own art. She had been making dolls for several years. A documentary on Ray Harryhausen helped her develop her dollmaking technique of working from the inside out on her pieces. She creates a wire armature, wraps it with yarn, builds up the muscles with batting and skin the piece by hand sewing fabric over the surface.
Her jewelry is made by beading over covered cord.

She has a minor cerebral palsy that affects her right hand and leg so she had to come up with a way to work somewhat one handed. Laura can hold things in her right hand but that's about it. She uses handcast resin eyes in both her dolls and jewelry work. Her interest in mythology, history and fantasy is evident in her work.



Laura is willing to make custom pieces. Please feel free to contact her with ideas through conversations in her Le Chat Noir Studios' Etsy shop.

Her husband MJ Bivouac is adding his work to the Chat Noir. He is an illustrator and sculptor and he is known online for his pin-up and erotic art work. He has also worked in motion picture effects. He makes the epoxy eyes from the Chat Noir line.

Laura recently started to write a blog named "Twisted Beauty" where she regularly posts thoughts on art dolls and celebrates the strange and unique.

In the interview "Spotlight Feature #25 - Laura Bartlett" which Laura gave to Sara's Texture Crafts on March 5th 2008, Laura states the two most important skills as a doll maker as having a basic understanding of anatomy and having basic hand sewing skills.

Le Chat Noir Studios specializes in fantasy, and mythological art dolls, plush and fabric fantasy animals, Cthulhu monsters, beaded and hand painted jewelry, pin up art and illustrations. She also does custom work like logos and one of a kind pieces.

Le Chat Noir is a proud member of the Freethinkers Street Team and she runs a smoke-free, cat friendly studio. You can also follow ChatNoirsMeow on Twitter.

Location: Lancaster, California, USA

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She saw her first alpaca in 2004. It was love at first sight. After one year full of research and visiting different alpaca ranches, she purchased her first females. A year later, they moved from a big city to a small rural town, and were able to house their alpacas in their own pastures.

Silver Sun Alpacas is located in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley in Southern California, nestled on 5 flat acres, among California's famous wineries.
Silver Sun Alpacas breeds and raises alpacas with the finest bloodlines.
Their goal is to offer buyers quality and healthy alpacas at affordable prices. They are determined to provide the best possible service, dedication, and ongoing support to their customers, and to continue this tradition for many generations.

Silver Sun offers a selection of raw fiber, hand spun and mill processed yarns and handmade knits used from their own alpacas' fiber. She also likes to hand-dye and make beautiful batts on her drum carder and hand-spin on her Kromski, Minstrel.



At Silver Sun Alpacas Etsy and Artfire stores, you will find Alpaca yarn, Handspun yarn, Drum card's batts, handpainted roving, and handpainted alpaca yarn, all made with love.

Spinners and knitters, if spinning is not your cup'o'tea and you like to work with her batt, she will be delighted to spin it for you. Contact her through her Etsy store at www.silversunalpacas.etsy.com.

She has been portrayed twice in the "Daily Chum - A Daily Dose of Fibermania" in the articles "ESotD: Silver Sun Alpacas" and "Spinning: Beautiful Batts". Additionally she entertains her own blog "Silver Sun Alpacas" where you can find out all about alpacas, creations, muses and fiber art.

Join her Ravelry group or follow SilverSunFibers on Twitter for shop updates and she is proud to be a contributor to Phat Fiber Sample Box. Become a Fan of Silver Sun Alpacas on Facebook and check out her wonderful photostream on Flickr.





Location: Santa Ynez, California, USA

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Absolutely Small is devoted to making truly odd, yet approachable plush chickens, pompom animal toy creatures and art. Claire abhors straight lines. Viva Chickenpants!

Absolutely Small is Claire Chambers. Claire is a crazy-pants artist/crafter who spends most of her time indoors in the country cowboy part of Northern California. She likes making people laugh, chickens and two pugs, one bunny, a tortoise and writing about herself in the third person. She takes way too many photos, and has a major Blythe/Re-Ment addiction.

All art, softies, and other creations in the Absolutely Small shop are her original designs.

She is a member of the Etsy Plush Team and you can check out their fabulous plush adventures at http://www.plushteam.com/. She runs the collaborative plush blog The Needle. Check them out at http://www.theneedle.org/.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact her on Etsy or email her: chickenwidget@gmail.com.

Visit her at her blog Chickenpants - the blog of the absolutely small or enjoy her latest creations on Flickr. Most of Claire's new work goes to Flickr first, plus stop motion animation and background information on some of the pieces.



In her Etsy store, the Absolutely Small - Chickenpants Headquarters, you will find collectible plush toys. No two are ever the same. Each one is named & numbered.

Next to her fabulous plush toy stores she maintains a CafePress venture at www.cafepress.com/absolutelysmall where she sells t-shirts, cards and buttons with her own designs and photos.

Oh yes, Claire is on Twitter. Tweet abolutelysmall your wishes and desires.

The Absolutely Small Mothersite is at http://absolutelysmall.com where she features chickenpants movies! FAQs! Photos! Fun!
Sign up for her mailing list chicken-y goodness which she sends out once a month, and contains coupons!

Her Chickenpants Artfire shop is located at http://chickenpants.artfire.com/ and you can become a Chickenpants Fan on Facebook: http://tr.im/ChickenpantsFanPage.

Visit ChickenPants's ArtFire Shop

Location: Cool, California, USA

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In a career spanning twenty-five years Robyn Coburn has been a costume, scenic and lighting designer and worked in every kind of theater from community to educational to “broadway” style, both in Australia and the US. She was a freelance Production Designer of independent films before repurposing her life as a work-from-home, homeschooling mother. Now she crafts and writes screenplays and blogs.



In her Etsy store (http://iggyjingles.etsy.com) you will find Art Dolls, Aromatic Homewares, Textile Arts and Vintage Redux. Robyn is a member of the EGADS Team, ADO and the Bench Project Team.
Please visit her blog for dolls in progress and other news: www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com The Iggy Jingles blog is her main portal to all the other groups and Ning networks such as the Fiber Arts Mixed Media Network, the OOAK Art Dolls Network and the Worldwide Network for Filmmakers & Film Industry Professionals she is participating in.

Interested in dolls? Visit Robyn's daily round up blog Dolls: Crafting and Collecting for an assortment of posts about doll artists, collectors, events, designers and manufacturers from all over the world.

Robyn writes intermittent musings about creativity on her Imagination Tribe blog and a column about green crafting for Natural Life Magazine six times a year.

She also has a newsletter that you can sign up for on her blog. Robyn entertains a personal Facebook page and a Facebook Fan Page for Iggy Jingles. You can also follow IggyJingles on Twitter.

Recently Robyn has started writing Hubs. She only has published a few so far, but she intends to write at least one article a week.

Location: Playa del Rey, California, USA

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