The creativity of Juniquegoods

Judy is the owner and creator of Juniquegood, a shop that has a variety of handmade items in it.  She is one of those people who can't just make one thing, she has to challenge herself and do all kinds of crafts and she is even licensed for day care in her home.  These are the questions I had for her, along with her answers.

I never heard of a Christmas spider before, where did the idea come from?

I understood from my mother that the original legend came from Germany. When researching years ago, found the German legend and that's the one I include with each spider.

Each one takes me about an hour to do each one. I no longer think they are difficult. Once I got the design to do what I wanted it to do, I can do them easily now. Can't claim they are original with me since I saw a picture of one and adapted it to suit me and my way of working.

What made you decide to do awareness angels?

The awareness angels came about because a friend had breast cancer. Made her a pink one. She has been cancer free for 4 years now. My daughter had a friends whose mother had brain cancer. Researched the color representing that cancer and made some for her. This gave me the inspiration and idea to do them for other cancers. I also like to think of myself as a very caring person.  All my angels have names as you see. Some are my original creations, others have been adapted from pictures I have seen.

Believe it or not am I not sure what a snap clip is.  Can you explain, is that for wearing as a pin or in your hair or what?

A snap clip is a little different than a barrette in that it snaps open and shut. The ones shown are mostly for the hair but have sold a few for clipping on gift packages.

Are the beads on the Christmas ornaments secured (so that won't fall off)?

All the beaded ornaments are very secure. The ones using beading thread have been woven through the item several times and tied off. The wire ones have been twisted well to secure.

When I asked you a few general questions about your shop, you mentioned that the woven God's eye, etc were made by some children.  Can you tell me more about the children?

I have a licensed in home child care facility. All of the children involved have been in my care since they were babies. They know I have an online store and wanted to start earning some money to buy their parents Christmas presents. Of course I agreed immediately. Thought that was so sweet that they wanted to earn the money themselves. It took a while to make this many as there was homework to do etc.  They boys and girls, ages 6 to11. Each one had several practice runs before they got the right tension for the weave. Each one made up their own color pattern and chose the colors they wanted to use. I had lots of DMC Perle cotton and decided it was a good weight for them to use also.

Where do you come up with your ideas for those lovely Christmas items?

As for my Christmas items, I see something, get an idea and go for it. I cannot work in only one medium as my interest goes down hill after a while. My Mini Stump Santas and my Mop Angels are the items that started me crafting about 17 years ago. My daughter, then 15, and I took a class at the local recreation center. We did a big stump Santa as the first project. He was about 10" in diameter and 18" tall. When we had to cut down a crepe myrtle tree I asked my husband to cut the straight branches into various lengths - Mini Stump Santa and Mini Snowmen, etc.

Juniquegoods on Artfire
find her at pinterest