Welcome to The Rainbow Room

Every now i love color, that is no surprise! So i don*t know how i have missed this lovely blast of color! Today's feature is The Rainbow room. She has a lot of unique items from felted soap to Christmas cards. I*m digging the soap! Here is her interview.

1.) What is your name?
My name is Claire aka Claraluna of ‘The Rainbow Room’

2.) Tell us about yourself.
I am an artist & mother who lives in Mid-Wales in the UK. I stay at home and look after my 3 year old daughter and when she hanging out with her dad or asleep...... I become Clara Luna and I save the world in my own special way by filling it with colour & rainbows!!
The internet plays a large part in my life, especially for my work and in keeping up to date with the real world!! I share my photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/therainbowroom/
and I blog too http://therainbowroombyclaraluna.blogspot.com/

3.) What is the Url of your store?
www.therainbowroom.etsy.com

4.) How long have you been a crafter?
Always!! I think I inherited the gene from my Nan, she was an amazing artist who started her own lampshade factory and craft supplies business, she was an amazing lady : )
I have been crafty all my life. I am a trained designer and have a BA (hons) in Fashion & Textile Design. I have worked professionally designing socks, creating mosaics and doing some interior design, but I am most happy working for myself and experimenting in many different mediums including felt, feltmaking, mosaic, polymer clay and anything I can use to express my love of vibrant colour and pattern. Did I say I LOVE rainbows!!

5.) Please list the type of item( s) you sale.
I sell colourful felt hair accessories and brooches/pins, felted soaps, recycled crayons. Also I have some special items for Christmas, mini felt stockings and a special Christrmas card printed with my ‘Christmas Rainbow’ illustration. I have a lot of ideas for expansion in the new year too.

6.) What / Whom inspires you to create?
My favourite artists are Gaudi, Hundertwasser, Klimt & Keith Haring, anything with bold colours and exciting patterns. I also find mainstream design inspiring, window shopping really helps me focus my ideas, I like to visit civilization every so often to see whats new!
Living in the countrytside, I take a huge amount of inspiration from nature and have also learnt a lot helping to run a Steiner Waldorf inspired playgroup, and love the natural toys and materials used for creative play.

7.) Why did you choose to create the items you make?
My work is constantly evolving, I have been selling my handmade natural soap for five years now, which is how I found out about felting. I felted a few bars of soap for gifts, then took a couple of courses to learn some more techniques. I was totally surprised I had done a degree in textiles but never heard about felt making, its very therapeutic! My work with craft felt was inspired by an amazing trip to Ibiza, the craft markets, fashion and art is so colourful, I returned with a great passion to make special ‘Art Accessories’ in vibrant colours, felt was just the perfect material, and exciting beads and sparkly sequins add the finishing touches that make my pieces extra special. I started by making a birthday card for my daughter, then some hair clips, then some more cards for friends and as gifts etc etc

8.) When did you start your store/selling the things you make?
I started selling online through my Etsy shop this September. Etsy is just such a great place to be, so inspiring and such an eclectic mix of fantastic work from all over the world - I LOVE IT!

Felted Flower Hair Accessory

Heart Felted Soap - Lavender wrapped in a Rainbow

Funky Felt Mini Christmas Stocking

Christmas Rainbow - Pack of 7 Colourful Christmas Cards

News Tunes = New Items

Justin's brother spent the night with us last night because today is his birthday. So i had time to create while they were playing video games being as loud as they possibly could be. Ahhh, yes. That's the joy of music. I downloaded a bunch of new songs & made myself a few new cd's, so i*ve been rocking out all day. I also added the new items to the website. I retook photo's too, so i posted those on the front page. I*m getting a lot of reviews about my site. I*m trying to come up with a new design where i can split the content from left to right. It*s so hard trying to figure out this new program. I will do it however. I think I*m going to work on it tomorrow night when i get home from work. I*ve got a long day tomorrow.

Here are the new goodies. These are the exclusive's to www.UniqueCharm.net. My etsy fee's are getting ridiculous. I*m trying to sell my items at the lowest cost so they are affordable in this time of the economy. Being the way it is the fee's are killing me. I*ll be adding them to www.UniqueCharm.etsy after the 15th of this month. Also don't forget you get to take off 35% if you sign up for the Unique Charm newsletter. You*ll also receive promo's, freebies, drawings, contests, & other info only the newsletter subscribers know about.

These Can be found on UniqueCharm.etsy.

♡UniqueCharm Sale's♡
** Saturday Sept. 6, 2008 - Saturday Sept. 13, 2008 ** Pay with RME (Revolution Money Exchange) & take 30% off any item in stock.

**Get 35% For Signing up!**
I'm giving 35% off to anyone who signs up for the UniqueCharm newsletter. You can find the sign up form here. You*ll receive insider info, chance to purchase new items before they are available, promo's, & freebie's!

**$1 Ad spaces at UniqueCharm.net**
*I*ve added a 5 space top spot for $1 for an entire month on my website. You can grab one of those here! Scroll down until you see the top spots. You only have to have a paypal account to pay. You do not have to sign up for top spots.

Three New Items

I added some new items, well a set really. I think they*re cute! I made my little cousin a pair. They're so girly. You can wear them with an outfit out everyday, they*re just cute! These are the other two items i added.

I slept my butt off Thursday night, i didnt hear Justin until he slammed the bathroom door & turned on all the lights in the apartment at 5:30am this morning. Sometime this weekend i need to sit down & think up some goals for UniqueCharm. Some day's i just dont have time though, there isnt enough hours in the day & the time i do have I*m usually promoting. For those of you who have a website what else do you do? Where do you advertise? I*ve been thinking of getting the laser window decals so i can make a promo sticker for my car. Has anyone done this is it effective? I got really cute stickers from CeeJay! I bought 2 Hibiscus Flower Decal for my side view mirrors. I*ve had so many compliments on them, she also sent the bird decal for free so she is on my rear view.

$2 Ad spaces for an entire month!
I*m doing addition sponsors on my blog & website for $2 a month. If your interested you may pay HERE then send me your 125 x 125 image & link info to Leslie@uniquecharm.net. You*ll stay up on both sites for the entire month of August. If your interested also please feel free to leave me a comment & I*ll get back to you for your info. Don't forget to leave me your e-mail address or state you*d like for me to leave a comment. Totally up to you.

look what i did :P

You Are 89% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity. Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

How Creative Are You?