Featured Artist of the Week - LLRoden Jewelery

Here is our Featured Artist for this week! LLRoden Jewelery.

I’m a wife, mother and grandmother.  I have two grown sons and six grandchildren with another on the way.  I live in a small Midwest town in Illinois, north-east of St. Louis. All my immediate family members have several afghans and my sons have taken their camouflage afghans with them to Iraq.  It’s tradition to make afghans for new babies and I’ve made quite a few.  My crochet projects have slowed down simply because I’ve flooded the family.  However, I do have a new grand baby on the way so of course a new afghan in the works. I also use sewing and crochet in my jewelery making.
I’ve been doing handcrafts since I was a child.  My mother taught me to sew, knit, crochet and embroider as a way to keep me busy.  It worked!  I’m almost always busy.  Most of my sewing is for my family.  I frequently make shirts for my husband from funky material we find while browsing fabric stores.  He’s frequently asked where he got the shirt and when he tells them I made it they always want to know if I’ll make more.  I’ve thought about it but usually once I’ve made the shirt that’s all the material and I usually can’t find any more.  As any one that sews knows, material can be expensive and when you add in your time most people wouldn’t want to pay the cost.  With that in mind I stick to sewing for family.  I especially enjoy sewing for my grandchildren and Halloween costumes are a favorite.  My most recent really cool costume was Glenda for my Granddaughter.

My art work is a part time thing.  During the week I’m a secretary in a local accounting office.  This time of year is fairly crazy at work.  My stress release is in my basement with my tools and toys.  My husband frequently complains that I spend too much time in my cave and that it sounds like a black smith shop.  I make jewelery to sell and for gifts and of course for myself.  My jewelery is anything from bead work, metal work, glass work, lapidary and multimedia.  Lately, I’ve been working with copper plumbing pipe to make hammered cuff bracelets.  What I make depends on my mood.  Sometimes a good bout of hammering is just the thing to release daily stress. In my quieter moods I’ll do bead work.  Some of it is simple and some very detailed and time consuming.  I love the mix of colors and textures in the mix of beads, metal and stones.  I’m always trying for the “Oh Wow” thing and always trying something new.  I don’t particularly like following instructions for the jewelery making.  I see instructions as a starting point and will usually incorporate a twist in the pattern.  So many things inspire a new design.  Since I don’t like following instructions I also don’t like to do custom orders.  To me taking orders takes away the fun and brings on more stress.  I’m looking at this as something to do when I eventually retire from the public workforce.
Linda L. Roden
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/bio/llrodenjewelry http://handmadeartists.com/shop/LLRodenJewelry http://llrodenjewelry.blogspot.com http://twitter.com/llrodenjewelry



If you are an artist, or know of an artist you think deserves to be featured, please let me know by leaving a comment here.
My featured artists will go on to be featured on two more blogs this month. Next on  Louise's blog then the Indie Mosaic blog and was just featured on Bridgett’s blog! So you get maximum exposure! Since we all do different things you will reach different readers on each of our blogs and you really get your name out there! It’s really great. And best of all: It’s free! If you enjoyed reading this and want to be featured, or know of someone that you think should be featured, leave a comment on this post, or email me at karengass144@gmail.com