featured Friday: ParamiPanda

My name is Alix Womack, and I just graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Washington state, so now I am back in Northern California where I grew up, and trying hard to establish myself as a local artist in the San Francisco scene, while still keeping my name alive in Seattle :P

Since I just graduated, being a student and a nanny and running Parami Panda and having a personal life were all that I did up until two and a half months ago, but now I am madly applying for jobs in various San Francisco nonprofits, working my way towards being a bartender and trying to Stay on the Buddhist Path. I make handmade cards, spend time with my dog, keep in touch through snail mail with my best friends, and I travel a lot. I just got back from Japan!

I have always been an artistic person, painting and drawing, making stuffed animals out of old t-shirts, and I loved to knit, but all I knew how to make were scarves, so I got tired of that pretty fast, and then a good friend of mine taught me how to crochet, and I picked it up immediately, and before I knew it, I was making all kinds of little creatures, and haven't stopped since.

I don't really know how much of a process I have. Usually I just wait for an idea to come to me, and then I sketch it out, then crochet it! I like to experiment with colors and color combinations, and am always looking for the next cute thing to make. Kissing pigs are next, then a yak!

The handmade possession that I prize the most is the quilt my grandmother made for me. She was incredibly crafty, and she taught me how to knit and quilt and make sock dolls, and a million other little crafty things. Without her I don't know if I would ever have started Parami Panda.

The top 5 websites I visit besides etsy are www.modcloth.com, to look at fantastic dresses, paramipanda.blogspot.com, to update my blog, www.hulu.com, to watch my favorite tv shows since I don't have television, www.facebook.com to keep in touch with friends and update Parami Panda's facebook fan page, andwww.threadless.com because I may or may not have a t-shirt obsession :P

New etsy users - post new items regularly, take lots of pictures, and never get discouraged!

Etsy needs to have a gift registry option!!! That is what I would like to see more than anything else. As for what I like, everything else. The forums, the treasury, hearts, feedback, it's all great!

I promote Parami Panda with my blog - paramipanda.blogspot.com, my facebook fan page and my myspace page and my flickr stream, by making treasuries and posting new items often and by having business cards when I'm selling at fairs and when people see me crocheting in coffee shops. My stuff is also for sale at Monster Art and Clothing in Seattle, and people are always finding me on etsy because they bought something of mine from there.

In ten years I want to be near all the people I love, and still making crochet creatures. I want to live on a ranch and have a pet yak and three dogs - a miniature schnauzer, a standard schnauzer and a giant schnauzer. I want to breed dogs that look like baby pandas, and I want to be changing the world. I want to be happy :)