Paper Babies

Ever met a Paper Artist? No? Well, join me in welcoming Kjesten Anna Hayes to my blog. She creates beautiful Paper Babies and sells them online (check out the links below) And any family member following my blog, these delightful books are on my Christmas list this year... HINT HINT.... (was that subtle?)

As a writer I am intrigued by not only words, but also paper. Pretty paper, patterned paper, textured paper and paper creations. I found Kjesten's blog a little while back and have been a massive fan ever since. Her books are true works of art... and I can think of nothing better then filling their pages with poetry or journal entries... (got any one on your own Christmas present list who would love one of these?)

Anyway, let's hear from the Talent herself... I invited her to tell us a little about herself and how she discovered her love of all things papery...

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"I left the first day of my college book-making course feeling like my universe had expanded so much that my head was going to explode. So that’s when my love of handmade books began.

When I started binding my own journals, I had no idea I was beginning my career as a paper artist. But I did well selling the journals I made at my school’s annual professional craft fair, so I signed up for other fairs. I learned paper-making in a special work-shop and started integrating my handmade papers into the books I sold.

It was also towards the end of college that I started to give myself permission to dream about what was closest to my heart: illustrating children’s picture books. It would take years of hard work and struggle for me to hone my skills as an artist towards those of an illustrator, but the seeds to do so were planted at the same time I began making handmade books. My skills in illustration and my skills in book-making developed along-side one another and so they influenced one-another.

My love of illustration, inspired designs for covers of my handmade books. And making thousands of cover designs for handmade books taught me the ins and outs of my medium, paper. The way textures and colors worked together became second nature to me and influenced how I thought about collage illustration. It was natural for me to become a collage illustrator.

Since my son’s birth several years ago, I’ve largely focused my efforts towards the greater of my passions, children’s picture books (check out my portfolio here http://www.kjerstenannahayes.com/illustration_p1.html ) But I’ll always be thankful for my roots in book-making and the craft industry. I continue to maintain an etsy shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/kjerstenhayes ) and I’ve continued to make lots of custom orders for beloved customers who have been buying from me for years. It’s a joy to create special sanctuaries for their hopes, dreams and beloved memories.

I share bits of my process, journaling inspirations, and other tid-bits on my own blog, Collage Clips ( http://kjerstenannahayes.blogspot.com/ )

Stop by and say hi sometime.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to say hi to your readers, Tabitha!"

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So... What about you? What are your paper obsessions? And what are you still doing here on my blog? ... go check her out! And put your order in for those beautiful books... (family members are you getting this???)