I recently interviewed =Myana for *ArtisanCraft club’s interview feature. =Myana is a great artisan, as well as the founder of *ArtisanCraft club.

For a great formatted deviation of this interview check here > [link]

Enjoy! - //*inchworm > co-admin *ArtisanCraft club.

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Before we talk about your involvement with Artisan Craft club, tell me a little about your own craft. Your first love appears to be designing and making furniture and other wood items, how did you first get involved in that?

You’re absolutely correct about that. I’m a cabinetmaker and my passion is to design and make high-quality furniture. I’ve always loved working with my hands and to do functional things that are beautiful to look at and wonderful to touch. I had dreams of becoming an interior decorator in my teens, but since that was such a popular education at the time and we only have it at two universities in Sweden I felt I had to re-think my situation a bit. I visited this awesome school ‘Capellagården’ [link] one of the top educations for cabinet making and furniture design. It’s a private school with about 60 students studying ceramic, textile and furniture making on a small island on the east coast. I felt like this was something I really wanted to learn and master and also something I would love working with. I applied and was one of three (!) to be accepted. It was a wonderful education, I learned so much and made friends for life.

The last and third year of the education was solely concentrated around my masterpiece. The final exam - a piece of furniture that would be judged and graded. The judges spent over three hours looking for errors, but I still managed to get 4.7 out of 5. I gotta admit I’m very proud over that cabinet, proud to successfully have done a furniture where all the woodwork and joinery is the top of the tops.



I understand your job involves designing and making furniture. What’s it like working in the field you love, I can imagine it must be great.

Yes, I work at a small carpentry and feel very fortunate to each day do what I love most. The work I do there is of very various kinds, kitchen interiors, tables, chairs and much more. However, most of the things are designed by an architect and it’s up to me to make his/hers blueprints reality. It’s not always the easiest, since they often don’t know the limits and possibilities with wood. But what would life be without challenges? Unfortunately I can't submit much to my main account, since it's the architect who owns the rights to the design and I would need his or hers approval and I seldom meet them and get a chance to ask.
I also have my own company where I design and make my own furniture and try to get others to buy them. I’ve sold some items, but since I’m working full time at the carpentry there isn’t that much time left for those projects. My dream is that one day I can run my company full-time and that everyone would want my furniture! But that lies in the future...

Moving on to the club, what inspired you to start a club dedicated to featured work from the artisan craft gallery?

hehe, well, to be honest - it had somewhat to do with boredom! But mainly a wish to have a place on dA where artisans can meet, get to know each other, share knowledge and inspiration. A try to shed more light on the artisan crafts gallery and all the talented artisans by showcasing their wonderful work. I was very unsure in the beginning if any would be interested in joining, man was I wrong!! We’re 382 members right now and just keep growing. Not in my wildest dreams could I have thought it would grow so much so fast when I started the club a year ago!



You have always had some pretty strong ideas about how the club should be run, such as featuring collages instead of single pieces, and using a standard layout to keep the club looking professional. How important do you think these decisions have been for the popularity of the club?

You know what? I think you’re right, I do have some pretty strong ideas on how the club should be run, but all those decisions have come naturally. I guess most of it comes from how I am as a person but also looking at other clubs, how they do it and try to listen to all our dear members.
I had seen some other clubs feature their members by collages and really liked the idea that the feature exposed both the deviant and the club. When CSS was introduced on dA for subscribers I saw it as a chance to learn it and make the journal layout nicely organized with the different features and info that I want the members to take a part of.
I don’t think that the layout of the journal or how we feature our members has been important at all considering the popularity of the club. I think the main reason for its popularity is that I wasn’t the only one feeling a need for a meeting place for artisans, somewhere where you work can be featured, somewhere you can ask for ideas and knowledge and a chance to meet people with the same or similar interest as yourself.

There have been some great contests with lots of prizes generously donated by club members. What aspect of the club do you think has prompted people to be so generous?

I have absolutely no idea, but the generosity people have shown have completely blown me away and left me completely speechless. What I do know is that everyone loves the contest, but I can only speculate what have prompted such generosity, but maybe they share the same love as me for the club?

Myana’s Masterpiece >>

The club has taken part in debating and suggesting ideas for changes to the Artisan Craft section of deviant art. What changes relating to Artisan Craft have you been most happy to see?

Since we have grown so big and have so many active members, I've always thought that the club has been a good place to discuss and debate and I believe we can make a difference.
I’m very glad over the new forum and the gallery changes that have taken place with added sub categories and I hope more will be added soon.
But the thing I’m most happy over is the growth of Artisan Crafts on dA and the awareness of our gallery among other deviants. A year ago we were quite in the shadow, but no more!

Your own personal involvement with the club is quite intensive. For those who don’t know, you make almost all the collages and reply to most of the large number of notes and messages that come into the club each day as well as coming up with new ideas for contests and organizing new features and the other co-admins. Around how long would you say you spend looking after the club on an average day?

Oh, it varies but I’d say about half an hour to one hour for the everyday answering notes and comments. Then maybe once a week I spend two-three hours when updating journals and/or doing collages. During a contest it takes a bit more time to catch up with everything that needs my attention. But sometimes I give myself a break and stay out of dA completely.
But I couldn’t run the club myself with all the ‘happenings’ we have going on, my dear co-admins - you, Tomazz, kirajones, Ninina-nini and summertimesnow make sure that all the features happens - interviews, affiliate collage and ‘Devious Crafts of the Week’. And I can’t thank you enough for helping me!



Do you have any plans for the future of the club, can we expect more contests and features?

Of course, contest is one of the most loved parts of the club so I can promise many more in the future.
When it comes to new features and happenings I really don’t have any ideas at the moment - I’d love to hear from you all - if you got any ideas don’t hesitate to contact me!

I’d just like to end this interview by saying thank you on behalf of myself, the other admins and the members of this club for all the great you do for the club. Your hard work is appreciated

Aww, thank you! You know, I wouldn’t run this club if I didn’t like doing it, but it’s always nice to hear that your work is appreciated.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all members for a great first year, and I hope the club’s second year will be as good. I’ve met many new friends and learned so much from all of you.