Claire Maunsell of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada has a Zibbet shop called stillpointworks where she sells the beautiful handcrafted beads and jewelry she makes from her own bead creations.

Claire has 20 years of experience as a craftsperson in the field of hot glass. She recently became fascinated with polymer clay as a medium for making jewelry and supplies.

For truly unique artistic handcrafted bead supplies stop by stillpointworks and see Claire’s unusual and fascinating works of art.

We are happy to have Claire as a member of Zibbet and hope you enjoy her interview.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   I’ve been a craftsperson all my life, that really sums it up.  Starting with knitting at 7, I flirted with fiber (machine knitting, weaving and spinning) and fell desperately in love with glass at the age of 30 after a five year stint working with street kids on remand for serious crimes.  After returning to Design school, I had a totally satisfying career in glass that lasted 18 years - 12 of those with my own hot shop - and then glass and I were divorced in 2004.  (We’re still good friends though…)  Family life necessitated a couple of moves (my husband is an engineer in the Navy) so I had to find something a little more portable, because, if I’ve learned anything in 54 years, it’s that I’m a maker of things.  I must MAKE to be happy in my skin.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   Honestly?  As the mother of 2 children (11 and 13) I feel like I pick up a lot of stuff and move it from place to place including the children themselves, their paraphernalia, their emotions - all while ensuring that there is decent food available and a shoulder to unload on. I’m sounding a bit peevish, but I realized early on after my work with kids in trouble that  ages 10-18 would be much more challenging to parent than 0-10.  From 10 to 18 there are so many daily choices to be made and you need to be there to provide a structure and guide them through the labyrinth. Being creatively self-employed gives me the flexibility to make myself available to my kids.

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   So many things. Natural forms, surfaces and textures, art, - colour combinations to be found everywhere - but most of all, those things plus my innate compulsion to fiddle with stuff continually and discover what happens!  Then, the fun begins. Glass is a material that can be fiddled with endlessly - there are just so many ways to manipulate it.   I’m quite sure that I love working with polymer for the same reason, and the techniques and strategies I learned for glassblowing are so useful to me in developing interesting work in polymer. So similar in so many ways…in a nutshell, you could say that material exploration inspired by the natural world fuels my inspiration.

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   I  look up to my mother  - she inspires me every day.  She is 92 now and life is tough - she is in a wheelchair, has limited vision and rotten hearing and is in a great deal of pain - but can still experience  joie de vivre and raise excitement around her.  She has been legally blind her whole life, but has never let that stand in the way of anything she needed to do (well, except driving perhaps…)  She still paints watercolors on occasion - exquisitely!  How, I’ll never know!  Her favorite quote is ‘Old age ain’t for sissies’  (Must find out who said that)  She’s Australian, by the way  - sadly,  I’ve  never been to the country of her birth!

   I also look up to my husband for his amazing sense of organization and his wonderful ability to always do a job in the best possible way - I am sadly lacking in these attributes and can only wonder at him…

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   Reading,  cooking, listening to music, cycling, cross-country skiing - it’s a dull life really!

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   The clean uncluttered look of the front page.  The fact that administration listens and responds to concerns and requests.  How easy it is to list.  The ever growing list of upgrades that appear like magic! My lifetime premium membership - what’s not to like?!

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   Nothing really huge -I’d just like to have a good printable receipt page with my name and address and the customer’s name and address so that I can print one sheet and cut it up to use as a packing slip and label in one. 

8. How do you promote your work?

   If I’m honest with myself I don’t promote my work a lot.  But my blog and the photos I post on Flickr are emerging as the ways I’m most comfortable doing promotion.  I’m fascinated by the many wonderful people I’ve met online through blogging and I enjoy documenting my process and revealing my ups and downs.  People can definitely relate to this all too human account.   I am in the process of developing some tutorials that people can see (possibly purchase)  - something many people like!  Twitter is a little strange, I never really ‘get’ it, but I keep trying!  I intend to start a Facebook fan page for my stores, but…the time involved in participating in social media takes away from work time and frankly, I think you have to choose your promotional tools to suit your abilities.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   Well, I’ d have to say ‘list a lot’ but since I’m sadly deficient in that way myself, I guess I’ll have to take my own advice.  Especially as I’d like my store here to offer different things to my other stores - more experimental, because I don’t have to pay the listing fees.

   But the other thing that really strikes me is to ask Zibbeters to be involved in a constructive way in the development and maturation of the site by the use of helpful suggestion because they really listen and respond here.  And that, my friends, IS unusual!

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    Doing what I’m doing and doing it well - at least, to my satisfaction! Making a modest income would be a bonus, but more importantly, I’d like to be teaching a craft again (as I did with glass-blowing) because I teach well.  So, I guess I’d better continue to improve my skills for the long haul ahead.  Most of all, I’d like to see my children happy and healthy!

Tags: Featured Zibbeters, stillpointworks