ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Linda Bahr

by Valerie

 


The Artisan Group is proud to announce this week’s Artist Spotlight Feature is Linda Bahr of Engelfelt Designs!



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ENGELFELT DESIGNS

We caught up with Linda and asked her a few questions about her fantastic felted soaps and scarves, and her experiences so far working with TAG. Here’s what she said:

Tell us a little bit about your shoppe. 

I’m a fiber artist. Felted soaps, knit and crocheted accessories, woven lavender sachets, and items made from felted repurposed garments are some of the products I love to create. Craft fairs and word of mouth were how I started out decades ago selling my products, and Engelfelt Designs came about in 2009 as an Etsy shoppe.

I come from a family with a long tradition of being artisans and crafters in our “spare” hours. My father was a geologist, so my four siblings and I grew up overseas in parts of the world where art and handwork are a large part of the educational upbringing. I wove my first pillow and knit my first pair of baby booties in 3rd grade — grubby little things, but it was a start!


What is your favorite product from your shoppe and why? 
My felted soaps are a relatively new venture for me, and I do love them. However, I have recently become obsessed with nuno felting. I love this scarf:

When you’re not handcrafting your gorgeous line of felted soaps and accessories, what are your hobbies? 
Several of my hobbies intersect with my career choice as a language teacher (French and German) and so I’m not sure where the separation is! So let’s call them my passions. I travel as much as is humanly and financially possible. We’ve traveled extensively with our 2 sons, who are now grown, and I coordinated a student exchange program with a school in Germany for 23 years. This has morphed into an adult exchange, now that I’m retired. I’m off to Europe next month for 4 weeks, as a matter of fact. I read like a fanatic — anything and everything. I love my garden, though it does suffer a bit in my absences. And cooking is another favorite activity. Actually, eating is too… And can red wine be a hobby? If so, it’s on my list, too. 🙂  


What do you like best about The Artisan Group? 

The Artisan Group is so amazing in so many ways. Participation can be at any level you choose, so it fits well with my lifestyle which is insanely busy at times. I have participated in several opportunities, from sending business cards for the (GBK) Oscars to doing products for the special Earth Day event, and most recently, being a display participant for the (GBK) MTV Movies Award Gift Lounge. This last event was absolutely the most amazing thing I have done with my business.

The support system and energy was awesome, from Valerie’s amazing overall management and business skill all the way down the line to all of the members who are so generous with advice and counseling on the dozens of topics that come up daily. With this team support, I have spent so much time working and reworking my products to try to measure up to the caliber of the superb artisans on our team, and have enjoyed every minute.

Linda recently participated as a display participant in a luxury celebrity gift lounge on June 1-2, 2012 at L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, in honor of the The 2012 MTV Movie Awards Nominees and Presenters.

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