Our featured artist this week is Susan Burd of Country Crocks by Susan and Burd in Hand Designs
Susan has been painting for over 20 years. She started doing craft shows in New Jersey while she was still working as an office manager for an accounting firm. Upon moving to Pennsylvania in 1995, she decided to devote as much time as she could to her painting.
She discovered Prim Mart about 6 years ago, and started her first website – Country Crocks by Susan. She is now working on a new website called Burd in Hand Designs which will feature her prints and will have a wholesale area. Country Crocks features all of her hand painted items, as well as some patterns and supplies.
She got started in ceramics and found that she loved doing that. As she developed her painting skills, she moved on to painting on different surfaces, but with ceramic bisque still being her surface of choice. She especially loved the reproduction crocks and would buy up as many of the old crock molds as she could get her hands on. She was lucky to find a mold maker who was able to reproduce some of these old molds for her.
She doesn’t really have any set hours to work. As many of you know, working at home takes a lot of discipline, which Susan claims she doesn’t have! She has always been a “night owl” and so tends to work best late at night.
In the past 5 years, she gathered up her self-confidence and began to work on her own designs. It was the best decision she ever made.
In 2005, she had 8 projects accepted by the magazine, Create and Decorate. She has continued to work with them since that time and is frequently featured in their magazine.
She recently began working with two painting magazines – Quick and Easy Painting and Paintworks which she is very excited about.
Then in 2009, she signed a licensing agreement with Capitol Earth Rugs and they feature several of her designs on their braided rugs.
She is now also working with a candle company (Herbal Star Candles) and they are featuring her artwork on their primitive candle jars. She was also recently featured on the cover of the New York edition of The Country Register.
Susan says, " I feel so blessed that I am able to be doing what I love. Although I am busy with magazine articles and the licensing, I still love to handpaint a one-of-a-kind creation for my website. It still gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I hope to be doing that for many more years to come."
Susan's work can be found here:
http://www.countrycrocksbysusan.com
http://tdipt-countrycrocks.blogspot.com/
Lititz Artisan’s Porchwalk – held in Lititz, PA in October
Keystone Wholesale Market in Lancaster, PA
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