Pro-Soup Propaganda

CLOSED: Tuesday Giveaway from Nature of Art!

This week's giveaway is for a pair of awesome Alaskan beach rock earrings made by my friend Christie! We first met online by both being Alaskan Etsy folk. :o) Now I'm happy to say that I am friends with such a fun-loving, awesome girl (with a cute accent ;o)! The earrings are antique sterling silver hooks and findings and the bead is a mustard yellow Swarovski crystal.  They are about 2 1/2 inches long. These would look great with a fun, summery outfit!

Christie is also nice enough to offer free shipping in her Nature of Art shop for Pro-Soup Propaganda readers! Use code "freeshipping6" to get free shipping!

The ~*official*~ interview.......

Name: Christie Karow

Age: I think I am 32?
Location: Ketchikan, Alaska
Where can we find you online? Nature of Art at Etsy, Volleyballgirl at Etsy, and Facebook!
How did we meet? I met Brittany on Etsy and Facebook before I met her in person. We finally got to meet the other day at The Green Coffee Bean Company here in Ketchikan, Alaska, and I felt like we had known each other forever!! My sister Shellieartist introduced me to Etsy back in 2007 and I have made so many great connections with people from all over. I love making treasuries and feel like it’s a great way to get to know some of my favorite artists on Etsy. Brian from Western Art Glass has been adopted into the Karow family, we have never met in person but he is our Etsy brother!

What do you do for a living? I work at the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau. If you are coming to Alaska….feel free to stop by the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau and say hello to me! We love visitors!

How did you take up your artistic medium? I have been making jewelry for years. I am drawn to rock and the fact that there is so much history in them. When I first came to Ketchikan I worked as a tour guide. I talked about the geology of the Misty Fjords National Monument and Southeast Alaska and that’s when I fell in love with rocks all over again. We are surrounded by several different fault lines here, which means the rocks change from beach to beach and island to island. We have greenstone, shale, granite, quartz, and so on…we have it all here and I love it!

Now to talk about the process of making my different earrings. The salmon vertebrae earrings I get to go fishing for wild Alaska Salmon. Processing the salmon vertebrae takes time. I have to bleach them for several days. I enjoy doing everything from start to finish and by finish I mean cooking and eating the salmon!!

As for my rock earrings and incense burners I spend hours at the beach sifting through rocks. I try to go at low tide because those are the hidden treasures and the rocks tend to be much smoother. I like to call myself a rock hound, because once I get to the beach and start searching for rocks, I just don’t want to leave. Luckily our tide changes every six hours here, so often the tide coming in forces me to leave and take a break from searching for that one humble stone that is lying there waiting to inspire me. I drill each rock myself.

I have recently been putting my boyfriend to work. He is a lumberjack here in Ketchikan and if you have ever seen the show you know they hand out disc of wood during the show…they are called cookies. So he has been cutting me little cookies to make earrings out of. I enjoy making them because he is teaching me about the different trees and how to work with wood. The new lumberjill line are some of my favorites!

Three reasons you’re awesome:

1. Well the number one reason I am awesome is because of my mom and dad, they are awesome and I think some of that might have rubbed off on me!

2. I can make a scrumpdillyicious eggplant parmesan.

3. I kick some butt in volleyball

What’s your favorite quote? I love quotes I needed one funny one and two serious ones:)

Yogging: “Apparently you just run for extended periods of time. It’s supposed to be wild!”  – Ron Burgundy

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." - John Muir

"The road to success is always under construction." - Unknown

What do you do when you’re having a bad day to remedy it? I listen to music, go to the beach, go for a hike or have a glass of red wine. I don’t have too many bad days, but when I do I usually just tell people so they don’t think I am being weird. Plus I would hate to hurt anyone’s feel just because I was having a bad day.

What’s a piece of good advice you’d like to pass onto the readers? I have always been a firm believer in stopping to smell the roses. Travel often and appreciate all the things that are in your life...especially people.

Anything more you’d like to tell us? Brittany Rocks :)

Isn't she fun?! Love her! :o)

To enter to win visit Christie's Etsy shop and comment back here with another goodie you'd love to own.


Want to know how to get more entries? Also easy!
*Tweet or mention this blog post somewhere
*Heart Nature of Art on Etsy
*Like Nature of Art/Volleyballgirl on Facebook
*Like Pro-Soup Propaganda on Facebook
*Follow PSP through Google Friend Connect

Whichever else you choose to do, leave a message back here with a link to your tweet, post, or that you "liked" PSP on Facebook or "hearted" Nature of Art on Etsy, etc. and those will be counted for extra entries!

The giveaway ends at 6pm AK Time, Monday, June 20, so get your entries in! The winner will be notified by email so make sure there is an obvious way to contact you. :o)