Meet The Leaders

Meet the Leaders of Handmade and Heartfelt Artists  or better known as TeamHAHA

Sandi Rameriz  

Hi I am Sandi Ramirez. I am the captain of TeamHAHA.

I am a self taught doll artist and pattern designer who learned to sew when I became disabled back in 2003. Painting and crafting have always been a huge part of my life from when I was a child, but even taking Home Ec I could never quite get the hang of patterns.

I discovered the Primitive community and what a friendly bunch of women they are! They helped me to see that I could learn to sew first by hand and then by the machine by daughter had. I do use their patterns and then started to write my own. I now have a line of Shweet Potato Dolls n Patterns as well as my own line of dolls, ornaments and magnets as well.

4 years ago I had 3 and I have seizures. I just recently started to create my dolls again and working on new patterns. My family says I have crafter’s ADD because I create all kind of dolls, ornament patterns and even wreaths from time to time. I love to work in the primitive style anything from Whimsy Prims to Extreme dirty and grungy primitives. I really do like all different styles. I like to sew, paint and even write.

You can find me on Etsy as Shweet Potato Dolls

My own website as Shweet Potato Dolls N Patterns

I am also part of Lemon Poppy Seeds
 
I love helping folks and that is one of the reasons I help create Handmade and Heartfelt Artists TeamHAHA

Nothing makes me feel better than helping others succeed and that is what our team does. We work with each other to bring in clients as well as build positive energy between artists.

Becky Mckinzie

Welcome to our team blog.I am a leader in TEAMHAHA.

I am Becky Mckinzie, and my Etsy is https://www.etsy.com/shop/CottonPickingFolkArt

I built a retail craft/home decor business 13 years ago from scratch, and trusted my instincts, and made mistakes along the learning curve.Hand made dolls, and my weekly tole painting classes were my biggest attractions.

I closed my business to focus on my ETSY shop. Born out of the need to design, and market my hand made primitives to a wider audience.

I design with the past in mind. I love the feelings that memories create! I want my Primitive dolls and decor to tell a story in your home, as well.  Black dolls are  particular favorite.

Sometimes I become so attached to a piece, I hate to sell it. That is when I know I have accomplished my purpose.

My objective for leadership is to work together with you,the ETSY sellers, to solve kinks in the machine, promote your hand made art, and bounce ideas off each other. I bring my retail experience, and my love of teaching to the table.

Follow our blog on your journey.

Robyn Martin

Nestled in the historic Sierra-Nevada Foothills the Motherlode Toad Factory is delighted to have you share in the “Contagious, Creative Insanity” that flows out among the love and laughter within.

My name is Robyn Lee Martin and I was given a wonderful legacy of a lifetime love of fabrics and sewing by my Grandmother Evaretta, an avid seamstress and quilter. I have been creating and designing my entire life (which is a lot of years). I am totally self-taught. I started painting murals professionally for an interior decorator in my early teens and was an enthusiastic, prolific painter in both oils and acrylics for several years.

One of my favorite memories was getting a blue ribbon at the Los Angeles County Fair in 4th Grade for a finger painting. To top off the Blue Ribbon, someone actually bought the painting. Once I achieved the wonderful title of “Granny” (nine times) in later years, I decided that ladders and Grannies do not mix very well and I retired from Mural Painting.

I have always loved sculpting with Paper Mache and really enjoy mixing up my own paper pulp. My studio is my laundry room. I have an abundance of cupboards, large Formica counters and linoleum floors to help contain my many and varied messes.
The largest project I have attempted (so far) was a float entry that was a life-sized baby dinosaur. He had an armature of my husband’s entire Toyota Pick-up truck underneath. The next year the truck became a Covered Wagon pulled by an eight foot Monarch Butterfly. Fortunately, (for the truck and my husband) the parade was canceled the following year!

My inspiration comes from the "Creative Muse Gene in Overdrive" I was born with. I come from a long line of very creative excentric women. I have more ideas and things to make than years left to create them. My Artistic style is best described as “Eclectic Creative Insanity” it varies minute to minute.
Several years ago I owned and managed two gift stores in the Santa Cuz area of California and taught a class for grade school children in San Jose called "Letting Your Inner Artist Out."

Besides Paper Mache, I now am creating and sculpting all kinds of critters from muslin. They are sewn, sculpted and then painted. Many of my designs are now available in E-Pattern format so others can enjoy making them too.

The Motherlode Toad Factory is quite appropriate, in that I live in the Gold Country and at any given time, I am generally surrounded by toad, frog and other critter body parts waiting to be assembled. I ave been married to my very patient and understanding husband for 54 years and I have 3 wonderful grown children and 9 Grands! I am truly blessed!

Deena Davis

Hi folks! I'm Deena Davis and I'm a proud leader of Team HAHA. While you may not see me out in the forefront answering questions and sending emails, I'm still here, usually working behind the scenes on graphics and bloggity things.

I'm from Howard, Ohio where I live with my husband, who's my best friend and our 3 kids... well maybe I should say 4 as we have a 4-legged "child" too. (A female german shepherd who thinks she's human.)

I've been working in the graphic design field for about 30 years now (yikes!). I design flyers for a local grocery store and I also design printables, websites, blogs, etsy banners... you name it, I've probably worked on it at least once.

I currently have a website where I sell my designs, www.ewenmeprintables.com and of course, and etsy shop, www.etsy.com/shop/ewenmeprintables.

I love working with computer graphics and also paper crafts, I can sew and I like to cook too. So as you can see, I dabble in a lot of things.

Thanks for checking out our team and reading about us leaders. I think we have a great team here and the best thing about it, is it's drama and stress free.