Kristin Friesen is a Jewelry Designer and she have a 2 Etsy Shops {sweeter than me} bridal and {sweeter than me} designs.

Below you will find Kristin’s interview

• How did you get into your craft?

ooh, long story. In early 2006 I had just found out I was pregnant with my son (first and only, born Nov. 6th 2006) Jack. My husband Justin is in a band with a good friend of his named Gary. Gary’s

.nephew, Kevin (whom Justin was also friends with) found out that his girlfriend Brandy was pregnant too, and due within a month of my due date. The guys decided to get together and “set us up” as friends. We hit it off really well and, since we were the only people we knew who were pregnant, we ended up spending a lot of time together. Brandy had done jewelry in the past and suggested we to it together to pass the time when we were on maternity leave and home with the babies. It started as a hobby, but since we had another mutual friend who was doing quite well with her jewelry business, it turned into much more! We sold as a business together for several months before parting ways. Now we are doing our own things with jewelry, but we are still great friends (and so are our boys!).

• Where does your inspiration come from?

Honestly, it’s the beads that inspire me. Sometimes that can be kind of lame… when I’m low on supplies I tend to feel very blah about everything I create. But I get so excited about shopping for beads, and when I get to buy new things I get huge creative streaks and you couldn’t pull me away from my workbench if you tried! (and my husband does try pretty hard, but there’s no interrupting me when I’m working!). I love mixing odd color combinations and bright colors. I do tend to be a little OCD about thinking outside the box, but I try really hard to remind myself that there are no limits!

• How do you promote your work?

- Oh man, I’m crazy about that sometimes. I am definitely on Flickr. I add just about every jewelry photo I take. I think it’s very important that when somebody sees something on Etsy, they can also find it on Flickr and vice versa. I also have a Blog and a livejournal and I update both regularly. I also signed up for a free add on Indie Designer Labels (which is pending), Indie Collective, and Talent Database. I have some of my pieces listed on Mintd. I visit the Etsy forums regularly, from both shops. I make treasuries as often as I can, and I have Etsy-ness all over my MySpace profile. PHEW!

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