We recently connected with Alli Grosberg and have shared our conversation below.

Alli, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Throughout my artistic career I’ve created functional and meaningful art and jewelry. I love the idea of celebrating events in people’s lives with art. Most of my art can be customized for this reason. People love when they see their name or a meaningful message or symbol within the art. Whether it’s honouring a new mom, grandmother or teacher, I create the perfect piece the captures the gratitude of the person giving the gift. I work closely with my clients to create the perfect piece! I love working with colour and multi media.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m an artist who has been on a never ending creativity journey since childhood.

For as long as I can remember I have been inspired to make everything an art. When given a box of smarties as a kid, I’d empty the box onto my kitchen table and turn them into scenes of houses and flowers. My family loved my creativity.

At the age of 9 I started my first business selling my handmade beaded jewelry to friends, classmates and neighbours.

In my teens I began to take my creative side to the next level. I started taking picture frames and decorated them with the dried flowers. This was the beginning of Allis Originals.

From there my artistry grew to jewelry design and any new art form I could learn. I decided to expand my jewelry design skills and signed up for classes in silversmithing and lost wax casting.

When I became a proud new mom, I loved the first piece of “mom jewelry” my husband bought me, a bracelet with a tag engraved with my son’s name.
This inspired me to learn how to create hand stamped jewelry, which then led me to learn the art of precious metal clay work.

I then branched out to watercolour art, card making and hand painted ceramics.

I’m an artist who has been on a never ending creativity journey.

For as long as I can remember I have been inspired to make everything an art. When given a box of smarties as a kid, I’d empty the box onto my kitchen table and turn them into scenes of houses and flowers. My family loved my creativity.

At the age of 9 I started my first business selling my handmade beaded jewelry to friends, classmates and neighbours.

In my teens I began to take my creative side to the next level. I was in need of a gift for I then realized I had a passion for textiles and fabric. I began to collect fabric before I had even owned or learned how to use a sewing machine.

I bought myself a machine and began learning how to sew quilts, pouches, bread bags, tote bags, tea towels and ornaments.
The more mediums I learned to work with, the more I wanted to learn.

In the last two years I’ve been creating resin art. I dry and press my own flowers.

My latest design work now includes needle felting. I create hand beaded felted trinket dishes, animals and mini flower pots.
I enjoy working with felt and create felt flower art and hair ties. I’ve included a picture for you of my latest felt art.

I also love to work with paper and designed my own chiyogami paper box lanterns.

10 years ago I transformed my basement into a boutique and work space. As you can see from the pictures, I’ve created a perfect space to feature all my handmade wares and it’s my favourite place on earth.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Throughout my journey I’ve been faced with many challenges. At age 12 my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away when I was 16. My mother greatly valued my artistic side and fostered it by working with me to learn new skills. Prior to her cancer diagnosis she enjoyed being creative as well. She worked with ceramics and taught me everything she knew. I still have some of her beautiful pieces around my home. When my son was born, I began to learn how to create hand stamped jewelry. It was a joy to give new moms a way to “keep their kids close to their hearts” I enjoyed jewelry design and my work evolved over many years. I began to teach jewelry making classes and workshops. I can’t remember exactly when, but my creative side wanted to learn more. I continued to expand my skills and work with other art media. Some of those include watercolour art, sewing, needle felting and resin art. When I was 45 I faced another difficult and painful challenge when my husband and highschool sweetheart took his life. We had a 14 year old son at the time. I was left to run his massage therapy college in Toronto which consumed much of my time. A few months later I realized that my art may be one of the most important things I can do for healing. It was as if my creative side exploded. I found myself wanting to spend most of my limited free time learning new forms of art. I knew this was healthy for my mental health. I could just sink into whatever I was creating, and the world around me calmed for a while. It became meditative and a way to keep my thoughts healthy. PTSD can be a tough road to navigate. Having a healthy outlet like art, kept me from breaking down. I often considered how proud of me both my mom and husband would be. This inspired me to keep going and keep growing. Grief is a rough road to travel so being creative gave me some sense of peace that I couldn’t find anywhere else.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’ve always loved product photography and social media was the perfect place to explore that avenue. I understood the importance of having a “gallery” where people could see my art from day to day. It’s a space that facilitates creativity while offering the world an opportunity to see my process. I’ve worked hard to gain a following which has resulted in not just exposure but sales of my work. When I run into people, one of the first things they mention is the art I am creating. People are always happy to support it. As an artist, the feedback feels wonderful!     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.allisoriginals.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisoriginals/