We recently connected with Heather Neri and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew I was to pursue a creative path professionally when I started to make things to donate to a local church fundraiser. Everyone said I should sell me stuff but I did not think much of it until I was asked to design a pattern by a friend. Once I started that design I realized how much fun it was to make my own designs. Before then I had really only made items from the designs of others, but now making my own designs I could make things that did not exist. As I started to make more designs and take on commissions from friends and colleagues from my job at the, I came to realize this was something I wanted to do more regularly. I started by selling my like three starting designs at a gaming convention. I did really well so I opened an etsy and threw myself full into it three years ago when working from home became a priority.

Heather, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a fiber artist, a crocheter mostly. I also knit where that makes more sense to the design. I got into my industry from a young age, about 11, as I learned the basics of crochet and started to explore the possibilities of the craft. I make stuffed animals, bags and pouches and different accessories for costuming. As I like to say I specialize in cute but I am also a very detail oriented person. If a customer asks me to make a character from a show or a video game, I am going to spend hours looking up pictures to make sure I am getting the details right.
I am most proud of all the custom orders I have done. None stands out more than others cause it is the joy of the people receiving the item that makes it stand out for me. Making people smile is why I love what I do. Whether it’s googling a 100 pictures of red pandas to get the colors right or searching the internet for just the right shade or texture of yarn, I was will put great time and effort into getting the details right so the end result makes us all smile.
Bringing joy to people with cute crocheted things makes the world a little brighter.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is watching my art make people smile. My favorite part of craft shows and festivals is when I see people grab an item they fell in love with from across the fair and hug it smiling. The world is not always a happy place and if I can make people smile for a few moments out of the day I take that as a win.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Time. A lot of people that do not make art do not see the time that goes in to pieces. Most specifically that there are different types of time. The time to initially create a new print or design is far more than it takes to make the copies after. What takes several hours to make now could have taken days, weeks or months to make the first time depending on how cooperative the design was being. There is also a lot of practice and thought that goes into art that is never seen.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LunarDragonFiberArts
• Instagram: @LunarDragonFiber
• Facebook: @LunarDragonFiber