Hi everyone!
My name is Sari and I am the main writer at IPaintYouSip.
I hope you are enjoying reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them! I was also thinking that you may want to learn more about me and my background, so you can get to know me a little bit better.
My love of drawing began when I was a very small child. By the time I was around four years old, I was copying pictures out of the funny pages.
I also developed a love of crafting at a very early age. My favorite class in primary/elementary school was art, and I would always get excited when assigned school projects where I could draw, paint, or build something with my hands.
By the time I was eight years old, I was knitting dresses for my baby dolls, making my own Barbie clothes on a sewing machine, and baking bread. At age 12 I began knitting sweaters to wear myself.
So, when it came time to take home economics, I had learned more than the class was going to teach. I decided I wanted to take a shop class and learn how to build projects with wood.
Myself and a friend took our request to the principal, who was not thrilled with the idea. After much pleading and even arguing, we finally received permission and ended up being the first and only girls in our city to take shop classes with the boys.
As I also mentioned, I also loved music class. In school, I played the recorder, the xylophone, a few other percussion instruments, and the clarinet. I also began taking guitar lessons when I was 11.
For many years I concentrated on playing the guitar and drifted away from arts and crafts. In total, I had seven years of guitar training. Later in life I played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals in a classic rock cover band. At one point, I was an extra in a Daniel Baldwin movie!
When I was around 21, I decided I wanted to try my hand at painting. I’ll admit, I wasn’t very good at it. My paintings were flat and had no depth.
I got back into other arts and crafts projects, including sewing quilts and clothing, casting pewter miniatures, crochet, and beading. I loved making jewelry and found a gentleman who owned a jewelry shop where he made all of the pieces he sold. He trained me in silversmithing.
Eventually, I started making jewelry from sterling silver wire and a variety of gemstones.
In the last seven years or so, I have also gotten into sculpting with polymer clay. I prefer to use white clay rather than colored, so I can paint my sculptures.
Beside paintings, here are some of the things I love to make:
Photography has also been a passion of mine since childhood, and I have managed to make a living at times being a newspaper photographer. My main photography interest is nature photography, birds and insects in particular.
About four years ago I decided to try painting again. All the things I couldn’t figure out how to do before clicked, and I was able to create paintings with depth.
So, now we come to where I am today, teaching at paint and sip parties and writing informational articles about painting. I love doing both because I can help people to learn what I have learned, and to tell them to never give up. Things will click when they are meant to click!
-Sari
See my latest articles:
- What Are Soft Pastels and How to Use Them?
- 3 Easy Soft Pastel Drawing Ideas For Beginners
- Turpentine vs Paint Thinner: Which is Safer to Use?
- Soft Pastels vs Chalk Pastels: Are They the Same?
- Paperwork and Contracts for Paint Parties: What You Must Know
- Do You Need a Liquor License for a Paint and Sip Event?
- How Old Do You Need To Be to Attend a Paint and Sip Party?
- 5 Ways to Deal With Guests Who Have Had Too Much to Drink
- What To Do If You Don’t Drink But Go to a Paint and Sip Party?
- Paint and Sip Cruise: Make It Your Next Vacation
- How to Dispose of Paint Thinner: Dos and Don’ts
- 4 Tested Paint Thinner Substitutes that I Teach My Students
