About

Hi!

I am Karen and I live in The Netherlands, after we moved from South Africa in 2019.
I was a senior publisher of non-fiction books for several years and author of 18 crochet and craft books.

I left the corporate world in 2014 to venture out into the creative world. I have never looked back and although I have made many mistakes during this ‘transformation’, the freedom to make your own decisions and to unbox your creativity, leaves you with so much wholeness that it is able to flow over into other people’s lives. And that is the most satisfying and beautiful experience.

During this period, I was a freelance designer for three South African Magazines: Ideas magazine, LIG and Vrouekeur. I delivered almost 6 projects every month, which usually included at least 3 crochet items. At the same time I authored books, did designs for my online shop, Ravelry, and held monthly crochet workshops all over the country.

I gave up almost all of it when we moved to The Netherlands. The first priority was to support my children through the whole immigration process and also to have a small sabbatical. During this time I used my free time wisely to learn from other artists through their art courses. I completed the following art and craft courses as well as my HBO diploma as an Adobe Expert:

Surrealistic Fineliner Illustration by Redmer Hoekstra
Art of Sketching by Mattias Adolfson
Expressive architectural sketching by Albert Kiefer
Story illustration by Estrellita Caracol
Illustration techniques by Adolfo Serra
Raised Embroidery by Adriana Torres
Vector Portrait by Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo
Illustration of Characters with Style by Alberto Montt
Creating an Etsy Store from scratch by Depeapa
Crochet wire jewelry by Yael Falk
Beaded Jewelry Design: Weave Elegant Patterns by Marion Mazo
Make Art that sells by Lilla Rogers

It was not long after the completion of these courses, that I opened my first art and craft store on Etsy under my own name. It Initially it took a while to get noticed through the maze of the digital world and it is now growing at a steady pace. My products include fine liner ink sketches, poster and vintage art as well as beaded bracelet patterns.

The themes of my artwork usually consist of fantasy, imagination and/or humorous storytelling. My bracelets focus more on rich and intriguing patterns – a love I developed while designing crochet patterns.