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(Read more on how we found these amazing
artists on the end of the Bios!)
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Melissa
“Moon” (Hemp
Clothing/Jewelry/Original Art Apparel Line)
is the founder and co-owner of Mountains of the Moon.. Melissa
learned to sew when she received her first sewing machine seventeen years ago (thanks mom!). It wasn’t until she started doing Grateful Dead tour in the early
90’s, however, that she realized her true love for
wearable art style clothing and began to design and sew on a more full-time
basis. In addition to fashion
design, Melissa also creates
semi-precious stone jewelry, and designs many of the images for
Mountains of the Moon's Original Art Apparel (t-shirt) line from her
own pen and drawings. Her most recent accomplishment is designing all of the items in our
new New Enlightenment Clothing Collection.
Melissa draws her biggest inspirations from music, Tibetan Buddhism, and nature: “I find that a lot of my nature-inspired art is drawn from
very
specific places I have lived
in or traveled to, especially the
Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, the Redwood forests and the country of Costa Rica.
I also find myself more and more drawn to eco-fashion, and the art
of designing stylish, funky clothing items from hemp and hemp blend
fabrics. My dream is to introduce hemp into the world of high
fashion!” |
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Jeff
(Original Art
Apparel Line/Wood Working) is
also a founder and co-owner of Mountains of the Moon, and along with
Melissa, the company’s very first artist.
Jeff started working with wood when he was barely old enough
to talk, and continued to develop a passion for both wood-working
and other forms of visual art as the years passed.
Although he does have some formal training in wood-working
and other forms of art, he learned most of what he knows through his
own experience.
In 1990, Jeff found a way to make a living off of his art
when he started touring with the Grateful Dead, where he sold
everything from handmade clothing to jewelry to food to get by
on |
| tour.
Eventually, he met Melissa and turned his traveling art show
into an actual business.
Jeff also enjoys graphic art, and helps design items for
Mountains of the Moon's Original Art Apparel (t-shirt) line. His
most recent passion is building custom motorcycles, and in early 2005
he received his degree in motorcycle mechanics and fabrication from
the American Motorcycle Institute. Listening
to the good ole’ Grateful Dead, the teachings of His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, and
riding his Harley are his main artistic inspirations.
He also draws inspiration from the incredible wood-work he's seen when
visiting Costa Rica. Jeff is most well known for
his one-of-a-kind sifting boxes, which won several awards and were featured four different times in
HT magazine. |
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Morgan Baswell (Handcrafted
Jewelry) has been a part of
the Full Moon Family for nearly five years.
In addition to creating art for the Mountains of the Moon,
she is also the company's office manager, and co-runs many of our
vending booths. Morgan
has been an artist since she was practically a baby and got her first
set of crayons. Although most of her formal training has been in drawing, and
she is most known for her detailed pencil sketches, she began to
branch out into jewelry when she was in High School, when she
started selling hemp necklaces and macraméd hair wraps to her
friends. She continued
to create unique and intricate hemp and beaded jewelry into her
college years, and began to sell her goods through Mountains of the
Moon in the summer of 1999. Morgan
also had some training and experience in sewing, and she combined
her hemp jewelry skills with her sewing skills to develop a line of
one-of-a-kind |
| headscarves, which she sells at summer festivals.
Most recently, she has taken up silver and semi-precious
stone wire wraps. Although
she holds a secondary education teaching degree in
Psychology/Sociology, art is Morgan’s passion.
Morgan says that although she has many inspirations, her
biggest artistic inspiration is Edward Gorey:
“Although he isn’t a jewelry-maker, his unique artistic
style and warped perspective inspires a lot of my work.” |
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Shell
has
been offering her one-of-a-kind handblown glass works
through Mountains of the Moon for five years now. There is a lot
of glass out there, but as soon as we saw Shell's
incredible work, we asked us to join our family. Pendants, beads, marbles, jars, earrings, belt buckles,
and ornaments are just a few of the unique items that
she creates. Shell has blown in several national competitions and
has received many
awards for her marble work. Although Shell has
extensive fine arts training in painting and ceramics,
her glassblowing is completely self-taught. With the
wide variety of goods they create, it's hard to choose a
favorite, but Shell says that unique pendants and super huge
marbles are at the top of her list. A true
passion for glass blowing is what motivates Shell, and she
finds her biggest inspirations in spending time with
other artists, as well as in nature.
Energy from nature is a huge theme found in almost of all
her one-of-a-kind glass art. |
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Heather Caulfield
is the incredible designer of the original Chenzerig Buddha design that you see on many of our
Original Art Apparel line items. We have known Heather and her
amazing work for years, and decided it was about time we included her
in one of our projects. Heather's work takes you on a journey
through the mind, the soul and the spirit though mystic vision and
rock star lore, all melting into a mob of pop culture. Fluent in oils,
acrylics, and mixed media, she graduated from the Columbus College of
Art and Design in Ohio. In addition to Heather's Buddha design,
Mountains of the Moon will also be carrying some of her other works at
upcoming festivals. Heather is represented by the |
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Union237 Gallery located at 237 Market Street in old city,
Philadelphia, PA. For inquiries on her works, you can contact
Heather at
Heather@fullmoonfamily.com. |
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Amanda Hunter
(Handmade Hemp Clothing) 's unique and beautiful one-of-a-kind clothing
items are not only stylish, but also totally environmentally
friendly! Each piece is crafted from 100% hemp or hemp blend
fabrics, and is hand-dyed with low-impact dyes. Amanda has been sewing for nine years, with the last
three being focused exclusively on stitchin’ with hemp
and sustainable fibers.
She was originally taught how to sew by her mother
and grandmother, and then used that foundation to continue
to learn on her own.
Her favorite items to create are her unique
bias cut hemp skirts, and her main goal is to create
clothing that empowers the person who wears, it through confidence,
comfort and conscious living. |
| Amanda
says that her biggest inspirations are the Hemp Industry
as a natural solution to many of the problems that we have
created for ourselves, as well as the idea of empowerment
on the individual level, and the aim for everyone to feel
good about themselves.
Amanda’s clothing items are not only beautiful
works of art, but they also carry a statement.
As she says, “Support HEMP for a sustainable
future!!! Manifest
your OWN reality!!!”
We know you will love all of Amanda’s incredible
creations. |
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Joanna
(Hand-Crocheted
Goods), otherwise known as
the Full Moon Family’s
“Crochet Goddess,” has been selling her amazing
crocheted creations though Mountains of the Moon for over
four years. We
met Joanna through Melissa’s best friend, Robin, and were
awestruck at the level of artistry and style of her work.. Joanna has been working in this medium for six years.
The crocheting seed was planted in Joanna when she
was at a friend’s house and saw a blanket she was
creating. “It
looked relaxing (and not as messy as painting),” she
says, “So I begged another friend to show me how, which wasn't
easy, as I am a lefty and she righty..." In addition to
crocheting, Joanna also |
| creates greeting cards using her own
original photography, handcrafted journals, and other handmade goods.
One-of-a-kind hand-crocheted ponchos are her favorite items to
create, and she enjoys working with novelty yarns. Recently, she has been experimenting with yarns of differing
weight within the same project. Joanna
uses a wide variety of yarns in her creations as well, including chenille,
wool, rayon, cotton and hemp. Her
biggest inspiration is spontaneity: “I love to have ‘no plan’ and
just see where the project takes me.” |
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Moe
Eveland (Handmade Clothing/Bead Work) has been showcasing her extraordinary handmade clothing
here at Mountains of the Moon since 2001, but she has been selling her one-of-a-kind threads on tour
since the early 90s (you may have even met her dreaddy dog Zoe, who
has also been on tour for a long time!).
In addition to making some of the coolest patchwork pants and
skirts we’ve ever seen, Moe is also a gourmet chef, and hold a
degree from the
Culinary Institute of Seattle.. Most
of what Moe knows in terms of artistic creativity has been
self-taught, and although her main skills lie in the art of sewing,
she is also quite gifted in peyote stitch work, and creates some
truly gorgeous beaded necklaces and dread stitches. Moe’s favorite items to
create are intricate wearble art-style pants using her original
patchwork |
| techniques.
Moe especially enjoys working with unusual and sturdy fabrics,
like wide-waled corduroy and upholstery fabrics, and she also loves
working with hemp and other sustainable fabrics that she dyes
herself. The music of
the Dead, Phish, and SCI, as well as nature, and her experiences
from her travels, are the biggest inspirations you’ll find flowing
through Moe’s beautiful pieces of art. |
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Please welcome
Melissa Trent,
aka Lissa Lush (Fiber Art Hats)
to the Full Moon Family!. Lissa is
a fiber artist who has been making and selling her hats for about 12
years. She loves working with all types of yarn, especially hemp. In
addition to creating hats, Lissa also paints and makes jewelry, and
enjoys selling all of her creations on ebay, at flea markets, and in the
occasional concert parking lot. During the more temperate months of the
year in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio, Lissa is employed as a landscape
designer. |
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Josh
Rainwater (Graphic
Design/Original Art Apparel Line) not
only created the original Mountains of the Moon website in 1999
and continues to help us maintain our current site, he is
also an incredible graphic artist.
Josh helped us come up with our original version of the
Tibetan Buddhist knot (found on many of our t-shirt and hoodie items)
in 2001, and also assisted Melissa and Jeff in designing our
“Forever Family, Forever Grateful” and “Unity is Possible”
logos. Josh has been
working with computers and graphic design for as long as he can
remember, but his talents branch out beyond graphic and website
design. Josh occasionally crafts Native American beaded loom chokers,
inspired by his Cherokee roots.
He has also recently taken up t-shirt stenciling,
and creates unique one-of-a-kind t-shirts using his own hand-cut
stencils and paint techniques.
On
top of all of the artistic skills he lends to Mountains of the Moon, |
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Josh also helps run some of our summer vending booths at festivals and
on tour, and give us fabulous business advice (he holds a degree from
Indiana University's Business School). |
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A
more recent addition to our
artist family, Joy
(Bead Work), creates beautiful beaded
jewelry (Peyote stitch technique) for Mountains of the
Moon, as well as the occasional crocheted piece.
Although Joy did spend a year in school for Fashion
Design, for the most part, the crafts that she enjoys have
been taught to her by friends and family, or she has
explored and experimented with them herself.
While crocheting is one of her newer loves, Joy has
been beading for five years, and beading is her specialty.
In addition to these mediums, she enjoys working in
a variety of art forms: “Mood and inspiration have a lot
to do with what I like to create in the moment, I can't
point at just one thing. I love all my creative
endeavors.” Recently,
Joy has taken up silk painting, using gutta, habotai silk,
and |
| various silk dyes. She feels that silk painting
allows an artist to really express herself in so many
ways, by creating designs with many purposes (window hangings,
clothing, pillows, folding screens, etc.), and by playing
with amazing color and special silk painting effects, like
salt and rubbing alcohol.
In all of her work, Joy finds herself inspired by
her day to day life:
“I live in an area with ancient forest in one
direction, ocean in another, and mountains in the east,
these all heavily influence my artwork. My
creativity is also impacted by other artists, music,
traditional Asian designs, ideas and artwork, Celtic
knotwork, and just everything found in nature, from the
blossoming of a trillium to the hues of a scarab
beetle.” |
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Suzanne Wittman
(Hand-Crocheted Goods) has been selling her hand-crocheted
creations in our vending booths since the summer of 2000.
In addition to crocheting beautiful tams and
beanies for Mountains of the Moon and being a
full-time student (Suzy is currently working on a BS in art education and a BFA in
printmaking), she
occasionally still sews handmade clothing for her own
business, Shady Grove. Suzy learned to crochet five years ago with the help of
her mother (who she calls the “Tam Queen” and says is
her biggest source of inspiration), while living in a
place where she got snowed in often and had to find
creative ways to occupy her time.
She has been developing her skills ever since. Super-soft Wuzzies and Homespun yarns are her materials of
choice, color combinations from |
| nature are her muse, and her favorite items to crochet are hats, because, as
she says, “there is a perfect hat out there for
everyone!” Suzy
is an incredibly diverse artist… In addition to her
skill as a crocheting artist, she also takes ceramics and
drawing courses, and is learning papermaking and
bookmaking. Her
prints deal almost exclusively with ecology and
agriculture, and she is also the President of a student
environmental awareness organization at Penn State called
Eco-Action. |
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Jessica Erickson
(Handmade Clothing),
better known as Jecca, has been selling her
handmade threads in Mountains of the Moon’s vending booths
since 2000. Jecca also runs her own business part time,
Jecca’s Goods, she is a nursing student
specializing in Midwifery, and she became a mama
to baby Haylee in March of 2004. In addition to her sewing skills (she has been
sewing for over seven years), Jecca is also a master at the
art of dying, and has been hand-dying fabrics for over ten
years. She
also loves to create one-of-a-kind candles out of environmentally friendly soy wax.
Everything Jecca knows in terms of artistic skill
has been completely self-taught. Pants of all shapes, sizes and designs are Jecca’s favorite
items to create: "Stores
do not make comfortable pants, and I like to be |
| comfortable, so I am always trying to improve upon that,” Jecca says of her pants designs.
Jecca especially loves working with sparkling
fabrics, which she feels adds a little luster to her
creations. She
also firmly believes that we are all capable of artistic
expression: “Practice
practice practice, and you can make what you dream!”
Human emotions and *life* in general are what
inspire her to create her unique goods. |
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Kimberly
(Handmade Yoga Mat Bags)
has
been sewing since she was in junior high. Although
primarily self-taught, she did receive a little help
from her grandmother (who makes and alters all her clothes and
still sews on an original singer!) In college, Kim
began making pouches, dresses and skirts, where she sold
them at a kiosk on High St. in Columbus. She received a
degree in film, but has always used her sewing talent as a
means to relax. "Although I studied film in
Colorado, sewing has always been something that I can do to
relax and unwind," she says. After graduation,
Kimberly began to become more involved in yoga, which
inspired her to use her sewing skills in a more meaningful
way by creating one-of-a-kind yoga mat bags. "I love
the whole process from beginning to end... from picking out
the fabric and designing the bags to sitting in my living
room and sewing or beading for hours." In addition to
sewing her yoga mat bags, Kim also loves beading necklaces
with semi precious stones. The motivation to always |
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go a little further and do a little better is what really
inspires Kim in her art. |
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So how did we find all of these incredible artists?
Through our
travels and many different living locations, we have had the pleasure of
meeting some
extraordinary people who share our love for independent art,
music and a conscious lifestyle. A few
years ago, we decide to ask a
few of these artist friends to join us, by displaying their goods in our
vending
booths and on our website. Since then, we have continued to add more
incredible artists to our
family, and although we always hold true to our plan to keep Mountains of the Moon a small, close-knit company, it
has been an amazing experience to combine the energy of so many phenomenal artists in one
place! All of our Guest Artists are kind, conscious people who offer unique and exceptional talent in their particular
art forms, who have been working in their particular mediums for atleast three years, and who
offer
the highest quality creations. We are pleased to be able to introduce them
to all of you,
so you can learn a little more about what makes them
tick!
Back to the "How Mountains
of the Moon Began" Page
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