Caged Birds Sing--

----Interview----

Many people start a craft with ambitions of opening a store, maybe going a craft fair, or perhaps just selling a couple here and there while focusing on family gifts. My name is Erin McDonald, owner of Caged Bird Sings Studios and my journey went from just playing around with some glass, to selling on an online store, to signing up for craft fairs. You never know where things will take you.

My mother is truly my main inspiration for me. She began designing candle holders by concreting different colored stained glass pieces to a vase. Having about four of them in my room even now I still like watching the colors flicker about on my dresser and shelves. Stained glass has always been a magical instrument.



I attend the University of Northern Colorado and I now approach the school as only a sophomore. But coming back from school for the summer my mom and I played with the idea of me continuing her stained glass ideas. I had done a few windchimes with her before, but they included sodering and wax and was quite messy and painstakingly long. Then I found Etsy. Etsy has opened my eyes to a ton of inspiration for my pieces. I had recently purchased a wire-wrapped necklace from Windysdesigns and was so excited about wire-wrapping that I told my mom I wanted to try it on the windchimes. So we went out, bought some metal jewelry wire and thought to myself "maybe hemp" just in case the wire failed ( which it did :( ).


I LOVELOVELOVELOVE working in Hemp. It makes my life 10 fold easier on me. I take the idea of wire wrapping, but using hemp, and decorate each piece of stained glass uniquely. Hemp works great with beads of different sizes and lengths, is durable to wind and water and.. yes. even sunlight, hehe. Hemp also is more flexible in that when even the slightest breeze comes through it will vibrate along and make the beautiful noise my chimes make.