Susan Schwake is an artist, art teacher, curator and most recently author of Art Lab for Kids, Art Lab for Little Kids and 3D Art Lab for Kids. She has worked for the past 20 years making, selling and teaching art to both children and adults in her own classrooms. For the past ten years her classroom has been inside artstream gallery - a beautiful space shared with her husband's design firm also called artstream. When she was in college she worked for a summer as the cook at Mayhew Island. She fell in love with this magical island and was lucky enough to live there for a few years volunteering with the program. This summer she is most delighted to invite 25 adult campers to experience a community which will nurture and enrich their lives together with nature. Visit her online at www.susanschwake.com.

Amy is a full-time artist and illustrator in beautiful & green Portland, Oregon. She was born and raised in the Kettle Moraine woods of Wisconsin near the Mammoth Ice Age Center. She drew plants and animals, dug up fossils and went for endless forest walks amongst all her forest friends. Her love for nature and science led her to an art and illustration career (www.amyruppel.com), and to the Pacific Northwest. She has since worked with Target, Converse, BLIK, Logitech, Burton Snowboards, Seattle Childrens Hospital and countless cheese shops and many other fun companies.

Also, Amy has finally made use of her printmaking degree and has started Pine Fort Press, a printmaking studio full of pine, the love of ink and icebergs. www.pinefortpress.com

Rachel Blumberg is a visual artist, film maker, and musician/composer. As a visual artist she makes paintings, drawings, found object pieces and other work inspired by dream land, folklore, history, nature, and people's stories. She shows regularly as well as creating many commissioned works. As a film maker she creates stop motion animated shorts and music videos, including a recent music video for the New York based band Nada Surf (Barsuk Records). As a musician she has collaborated with many widely acclaimed artists including The Decemberists, M. Ward, Bright Eyes, She and Him, Tara Jane O'Neil, Jolie Holland and many more, as well as composed music for The Portland Cello Project and her own music project Arch Cape. She relocated from her native home of Portland, Oregon to Providence, Rhode Island. RachelBlumberg.com

Jane Eslinger is an artist who makes jewelry and small metal sculptures. She is also a wonderful seamstress and makes lovely origami animals: "As long as I can remember, I have been making things. When I was a kid, I made clothes for my troll collection, but I also was always taking the wheels off my doll carriages and building go-carts. I had been making books and working with paper in sculpture and origami when I started to wonder: Since metal is flat like paper, is it possible to do metal origami? I did make some origami flowers in metal, but I ended up really enjoying the tools and the process of metalworking, so I just kept going and learning more. I like to use recycled and repurposed copper that I cut, file, hammer, and raise into various shapes, but I also love color and the many beautiful enameling colors out there." JaneEslinger.com.

I have an amazing job. I've been a maker all my life and the internet has made it possible to show my work to the world.

I remember that when I went for my interview at Art School, I was asked what I'd like to be doing in 10 years. I replied that I would like to have a little shop where I could sell all the things I'd made. When Etsy came on the scene, so many years later, I was able to fulfill that dream! I opened my shop in 2006 and have been a happy shop keeper ever since.

I work out of my house in Arlington, Massachusetts which is a suburb of Boston. My favorite materials are what I refer to as rescued fabrics- that is fabric that would otherwise become part of the waste stream. The fabrics I prefer come from reclaimed clothing, damaged yard goods, fabric remnants, and someone's un-loved stash. I combine those fabrics with new 100% wool felt and special new fabrics to bring my fabric creations to life. I am always on the hunt for inspiring colors and patterns.

Sometimes I come out of my studio and do craft markets. Check out my work in person at the Renegade Craft Markets in Brooklyn, San Francisco and Chicago.

www.mimikirchner.com