Hello, my name is Firinel, and I'm happy you're visiting this site!

I'm a mixed media artist, and though I've a website for marketing the art for sale, I thought it would be nice to have one that's a bit less formal for my hobbies and other personal bits. When considering content for the website, I figured I'd go with what aspects of those would be of most benefit to others, on which I primarily settled on dolls and crafts which were related to dolls. In my experience, the one thing that's stood out to me about my participation with the doll boards has been my "you could totally make that!" attitude. I've that attitude with all sorts of art - I'm very much invested in the idea that there isn't a superior class of "artist", that it's a label that everyone is capable of attaining if they'd like, if they gave themselves more permission. Art is essentially playing, though, and so it's been interesting for me to see how much in a hobby which is intrinsically tied to playing, how rarely people give themselves permission to play where art and crafting is concerned, so I want to help people with that, if I can.

It's important to play. We spend our formative years playing because we learn through playing, and yet somehow as we grow, and become more 'adult', we forget and lose touch with that. We stop giving ourselves permission. No wonder we so often come to hate learning, we bastardise it into something that must be so seriously stodgy, unappealing. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a 2006 study in which they state "free and unstructured play is healthy and - in fact - essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient" -- I believe that that continues to be true of us well into adulthood. We could all benefit from some play.

I hope that you enjoy the website, that you find the tutorials easy to follow, and feel yourself more permitted to learn through your own playful exploration.