Today we’d like to introduce you to Athena Miller.
Hi Athena, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you so much! I’m the artist and owner of Bewitching Spirit. I tried so many paths trying to find my place. I enjoy working with my hands but nothing ever felt quite right. It was more of just filling Time. Then 2020 happened. My day job is a pharmacy buyer for Texas health resources and I was on a team to help manage drug supply for Covid-19. Working with this daily was draining and scary. I have major anxiety on a normal day and this made it worse. I needed some to escape from reality just for a bit.
I was teaching myself how to wire wrap using crystals and stones. It was well not for me. Although it did give me a whole new respect for that craft. I had some air-dry clay and started molding it to create jewelry… I enjoyed the detail work of it but I got bored quickly. I was back to square one.
I started seeing these amazing wire “bonsai“ trees. I wanted to like them but I didn’t feel any connection with them. I did research on how they were made. I didn’t have the type of wire used; the beads used for the “leaves”… I just had some random wire, crystal chips, and air-dry clay.
I decided to put them together. My first tree was well a mess. No detail, proportions were all wrong and I left wire at the top uncovered. So, I tried again. Boom! I was so surprised I created a little tree and I felt relaxed and very little anxiety. I shared my newfound craft after a months. People loved it!!! I was making a couple a week and now I make 5-10 per week. Sometimes more if I have markets scheduled…
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
That’s thing it hasn’t been bad. I have met amazing people and fellow artists. The only struggle is balancing time with creating and family.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Like I had said before my professional career is a pharmacy buyer. I work on a centralized pharmacy team. I handle billing invoices for all hospitals pharmacies at Texas Health Resources.
My passion job is creating clay crystal trees. This is what I’m most proud of. I have never been proud of anything I have done until these.
The trees set my apart because it’s something I have not seen before. I have no official artist training I just work with how I feel. I put all my energy into my work.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a very small rural town (actually considered a village) in Michigan. I was always a little different. I had friends but always felt like an outsider. I felt I had to be a certain way to get through life. I enjoyed being outside and swimming at my grandparents. I was in 4H for a short time and won 2nd place in a drawing contesting. The drawing was on my rabbit Cadbury.
I moved to Texas in 2002. Right before the Car industry took a hit. This made me grow up per se. I had no family that could rush to my aid. That was the best decision I could had made at that time.
Pricing:
- $35-$150
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bewitchingspirit.com
- Instagram: Bewitching_spirit13
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bewitchingtrees
