Q: Tell us about your family and pets.
My husband, Andy, and I live in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains in Altadena, California. We have 2 cats: a big orange boy, Mango, and a little skinny black tabby boy, Sinbad. Sinbad is friendly but skittish, and Mango is too dense to be afraid of anything. ("Dense", that is, in both weight and brainpower!) The two cats play like brothers, and Mango has a definite affinity for Andy: when we settle onto the sofa for a quiet evening, Mango will jump up on "my" side of the sofa merely so he can crawl over me to get to Andy. Once on Andy, Mango will stretch out with his rump in Andy's lap, his "arms" on Andy's shoulder, and he'll nip Andy's earlobe before tucking his head under Andy's chin, purring loudly. (One evening, perhaps we'll film Mango's routine for America's Funniest Videos!)
 

Mango and his favourite human.
Mango and Andy (Mango had a congenital defect in his leg, which required surgery.  This photo is a couple of years old...Mango is now fully recovered and fully furred!)	The mischievous "brothers" at play, even during Mango's recovery
Mango and Sinbad

Martian "birthday" cake from August 2005 - celebrating one Mars Year (almost 2 Earth years)...and still going!

Andy and I both work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I'm the "Team Chief" in charge of the team which prepares the commands for the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently exploring the Red Planet. (The rovers were "warrantied" to last 90 days, but have just passed their 900th day!) Andy used to have my job, but now he's working with other NASA centres towards the new vision of sending people back to the Moon, and then on to Mars.

We met, back when I was still a graduate student, in JPL's "Mars Yard", an outdoor sandpit made to look like Mars (for rover testing). We were both acting as docents for JPL's Open House, when for one weekend each year, the public is invited to come see everything JPL does. Not long after, he invited me to join the team on the very first U.S. rover mission--Mars Pathfinder, with the Sojourner rover-a few months before it would land on Mars. Little did he know that driving a rover on Mars was my dream-the very reason I came out to California from Virginia to go to school near JPL! The experience of working on that mission was exciting and intense, and strangely isolating: we were working on "Mars time", with shifts tied to the Martian clock. Since the Martian day is 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, our shift start time rotated forward 40 minutes each day...night and day on our home planet lost meaning, and everyone on the team bonded in the weird environment-reveling over new images from an alien world, and new movies of our little microwave-sized explorer picking her way across the Martian surface. On our rare days off, Andy wooed me, and I discovered that he's an artist and a writer as well as a brilliant systems engineer. Needless to say, I was hooked...both by the realization of my dream to drive on Mars, but also by the sweet man who drove on Mars by my side.

Andy's art is primarily sculpture, in bronze, neon, and welded steel-dragons and dinosaurs and fantastic creatures. He has also written a book, "Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission", which tells the tales of the amazing people who conceived of, created, and operated the Sojourner rover. He's currently dreaming up a sculpture series of fictional "artifacts" from an ancient Martian civilization.

Q: Tell us about your childhood, where you grew up, and when your creativity began.
I grew up in a northern suburb of Chicago, called Northbrook. My childhood was happy, tomboyish, and typically suburban-I walked to school, and went through elementary through beginning of high school with the same group of friends. A little more than halfway through high school, my family uprooted and moved to semi-rural Virginia, where my Mom's parents lived. I made new friends, and fished and crabbed in the creek behind my grandparents' house. In high school in Virginia, they didn't quite know what to do with me, so I ended up taking some classes at the local college. I participated in scholastic team events, and won the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award at an Odyssey of the Mind event. In Virginia, I also began my string of nifty jobs, starting with high school summer internships working on nuclear sub stowage design at Newport News Shipyard, and on electron beam accelerator simulations at CEBAF (now TJNAF, the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility). For a very long time as I grew up, I was pulled equally by my love of math & science, and by the humanities, including writing and art...even as I entered college, I could not make up my mind! I finally chose the creative challenge of science/engineering, but still love to indulge my artistic side.

Q: To what do you attribute your talents and what inspires you?
I have always been a bit of an explorer, and enjoy expressing myself creatively...and I find that I need that creative outlet-time to play in my craft room-as an antidote to my hectic life. I gain inspiration from what I see the folks involved with PWA create, from magazines, and from my friends.

Q: How did you find PWA?
During the summer of 2004, a new paper arts store opened in my town. My stamp group, four friends known as the "Stampgrrlz", had been considering starting to teach craft classes together, so we scouted out the store to see what supplies they carried-the better to pitch our proposed classes. The store had baskets of microbeads, yet no one there knew what to do with them. We brainstormed ideas, and I went out on the world wide web to see what inspiration I could find to help...and found Pennywise Arts! I found plenty of inspiration, and more, a welcoming community of supportive, creative, kind people. Those classes never panned out--but I'm very glad that they led me to PWA!

Q: When did you begin stamping?
It seems like it could not have been that long ago (my how time flies)...but I started in 2001, when a work colleague came over to my place, to show off her newfound interest: making cards. She had a few stamps (mostly space-related LOL), some embossing powder, some cool papers...I was hooked.

Q: What is your favorite stamping technique?
Good question...I enjoy learning new techniques! (I adore the PWA classes, though I never seem to have time lately to play along.) I think my favourite stamping technique, though, is embossing resist...where you stamp an image, emboss it with clear powder, use direct-to-paper to ink the area, then rub away the ink on the embossed image to reveal what you'd stamped. I used to use this technique all the time, and haven't in awhile...guess I'll have to pick it up again!

Q: Do you have any other hobbies or interests, besides Stamping?
Yes! So many that I don't have time for them all!

In addition to Stamping, I also love the craft of bookbinding. My interest in bookbinding sort of came out of thin air...on a lark, I took a simple bookbinding class a couple of years ago at my local store, and was thunderstruck by the idea of creating such an object of simple beauty and possibility. I quickly learned everything I could about the craft, and now I enjoy designing my own books-and teach my own classes at that same store.

I've always enjoyed beautiful papers, and have been collecting Origami papers and books since elementary school, when I was taught my first handful of folds. I mostly enjoy folding animal figures; I also like geometric shapes and decorative containers. Lately, I've been incorporating more of my origami-papers and folds-into my cardmaking and bookbinding.

Andy and I both love to travel, particularly to exotic places. Since we met, we've been to New Zealand, Alaska, Ecuador and the Galapagos islands, Rome, and soon we'll be leaving for England. Andy loves photography, and takes hundreds, nay thousands of photos on each trip. One of my favourite things to do when traveling is to visit grocery stores, to see what folks eat. I'm an adventurous eater, and we often remember places we've been by what we've eaten there! The most exotic thing I've sampled so far has been wok-fried silkworm pupae, in Seoul, South Korea. (Mmmm, nutty!)

 
                             Andy and Sharon in the Galapagos Islands

 
                              Sharon with a young Galapagos tortoise.

I also love games: abstract games, card games, Euro-style and classic board games, and role-playing games. I have an entire closet overflowing with games...so many we have not yet played them all! I enjoy having friends over for game nights-either playing a whole bunch of different games, or long sessions of Dungeons & Dragons. I also have a pile of 2-player games, for quiet nights with just Andy. My current favourites are Lost Cities, Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse, and BRAWL.

I thoroughly enjoy Hallowe'en, and in the back of my mind have contemplated an alternate career doing creature makeup for the movies. Andy and one or two of my friends sometimes let me practice horror effects on them when October 31 rolls around. I'm particularly fond of werewolves. Someday, I will create the perfect werewolf costume...

I've always had a strong affinity for dragons, and discovered on our first date that Andy had the same interest. Over time, we've built up a collection of dragon sculptures that populate our home, some by Andy himself, and some by other artists.


Sharon as a gargoyle and Mango as a kitten.

Q: Will you show us some pictures of your stamp/craft room?
Sure! Even though it's just the two of us, we bought a house with enough space for each of our hobbies...so I'm lucky enough to have a craft room (almost) all to myself. Please excuse the mess...looks like it's time to put some of my goodies away so I have more room to play!