Elise Mann

Elise Mann, known as The Crafty Owl, has been a crafts writer, designer and teacher for over twenty five years. Seriously asthmatic as a child, she was taught to knit (to give her something to do which did not require getting out of bed) at the age of five, taught herself to crochet from a book the following year and has never stopped learning new crafts and working in older ones since. Unable to get into art college due to an inability to draw (in those days in the UK being able to design and create craftwork was not sufficient) she has a degree in Physics and worked as a computer systems designer but always crafted, designed and wrote projects for magazines and books in evenings and weekends. Now happily practicing her crafts full time, she specializes in beadwork and beadmaking, and is Newsletter Editor for the Bead Society of Great Britain. Elise's favourite part of crafting is sharing tips, techniques and designs, so she particularly enjoys the teaching and writing parts of her work.