Featured Artist: TC of Totally Crosses

wire cross magnet

TC Cunningham of Totally Crosses is a team mate of mine on CAST (Christian Artists Street Team) on Etsy.com. Her unique wire work crosses are simply fascinating. She makes them in a diverse range of styles and accepts custom orders. She's also a super sweet person and wonderful to work with.

TC began sculpting her crosses after the death of a friend's son. She says:

"After attending the funeral, I came home and just sat alone with God praying for the comfort of my friend and his family. I reached for a spool of wire and started sculpting it into a cross without much thought of what I was doing. I then got some of my jewelry beads and added them. I gave that first cross to my friend.

You see, this spool of wire had been lying around our house for months before I did anything with it besides just bending it and flexing it. When I was young, my dad had this type of wire in his work room because he worked in electronics. I loved messing with it because of it's flexibility and feel. Unfortunately, if you messed with it too much, it would break, so I was discouraged from playing with it. But sometimes I just couldn't help it.

One day while in a hardware store I saw a spool of this wire and the memories of my childhood experiences came back. I bought a spool of it knowing that I could make something out of it sometime, I just didn't know what.

One of TC's rustic nail crosses.

After seeing that first cross, my husband, Les, encouraged me to make others. He believed they were truly inspirational and that others would love to have one. He took them to a local gift shop, and was immediately encouraged because the shop owner bought several of the crosses he had with him and ordered more.

Our family and friends kept us busy for months. Meanwhile, during this time, Les designed a manufacturing mechanism enabling him to wrap the crosses (still by hand) but in a way that speeds up the process before I do the final sculpturing. It still takes a long time to produce a cross, but that helped tremendously.

So now we have a small business that keeps us both very busy. We have been blessed most of all by our family and friends that are still encouraging and supporting us as we grow our business. . . God bless all of you!

And I thank God for allowing me to use my artistic gift in a way that glorifies Him, supplements our income, and allows me to work out of our home while our youngest son is still in school."

The cross on the right above is a cross that TC custom made especially for me with a crazy horse stone bead in the center. It's unique and lovely. TC's style of twisted wire is fascinating and reminds me of grapevines.