LESA ASKEW

Sterling Creatives’ newest artist member and her husband can liven up any room in your home with their creations.

Lesa Askew, the artist cooperative’s featured artist for August, and her husband, Bryan, create a variety of home décor pieces together. Wreaths are Lesa’s specialty, made out of anything from deco mesh to fabric and even clothesline pins and she also creates signs using chalk stencils too. Meanwhile, Bryan’s focus is on items related to woodworking and fractal burning, a process that uses electricity to burn patterns resembling fir trees or lightning bolts (otherwise known as Lichtenberg figures) into dampened wood.

Crafting has long been a hobby for the couple. Lesa has dabbled in chalking for quite a while and started making wreaths a couple of years ago, but then stopped and her husband has always liked to “fidget around with things here and there.” Then last November, Bryan made a fractal burn thin blue line flag for Lesa “and we just decided you know what, we’re going to try to make a go of it and see if we can make it a business,” she said.

They decided to call their business CBF Home Crafts, which stands for Country Blended Family, in honor of their blended family with their children and their love of the rustic, country style. Lesa’s collection includes wreaths with farm truck and farm animal décor, perfect for Logan County Fair week, as well as other rustic décor but she is also starting to explore other themes such as the beach.

“I am expanding outside the rustic and country area, but that tends to be kind of my comfort space because that’s just who I am and that’s the stuff that I like,” she said.

While her husband has learned his craft from Youtube videos, Lesa tends to draw inspiration for her pieces from social media like Pinterest, taking what she finds and making it her own of course, and the things she sees around her.

“Honestly a lot of it is just me putting things together; I’ll just be like okay let’s start with these colors and then let’s add stuff and take away stuff, whatever it may be,” she said.

Lesa is willing to do custom pieces for anyone that wants them. One of the custom pieces she’s already made is a Dallas Cowboys-themed deco mesh wreath in a heart shape for a lady that wanted a wreath to put by her brother’s grave.

“Just tell me what you want and we can come up with something,” Lesa said.

After deciding to start a business, she was looking for a way to get her creations out to the public a little bit more, so she posted on Facebook asking if anyone knew places where she could display her work. Someone mentioned Sterling Creatives, so she decided to look into it and she liked what she saw and thought it would be a good fit.

“It gets me out a little bit more; I’m a teacher, so I’m usually at home or school, this kind of gets me out a little bit more,” said Lesa, who teaches English at Sterling High School.